USA: Seniors have Time, Can Help As Volunteers

SOUTH JERSEY, N.J. (Courier-Post), October 16, 2005: As America ages, some of the nation's leading charities need to make better use of the talent and energy older adults have to contribute as volunteers, according to a survey released earlier this year. The survey by the National Council on the Aging's RespectAbility initiative found that local officials at 21 national nonprofit organizations agreed broadly that senior citizens could do much more to help their programs. But such aid was slowed or prevented by a lack of trained volunteer coordinators, staff unfamiliar with sound ways to use volunteers, and the need for volunteer training and orientation, the survey found. John A. Moran, program director for seniors at the YMCA of Camden County, said his organization is always looking for ways to involve older adults as volunteers. The YMCA recently started training volunteers, many of them retirees, to perform phone checks for homebound senior citizens. "I would take as many as they want," Moran said. "The more we have, the more areas we can get into. There are dozens of things, especially in the Y, that could be done . . . Gosh, you almost name it. I'd like to start a literacy program if anyone would like to do that." Often senior volunteers run spiritual-growth classes at the YMCA, he said. And volunteers are needed for the YMCA's Camp Moore in the spring and summer. At Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey and Quaker City Goodwill, nine of the 10 volunteers are senior citizens, according to Mark Boyd, chief executive officer. "It's a symbiotic relationship because I think for anybody, but particularly older people, being out and busy and in the community and with other people . . . keeps you young," Boyd said. Volunteers perform clerical tasks at the organization's Maple Shade headquarters. They also coach and mentor disabled people in Goodwill's industrial services division in Pennsauken and through a School-to-Work partnership with the Camden School District. But more are needed in industrial services, where workers perform light assembly under contracts with nearly two dozen entities, said Kathy Morris, human resources manager for Goodwill. "That's what we're looking at so someday, maybe, if we had enough (volunteers) we could start maybe a grandparent, one-on-one type thing," she said. Boyd said he wanted to tap into the growing pool of senior volunteers for a new initiative, a "job club," open to the public, where people could get resume help, learn interviewing skills and get other career advice. "I could really use some volunteers, particularly people with some (human resources) background, to help us run this program," Boyd said. By ERIK SCHWARTZ Courier-Post Staff eschwartz@courier postonline.com