Utilizing volunteers with disabilities in Senior Corps programs
Abstract
Older volunteers with disabilities have unique talents to contribute to serve organizations and seek opportunities to do so. This effective practice, shared by the National Service Inclusion Project in November 2006, gives examples of ways in which this population is making a difference in the lives of those they serve.
Issue
Identifying appropriate and meaningful activities for Senior Corps volunteers with disabilities.
Action
Service examples of senior volunteers with disabilities include:
- Teaching self-expression through clay sculpture (Plymouth Meeting, PA)
- Patrolling for handicapped parking place violations (Grants Pass, OR)
- Visiting parents in a rehab center (Upstate New York)
- Organizing and leading "Tower of Power" team of senior residents for nonprofit support projects (Plymouth Meeting, PA)
- Receptionist for police department (Benton/Franklin Counties, WA)
- Patrolling areas subject to vandalism (Miles City, MT)
- Reading coach (Oxford, MS)
- Head Start program aid (Bemidji, MN)
- Receptionist for tax counseling program (Joplin, MO)
- Coordinator, bagger, and delivery person at the RSVP food co-op (Richland/Lexington Counties, SC)
A woman in Alabama who is deaf, who herself never learned to read, assists in the cafeteria of a Head Start center, while also playing games with the children and monitoring playground activity.
An RSVP volunteer in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who is blind and unable to hear or speak, prepared manual projects, such as mailings for local nonprofits.
Volunteers with vision difficulties have been accommodated by making strong lighting and magnifiers available, while volunteers who are legally blind have benefited from other volunteers reading to them or making tapes of important information such as meeting minutes.
Working with a volunteer with hearing loss in one case required structuring solitary assignments while in another situation a volunteer who was deaf was able to be active in group activities once co-workers learned to face her so she could read lips.
Examples of home-based activities performed by Senior Corps volunteers:
- Transportation scheduling
- Fundraising
- Advocacy
- Checking on the well-being of other seniors
- Stuffing envelopes
- Making toy animals for hospitalized children
- Sewing teddy bears for crisis centers
- Knitting baby hats for a hospital
Context
Nationwide, Senior Corps has effectively involved an extraordinary set of volunteers with disabilities in the RSVP, Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent Programs. An informal survey over NSSCTalk, Senior Corp's online discussion group, elicited responses on the involvement of volunteers age 55 and over with a wide range of disabilities from some 40 programs in over half the United States.
A number of these volunteers had received honors for being among the most outstanding in their communities and had served on program advisory councils as well as in broader community roles advocating for seniors and people with disabilities.
Many of the disabilities of senior volunteers are acquired with advancing age, such as hearing and vision loss and mobility limitations. Other disabilities are congenital, such as cerebral palsy and Down syndrome, while still others are the result of injuries leading to loss of limbs, paralysis and other disabilities.
Outcome
Regarding a Miles City, Montana, RSVP volunteer who is blind, the project director stated: "The school's staff feel that having her around has enhanced kids' knowledge about people with disabilities..."
According to one respondent, an RSVP volunteer with vision loss serving as a reading coach, "taught a child who was last in his class to be an expert on presidents. He would go back to his room and teach the children all about his favorite presidents. The teacher couldn't believe the difference in him."
In Kansas City, a foster grandparent who could not walk had to be dropped off at a door far from the classroom where she was coaching, so the school purchased a wheelchair. The children were taking turns picking her up at the beginning of the day and taking her back in the evening. The children viewed this as a special privilege, and at the same time were learning that, even though you may have a disability, you can still actively serve others.
Sometimes the involvement of volunteers with disabilities calls attention to previously unnoticed access problems. This can provide a chance to reevaluate the program and be more inclusive physically and programmatically.
Placing volunteers with disabilities in the community helps them:
- Believe they can still make a difference
- Feel useful
- Remain in better health
