National Senior Service Corps -- Volunteer Programs
The ACTION agency (Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and VISTA) are now actually part of the Corporation for National Service. The three senior-specific programs (all of the afore-mentioned except for VISTA) operate under the umbrella title of the National Senior Service Corps.
The Corporation for National Service was started in 1993 and consolidated all national service programs under one roof early in 1994. Other programs run by the Corporation include AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America.
ACTION is the federal domestic volunteer agency that was established to stimulate and expand voluntary citizen participation through coordination of its efforts with public and private sector organizations. It supports a number of established programs and encourages local volunteer efforts.
ACTION administers four older American volunteer programs:
- Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) has 752 funded projects with 408,000 volunteers nationally and a budget of $30 million. Volunteers serve on a regular basis throughout the 43,000 communities. Among the services provided are: adult basic-education, guardians ad litem, tax aid and consultancy service, hospice care, home repair, weatherization, utilities relief, healthcare, home visitation and long-term care, Meals-On-Wheels, telephone reasurance, and much more. RSVP volunteers are 60 years of age or older, retired, who work part-time, about four hours per week.
- Senior Companion Program (SCP) is a program that provides compassionate peer support to those with exceptional need. Senior companions help their more frail comtemporaries by passing along a positive mental attitude, offering the security of friendship, and helping out wherever they are needed.
- Foster Grandparents Program (FGP) -- is a program that provides assistance to children with special or exceptional needs, such as those who are mentally retarded, autistic, epileptic or physically handicapped.
- Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) have actively worked in low-income areas in the United States by mobilizing people, businesses, and organizations toward community of self-reliance. Volunteers live and work among America's poor for one of two years.
To find out more about these programs contact National Senior Service Corps, 800-424-8867
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