By Cathy Green
A first grader breaks into a delighted smile as the mystery of the printed word becomes clear. A homebound woman welcomes a visitor who offers companionship and assistance. School children listen and ask questions as a guide explains a museum exhibit.
These moments are all made possible by volunteers giving their time and knowledge for the benefit of others. The opportunities — and the needs — appear to cover every area of existence.
One source of volunteers is the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), a national organization administered in Philadelphia by Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA). The agency is now working to involve baby boomers as they near retirement, hoping to use their energy and expertise.
“Nonprofit agencies face tight budgets,” says Wanda Mitchell, assistant director of the In-Home Support Program and Volunteer Services at PCA. “These volunteers offer skills and experience that are needed to strengthen and build the capacity of agencies.” If interested in becoming an RSVP volunteer, you may contact 1-877-TRY-RSVP.
From 55 to 96
Marcia Gross, project director of RSVP in Philadelphia, associated with JCCs Klein Branch, says some people volunteer for one-time occasions, others for as little as an hour a week, and some, especially in offices, put in full days. “Once they start, they generally stick with it for a long time,” she said. RSVP volunteers range in age from 55 to 96.
RSVP determines the prospective volunteer’s interests, then “we make the match, do the groundwork, make it easy,” Gross said.
The greatest current need for volunteers is in elementary schools, she said, tutoring children in reading. RSVP conducts tutor training classes once a year.
RSVP volunteers also act as mediators through the courts; speak on Medicare and healthcare fraud; accompany witnesses to court; usher in theaters; and visit nursing homes.
The arts and the prisons
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania also offers volunteer opportunities. Lists of possibilities can be found at www.volunteerway.org.
The city’s cultural institutions have their own volunteer programs as well. Recruits may clean the live animal quarters at the Academy of Natural Sciences, staff the information desk at Franklin Institute, serve as guides at the Philadelphia Art Museum’s Park Houses or help build wooden boats at the Independence Seaport Museum.
Another type of volunteer opportunity is provided by Prisoner Visitation and Support, an interfaith program that arranges visits to inmates in federal and military prisons since 1968 with the blessing of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Defense.
Volunteer James Marren said visitors “bring a touch of the outside world to the wounded souls in prison.”
By Cathy Green
Myung Parks isn’t a matchmaker, at least not in the traditional sense. But she has paired two people with similar happy results.
Keum Soon Moon, 85, was visiting her doctor at the Jaisohn Medical Center when Parks and Jane Song, volunteer station supervisors for the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging’s (PCA) Senior Companion program, first noticed her. She was frail, lived alone and spoke only Korean. Parks, a social services coordinator thought of Nan Kim, a volunteer.
A ‘meaningful experience’
Seven months ago, the match was made. Since then, Kim has visited Moon on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., teaching her simple chair exercises, encouraging her to walk, preparing meals and reminding her to take her medications. They also read the Bible together, watch TV or just sit and chat.
Moon appreciates the companionship and support, and so do her six children, who don’t live nearby. Kim says she has also benefited, that helping her friend is “a meaningful experience.”
Kim is one of 115 men and women currently enrolled with PCA as Senior Companions. Companions’ duties may involve reading to clients; escorting them to doctors’ offices or on neighborhood walks; running small errands, or just talking and reminiscing.
They may also provide respite care for those who live with family members, so the regular caregiver can have some free time.
Senior Companions are paid a tax-free stipend of $2.65 an hour and receive accident and liability insurance, holiday, sick and vacation time, travel cost reimbursement and continued reinforcement through information sessions at which lunch is provided.
The program has a dual purpose — to create volunteer opportunities for low-income men and women aged 60 and over, and to offer one-on-one help and companionship to frail older adults. Companions who meet the income guidelines are required to spend from 20 to 40 hours a week in that role.
PCA is hoping to recruit more Spanish-speaking and Cambodian-speaking Companions, says Kimberley Johnson, project manager.
A national program
Comprehensive training sessions prepare Companions for their role. The next such session will be in June.
Information about the program is available through PCA’s Senior Companion Program at 215-765-9000, ext. 5126.
The Senior Companion Program is part of a national effort by the Corporation for Nation and Community Service, Senior Corps.
This is the 19th year PCA has sponsored the program.
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If you work or volunteer with older Philadelphians in faith communities or are a professional in health and aging, you are invited to the annual spring Clergy Day on Thursday, May 22.
The free conference, conducted by the Clergy-Aging Interfaith Coalition and sponsored by Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA), will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia Main Line (formerly the Holiday Inn), at 4100 Presidential Blvd.
One workshop, “Sex After 60: Intimacy and Relationships,” will focus on sexuality, health and relationships. Another will be “Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: Understanding the Difference.”
PCA interfaith outreach coordinator Sandra Lawrence is coordinating Clergy Day. The Clergy-Aging Interfaith Coalition, organized by PCA in 1998, includes clergy of all faiths, lay leaders, senior constituents and professionals from agencies serving older Philadelphians and their families. It advises PCA on the needs of the elderly and helps raise awareness of — and increase access to — PCA services among their congregants.
Pre-registration for Clergy Day is required, preferably by May 9. To register or to be added to the invitation mailing list: contact PCA’s Community Relations Department at 215-765-9000, ext. 4464.
For more information or to sponsor a resource table: Sandra Lawrence at 215-765-9000, ext. 4225, or at salawren@pcaphl.org.