Greene program to benefit seniors
WAYNESBURG – Senior citizens from throughout Greene County could benefit from a new program being developed by Community Action Southwest, which recently received a $35,000 grant to support the endeavor. The new program, Faith in Action, will work to develop a volunteer network throughout the county within the faith-based groups and other community organizations already in place, according to Chris Bruno, senior services director for CAS.
A coordinator will be hired to work with all of the volunteers who choose to give their time to help senior citizens in a variety of ways.
“They could assist in transportation and home visitation, in helping a senior citizen balance their checkbook or their grocery shopping,” she said. “They can also be a friendly visitor or just make telephone calls to make sure that person is getting everything they need.”
Bruno said the new program will augment the variety of senior services CAS already offers, including in-home meals, in-home services, adult day care and senior centers.
Another successful program in the county, Project SOAR (Senior Outreach And Referral), will tie in to this new service, she said. In SOAR, volunteers in communities throughout the county act as gatekeepers to look for changes in senior citizens with whom they come in contact often and refer them to get the help they need.
SOAR has an early intervention team that helps to reach people even in the remote areas of primarily rural Greene County, but Greene County Human Services administrator Karen Bennett said the Faith in Action program will be able to close service gaps that have come about through SOAR.
“Some of the needs seniors have are not mental health or social worker based. Some need help with home repairs or help in other ways, and there was not an avenue to address them,” she said. “Now we have an available resource that gets the community involved.”
Bennett said that when she worked at the CARE Center in Washington, a similar faith-based program was used there, with great success. She said the Faith in Action program will greatly enhance what SOAR is attempting to do in the county.
As for SOAR, Bennett said, the program continues to meet its goals and works to help senior citizens with mental health and service needs.
Bruno said Community Action Southwest already is serving more than 275 senior citizens in the county, and more than 200 referrals have been made for some type of service.
She said this coordinated effort will help the county meet the specific needs of more senior citizens.
“I am hopeful that this will be a success,” she said.
“We will have a roster of volunteers that should be vast enough so no senior citizen falls through the cracks.”
A network will be established before volunteers are matched so that each person who is placed can address a specific need of the senior citizen he or she will help.
Bruno said a volunteer coordinator could be in place by the end of summer, though people who wish to learn more about becoming a volunteer can begin to sign up now by calling her at 724-852-2893, extension 547.
Funding for the program will come from a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J., the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted to health and health care. Bruno said the program will be funded for 30 months, and she hopes that the goals are met to shore up more funding when the grant has been expended.