Volunteers Needed! Become a Senior Companion

Do you want to help seniors in your area? One of Vermont’s oldest and largest senior citizen social service agencies needs volunteers to provide home visits and fellowship for elderly, homebound clients.

by Bruce Lyndes

SPRINGFIELD, VT. – Do you want to help seniors in your area? One of Vermont’s oldest and largest senior citizen social service agencies needs volunteers to provide home visits and fellowship for elderly, homebound clients.

Senior Companions is a home visit program that matches concerned mobile seniors with their aging peers; in southeastern Vermont, the program is administered by Senior Solutions, a non-profit group serving elders in 46 communities in Windsor and Windham counties. Senior Companions are needed throughout the region, but particularly in Brattleboro, Springfield, the Deerfield Valley and the Upper Valley.

Senior Companions receive orientation and training, mileage reimbursement, a tax-free stipend and the satisfaction of helping others.

Senior Solutions Executive Director Carol Stamatakis noted the Senior Companions program is often just as beneficial to the person providing the service as the clients receiving it.

“Volunteers in the program know they’re really helping someone and that is a great feeling,” said Stamatakis. “It truly makes a difference in the lives of everyone involved.”

The Senior Companions program is very popular with clients, who say it’s very valuable to their well-being.

Here are some quotes from Senior Companion clients in our area:

“My Senior Companion is very supportive; I know she will take me places that I need to go, she makes a real difference in my life.”

“I can maintain my independence because of my Senior Companion. Staying in my own home is so important.”

“It is so nice to have someone visit me and see how I’m doing, I feel safer knowing someone is looking out for me.”

There is no charge to the person visited; the program is federally funded by the National Community Service Corporation.

If you are interested in finding out more about Senior Companions or other volunteering opportunities, call the Senior Solutions HelpLine at 1-800-642-5119 or jepstein@seniorsolutionsvt.org.

Senior Solutions is one of five non-profit area Agencies on Aging in Vermont. Formerly known as the Council on Aging for Southeastern Vermont, Senior Solutions has provided Older Americans Act social services to Vermonters 60 years and older, their caregivers and families for more than 40 years.