The Village movement is an all volunteer nonprofit membership organization that helps members age at home. We provide community support, companionship and connections.
We two cities of about 30,000 each, put together a network of vetted and trained volunteers, local resources, and vetted vendors that provide a range of services, including transportation, household chores, errands, computer and technology support, companionship, social activities and more. We are currently a community of over 80 members. With almost the same number of volunteers. I am both.
There are two levels of membership, Associate and Full Service. Associate is mainly the social and educational events and four “services” per calendar year. Full Service has unlimited services (providing we can find a volunteer) and three transportation requests per week.
In the past few months we have added 8 new Full Service members, many of them over 85 (without technology) and still learning how to make a request. We are a virtual office with just one phone number and ask members to provide their name, phone number, date of appointment, time of appointment, when they would like picked up and to ask their provider (doctor, mechanic, barber, physical therapy, etc) how long the appointment will last. Google records the message and translates it into an email which is sent to all 4-5 office volunteers. Whoever is on call that day, returns the call and verifies the info then submits the request to all pertinent volunteers. (Google translate is not always reliable)
These new members don’t understand the virtual part. And why if they call one evening at 10pm no one calls them back until the next day. They sometimes say “JB, why don’t you ever answer the phone”? Our hours are listed as 10am til 2pm on weekdays. Yes, I got one call last night at 9pm and two calls today. One lady wanted someone to come over right away (Sat) and fix her TV as that is her companionship especially in the evening. Fortunately, she called a few friends and someone’s son came over and got it working!
Some members ask for particular drivers. We gently explain (every week when they call) that we are all volunteers and can’t always guarantee a specific driver (although with one 99 year old long term member, we usually call her favorites and ask them before sending out the request to 17 drivers) And some members have been cranky and demanding and hardly anyone will volunteer to drive them.
I drove a member on Thursday to our local Adult Community Center for their foot clinic (he had to cancel his appointment with Kaiser as his Parkinson’s was giving him a rough time). He had thought Weds was Thursday and called me wondering where I was! When I did drive over on Thursday (I called him early to remind him) it took him five minutes to lock the front door. 10 minutes to get to my car. He’s a very personable guy although deteriorating pretty fast. His son has fresh microwavable meals delivered twice a week. He has fallen a few times so now he has a wearable device on his wrist that goes direct to 911. Now he has a helper come to the house 3 hours three times a week.
We got to the ACC and I wasn’t sure he could get himself out of my car. I walked him in and got him seated then went back out and parked. When I went back in he noticed he forgot his wallet! The provider is cash or check only and I didn’t have $60 cash on me. While he was getting his feet pampered, I dashed over to an ATM which was dangerously close to my favorite French bakery and so I had to get us both a treat.
It was a struggle to get into my car and home again. He asked how much he owed me (which he knew from several conversations) and remarked that Kaiser only charges $30 and next time he would call them.
Late that night, he called the office and thanked me for the delicious lemon blueberry danish ... whilst in the past he always calls me direct and I have to give him the phone number and ask him to call it through the office.
But I really do love my job!
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