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RSVP | Lead With Experience

Rock Island County Senior Center: A Great Place to Volunteer

By Bill Sedlacek
Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Eastern Iowa and Western Illnois

RSVP Director note: We have begun honoring RSVP partner agencies for leading by example by providing meaningful volunteer opportunities and by engaging in volunteer management best practices. Rock Island County Senior Center is one such agency – Dave.

It was a cold and snowy day outside the Senior Center on 11th Street in Rock Island, but inside the center was filled with the warmth of fellowship. The noon meal was over, the staff and volunteers had cleaned up, but folks were still there just enjoying each other’s company. There was a card game going on, Bonanza was on the TV, and seniors were joking with one another. No one was playing the piano in the corner, but I bet it gets a fair amount of use at other times.

I had gone to the center to meet with Kristina Bedard the Senior Services Director and Amy Dillingham, the Senior Services Operations Supervisor. The Center, which operates under the Project Now umbrella, has a staff of 30 salaried employees, 15 RSVP volunteers and two folks in their work transition program. Their mission is to provide essential services to seniors and the disabled in Rock Island and Mercer Counties.

The Rock Island center and the Mercer County site in Aledo provide nutritious noon meals five days a week for a suggested donation of only $3. No one is turned away if they are unable to pay. Along with these two locations, meals are served at five other sites in the two counties. If you cannot get to a meal site, the centers offer transportation as well as a home delivered meal option for the homebound. Another feature to the home delivered meal program is the wellness checks that the volunteer drivers provide. Emergency points of contact are maintained for the homebound, and those points of contact are notified if the volunteer sees a need to do so. As well as meals, the centers offer structured activities such as cards and exercise programs or simply a welcoming place to “Hang Out “with your fellow seniors.

To learn more about Rock Island County Senior Services call (309) 788-6335 in Mercer County call (309) 582-2644. Information is also available at the centers on Medicare and Medicaid, Utility assistance, transportation, caregiver support and other emergency needs. While some programs have limits on income and assets, others do not. If you have issues in your life don’t hesitate to ask if there is a program for which you qualify. You won’t know what help or information is available unless you do ask. The mission statement of the center is “Strengthen our community by helping people help themselves and each other”.. I came away from my meeting with Kristina and Amy convinced that the statement is not just words to which they have to pay lip service, but a deeply held conviction that this is their mission in life. I’m also sure this attitude is contagious and the rest of the staff and volunteers are equally dedicated.

Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but the center’s numbers are impressive. During the last year, 75,026 units of service (Information, vouchers, insurance counseling, etc) were provided to 3,454 seniors, 5,745 rides were given, 16,664 meals were served, 46, 933 meals were delivered to the homebound, 2389 seniors were provided with services such as outreach benefit access, and center clients were given 400 Farmers Market coupons worth a total of $10,000.

When I asked Kristina and Amy what they needed to do their job better, they said more RSVP volunteers would be extremely helpful. Funding, of course is always an issue with social service agencies. Last year they had to shut down a transportation van and could not take any new home delivered meal applications for a while. If you want to help Kristina and Amy with their most important effort to make our little bend in the river a better place for our most vulnerable, why not volunteer with RSVP? To learn more about opportunities at great places to volunteer like Rock Island County Senior Center call RSVP (309) 793-4425 or email rsvp@wiaaa.org.