Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Back. It's been a little while since we had an update from Lucille Casas of the Norfolk County RSVP program and quite a while since Michelle Hanley from the Quincy Elder Services Department has joined us. So guess what? They're both here right now. Hey, ladies. Welcome.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:00:13] Speaker C: Thank you, Joe.
[00:00:14] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Great to talk to you both. And it's really appropriate that you're both here at the same time because, Lucille, you really cooperate together throughout the year, Right. At the same time.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: It's been great. It's been great.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: A lot of the volunteers in the RSVP program come from Quincy Elder Services, right?
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. And we actually work with Michelle to send her volunteers. So it's a really nice cooperative partnership where we sort of serve as her volunteer recruiter and retainer. So, you know, we're screening volunteers for what she needs and she sends me her needs and her job descriptions and then I try to recruit for people that would fit that profile.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: And then I think, what do we have, Michelle? Two or three people now? Four people. Four, at least.
In the works. Yeah.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Has it been a good cooperation, Michelle, for your department?
[00:01:14] Speaker C: Oh, it has, it has.
With our outreach coordinator Cheryl Bamberry's leadership working with Lucille. It's been really wonderful to bring back some of the volunteer programs that were very active in the center prior to Covid.
Of course, we all talk about before and after Covid now, even though we're some years removed from that, the volunteerism has changed and what people are looking for has changed.
So for us to bring back the volunteer program has been really wonderful and with Lucille's assistance in leadership, as I said, with Cheryl Banbury, has been top notch.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: That's great. That's great. You know, I think we're going to be talking about post pandemic for many, many years to come, unfortunately.
But here we are. We're making changes and adapting as well. Lucille, for folks who don't know, real quick, what is the Norfolk County RSVP program?
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yes, it's a mouthful.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: It is.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: It's the Retired Senior Volunteer Program.
So rsvp, we have been operating out of the county now for almost 20 years.
Its roots are in Quincy, though. They used to operate out of QCAP and we operate on a federal grant from AmeriCorps seniors.
And we basically recruit as many senior volunteers as we can for various roles. And we have almost 240 volunteers now on our roster. So it's not just Quincy, but it's all of Norfolk county, the 28 cities and towns from Quincy all the way to Bellingham, the western part of the county.
And our signature program is the Rides for Vets service.
We have almost 30 volunteers in the elementary schools throughout Norfolk county helping the teachers with reading and math for the elementary kids.
We also are at the Red Cross, the va, you name it. We're in the food pantries, Meals on Wheels.
So we do a lot and we're creative. You know, we have a gentleman right now who wants to help seniors with technology at the Quincy Kennedy Center. So people come to us with ideas, and we try to find a good spot for them.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we have a video we're going to show folks that's been put together about the RSVP program. Tell me about this video before we show it.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Yeah, this video we showed just this past Friday at our volunteer appreciation event, which we have once a year to celebrate our volunteers and all their work.
And it's sort of just an overview of what the program is, and it also features some volunteers and what they get out of the program and how they feel about it. So it's quite good.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: No better way to tell a story than the folks who are involved in it, right? Yeah, let's show that right now.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Okay, thank you.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: And we'll talk more about it.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Great.
Foreign.
[00:04:11] Speaker D: We're here today to talk about our RSVP program here in Norfolk County.
Norfolk county has over 200 volunteers working in various communities and on various programs, putting in over 14,000 volunteer hours.
When you think about it, anytime anyone does something extra and volunteers, it helps the community.
[00:04:35] Speaker E: My husband's a veteran, and a few years ago I convinced him to come to the Medfield Senior center and join their supportive day group. And him being able to be picked up from the veterans, him able to socialize with them and feel independent, is amazing to get his mental and physical ability.
Thank you to the Norfolk County Ride for Vets Services for coming to my aid and taking my husband to programs that help veterans. Thank you so much. It's helped me and my entire family.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: I really enjoy this.
[00:05:21] Speaker D: I've done, I think, I don't know, I don't think maybe 15, 1800 rides. I feel that it's a way for me to give back and a thank you to the veterans who have given us so much.
[00:05:34] Speaker E: It's kind of nice to not just be doing something for yourself and be helping others. Definitely, in my experience, this has been a do good, feel good opportunity.
I'm excited to be able to give
[00:05:46] Speaker B: back to the communities that gave to me.
[00:05:50] Speaker F: A big thank you sincere from not just myself, but I bring reading from Commissioner Joe Shea of Quincy Archer. Some of the things that we do again through RSVP is simply sometimes companionship, checking in on people, making sure they're okay.
And I fully support the RSVP program. I've been very active as much as I can, but rest assured, we'll do all we can to keep it running and to make it running smooth as possible.
[00:06:15] Speaker E: It's a great program, and it's so rewarding. It's a great way to spend your days. I just love it. When talking to the volunteers on how they feel about volunteering, we always hear that they feel a sense of value and that they can help the community in some way. It gets me out of the house. It gives me some purpose. It introduces me to people in situations I haven't been in before. And each week when I come home, I've got another great learning story to share with my friends and family.
[00:06:47] Speaker D: Each and every one of you give an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours daily and weekly to someone else other than yourself or other than your own family.
And a lot of these people get no other contact except through you.
And we can do all cold tasks because it's a real tribute to each and every one of you. And I'm really excited.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: And the RSVP program provides. Provides lots of varied choices. The staff really are concerned with both the quality of the services that they
[00:07:23] Speaker C: provide to the program and concerned with
[00:07:26] Speaker B: the satisfaction of the volunteers themselves.
[00:07:28] Speaker E: The most rewarding thing to me is being with people that are our age that need help, and we try to make everything fun, you know, why not?
[00:07:41] Speaker D: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:07:43] Speaker E: We love being with happy people.
Yeah.
[00:07:48] Speaker D: A gratification, a good feeling about myself that I'm volunteering for this work, that I'm doing something in return.
And that's a good feeling.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: If you want to feel good and do good, it's the place to be. I've had volunteers that come back and say that they changed their lives or enhanced their lives significantly, and that just warms the cockles of my heart.
There you have it. The Norfolk County RSVP program and Lucille Michelle. The one thing that I took from that, that I say all the time is volunteers always get more than they give to hear their stories.
It's a family, right, Lucille?
[00:08:41] Speaker B: For these, it really is.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: It's much more than just giving an hour, like Joe said, or a day, a week or something. This is a new part of their life.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Absolutely. Not Just, I mean, just anecdotally is what you're hearing that they are experiencing. But it's also statistically proven that your life improves when you give back to others. And. And you are engaged in terms of aging.
It really makes a huge difference. And I know Michelle sees that people feel fulfilled, and they still feel like they're engaged and active in their own community. It helps age.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Well, a purpose.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: From, you know, Michelle, your prior position directing the recreation department. Kids need a purpose. Doesn't change as you get older. Right?
[00:09:25] Speaker C: This is true. This is true, Joe.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: You know, the activities change, but the purpose is the same.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: Very true. And, you know, we often find that folks, my own mom included, who's 82. Sorry, Mom, I just told everybody your age feels that she's too young to go to the senior center. And so by getting some of these folks in as volunteers, they realize, oh, actually, these activities are for me.
And so it's a nice bridge as well. So if you're someone in the community and you're retired or recently retired, and you think you're looking for that next piece, that next step, you know, certainly, come on in. It will be the bridge to get you from retirement to coming to the center all the time. Because once you see how wonderful, not just ours and Quincy, but throughout the county, how wonderful the programs are by volunteering, you'll want to come every day.
[00:10:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: There was a pretty diverse age group, though, in that. In that little depiction of folks. I mean, not all of them were quote, unquote, you know, seniors, if you will. You could be as young as 55, 60, all the way up to Lucille. I think you said one of them was 96 years old. Wow.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Oh, she's wonderful.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, I think the misconception of senior, which is why it's called the Kennedy center, right, not the Senior Center.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Correct, Correct. And there's a huge push Commonwealth wide to say older adults. Older adults instead of seniors. And really it's age 60 and up. Any, you know, anyone age 60 and up in the community is an older adult.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:58] Speaker C: Because there was a stigma with Kong Yoo, a senior, for a long time. So we try to stay away from that, though it does slip in, of course, from time to time. Older adults age 60 and up, we
[00:11:08] Speaker B: have a name for the 55s to 70. We call them the junior seniors.
I think I fall in that category.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Lucille, tell me about a state grant that you just received for your Rides
[00:11:21] Speaker B: for Vets program in May. We were very excited to hear that we received a grant from the Department of Transportation from the State to offer wheelchair rides.
So previous to that, you know, we have about 50 volunteer drivers, and they use their own vehicles. So we were limited in terms of taking people who were in a wheelchair or who had very serious mobility issues. So we were excited to get the grant so that we could now offer that. I would get calls periodically from seniors who were veterans who were like, you know, I'm in a wheelchair, and I'd have to refer them elsewhere. So we're excited to be able to do that now, and we've already done one, and then it, you know, it's. It's, as Michelle said, you sort of figure out really where people are at in terms of their.
Their journey.
So some of the seniors, like, they don't have a wheelchair ramp. So then I'm on the phone with the veterans service office saying, well, we can pick them up, but they need a ramp. So it's, you know, it's that community feeling, which I love, being able to come together and work together, because, let's face it, it's a tsunami of baby boomers coming, and I'm the last year of the boomers, and the needs are just only going to increase.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Right. So were you able to purchase an actual vehicle?
[00:12:47] Speaker B: We didn't purchase a van, although that is something the commissioners, Joe Shea and Peter Collins and Richard Stady were talking about recently, like, for next year, we can reapply next year.
And he's like, maybe we just get our own van now. All the senior centers, and Michelle knows this very well, have a van or several vans, but they're limited around sort of a geographic area. Our folks go into Boston for appointments.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: It's a VA mostly. Right?
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And most of the VAs.
[00:13:19] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:19] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: So we want to supplement what the coas are doing.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Because they always, you know, someone always needs a ride, and transportation has always been. We just did a survey.
One of the highest priorities.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Makes sense.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: They just can't drive anymore. Usually don't want to and don't want to. I don't blame them. The traffic is crazy, and, you know, it's just more comfortable to have someone take you.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And safer and more economical as well. Right. Instead of just an individual in one vehicle, how many can you put in a van? Probably, you know, five or six at least, Right?
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Depending on the van. But, you know, if you had to take an Uber into Boston right now, it's going to cost you 100 bucks.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: And a lot of people, seniors, don't have that.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: That too.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: Okay. Great.
So that is your biggest program, right? Rides for vets.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: The Rides for vets, yeah. And expanding as well.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: But what else?
[00:14:10] Speaker B: So, you know, one of the things that we try to do is align with what the councils on aging need. And I mentioned we just did a survey that Michelle got and trying to figure out what each town needs. And every town in Norfolk county is different. It's like, well, you know, Randolph has very different needs than Weymouth, and Bellingham has different needs than Franklin. And so what, as I mentioned, is emerging is the transportation, but also companionship. And, you know, we were talking earlier about friendly visits and how that kind of just stopped after when Covid hit,
[00:14:51] Speaker A: all personal contact rates changed and it became phone calls.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: So we still have some volunteers doing phone calls. But seniors are lonely. I think as a society, we're lonelier. And I don't know if it's technology. I mean, I have no idea. But I think probably Michelle deals with this a lot. Where I'll get calls from some of the senior centers to say, can you send just someone to sit with the senior for two hours, play cards with them? Or. So we're talking more about how to do better in that area.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: So how did you respond to that survey, Michelle? For the city and its needs, as
[00:15:28] Speaker C: Lucille said, a transportation patch for us is very helpful. We do have a very vibrant. Thanks to support from the mayor, we have a vibrant transportation program all over the city. Yes, in. And we too are recipients of the MASS DOT grant. We actually have two grants from mass Department of Transportation. The governor has been very committed to putting money into the budget every year for senior transportation.
Aging in place is a very, very strong push right now to help seniors age in place and do what we can countywide, citywide, throughout the commonwealth to help seniors age in place so that you know certainly how we responded. But for our needs, we at the Council on Aging tend to need folks to be companions for participants going to medical appointments just to help somebody get from the van door into their appointment and into the actual doctor's office, not to go into the appointment with them, but to help them open the doors and get the elevator pushed. Because when you have a walker and you're in a wheelchair, that's difficult. So our driver can get you from your door and bring you to the door of the doctor's office or hospital, but once you're in there, you're navigating that on your own.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: Interesting. I had never thought of that.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: Volunteers to be companions on trips such as doctor's appointments so it's nice way to volunteer. You can bring your book and read your book while your friend is in their appointment, and then just help them back through and call us to say we're ready and we'll come back just like Aaliyah's on.
Just a companion to go.
[00:17:15] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: It can be challenging to navigate a big, huge medical complex like the va. Right. Just knowing what floor to go to, which elevator to get on, which entrance and exit to use to meet your transportation.
[00:17:26] Speaker C: Absolutely. And if you have to use a walk or wheelchair, you know, even pushing the buttons of the elevator become a challenge. So, you know, there are certain. You know, we call them hurdles to participation.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Okay, good to know. Good to know.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Financial is always a big hurdle.
[00:17:42] Speaker F: Sure.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: As Lucille said, if we can continue to provide free transportation for our older adults in Quincy, that removes that hurdle. So the next hurdle becomes mobility and mobility management.
So if having a companion with you helps with your management of that appointment, then, you know, we'll look to do that.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And that, you know, that type of a volunteer does not have to necessarily have to be a senior, if you will. I mean, that could be a younger person that may have enough time during the day to just help that person with that medical appointment and then go back to their daily activities. Right.
Maybe even a younger person, a college student, if you will.
So that's a great opportunity right there. So reach out to you if they'd like to get more information.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: Right through our office. I think our number's probably up there. 3761506.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: And Cheryl Bamberry, our outreach coordinator, would be the go to. And then you work through Cheryl with Lucille.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Okay, great. And Lucille, to get a hold of you, it's the RSVP program through email or website or phone number as well, Right?
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Correct. Correct.
My number is. Oh, gosh. It's gonna go, right?
[00:18:57] Speaker A: That's okay. We have it up on the screen.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: We have it up on the screen.
I don't know if it's the elder services number is. Is there now, but. There you go. But My number is 781-33-2957-5728. Oh, God. Thank you. Had a senior moment myself. So, yeah, you can call me also for friendly visits and companionship. And I'll. Depending on the town. I work with the Council on Aging in that particular town to try to set something up.
[00:19:26] Speaker C: But.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: But we hear the same thing. Our volunteer drivers who pick up, they just drop off.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: They have to keep a schedule.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: Right. They have to keep a schedule. But you know they will get out and help you into the building but they can't go into the appointment with you. So if there's like a companion person they would drive two people they would drive the companion and the rider to the appointment. So yeah it's you know like Hillary Clinton said it takes a village but it takes a village to help seniors too and you know based their mobility gets tougher as the years go on and like we've had people fine on a cane and then all of a sudden they they need a higher level of service.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Thank you both. It's been great to chat a little bit about this program. Hopefully get some more volunteers for both of you always.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: I know. Thank you Joe. Thank you. We could go on for another.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: I know. Thank you.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: We'll have to be back then.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Thank you so much Joe.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: You're welcome.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Thank you.
