Volunteer Opportunities

Our office in Cincinnati has year-round volunteer opportunities. We rely heavily on volunteers to carry out all of our activities and programs. Here is a sample of some of the opportunities that exist:

Home Visitors Program

Become a visiting volunteer to an elderly person or couple living in Hamilton County. The elderly friends we visit on a regular basis are people who have little social support. Most of these people are fairly lonely and isolated and would welcome a friendly visitor. This is a key program for us because we strive to provide friendship and social contact through all of our services and this program is at the heart of this effort. We ask visiting volunteers to make a commitment to visit their elderly friend on a regular basis (at least 2 times each month). Your time spent together is up to you and your elderly friend as far as when you visit, what you do, and where you may go together.

Holiday Activities

Little Brothers has always celebrated the holidays with their elderly friends because this is the time when people can feel the most lonely and depressed. We visit elders in their homes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. We bring a nice, hot meal with flowers and other goodies. We need volunteers to visit and deliver meals on these days. We also need people to help set up, cook, clean up, and donate items. We also host parties on these days for which elders will need transportation. We also need people to set up, serve, and clean up at these events. We are always looking for anyone who can entertain or who can share a talent with the elderly (musicians, magic show, etc.).

Intimate Conversation * Photo: David Fisk

The strength of this organization rests in the hands of its volunteers – without them, our mission could not be fullfilled.

Social Activities

Throughout the year (but especially in the summer) we plan outings for our elderly friends to enjoy. Many of the people we see don't ever get out or don't get out very often. These outings may include ballgames, picnics, a fishing trip, or special parties (e.g. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day). We need people to drive the elders to these events and spend time with them during the event. At the parties we can also use help with set up, cooking, clean up, and entertainment.

Birthday Parties

One of the nicest things we can do is remember our older friends' birthdays. We need people to visit, share a cake with, and deliver flowers and a gift to an elderly person on his or her birthday. This is a 1-2 hour commitment for one day and is a lot of fun. We will supply the cake, gift, and flowers. You provide the friendship.

Vacation Sessions

We take a group of our elderly friends to Little Brothers' vacation house outside of Chicago. We spend 7 fun-filled days with them. We enjoy each others' company, cook and eat together, go on outings together, and just relax in the peaceful surroundings. We need volunteers to accompany us to help with the cooking, cleaning, planning of activities, and to share time with our friends.

Office Tasks

We need volunteers to help us with the numerous pieces of work we do in our office. We especially could use people who are familiar with computers to do data entry and filing. We will eventually need people to answer phones, help with thank you letters to donors, and help with fund raising and mailing work.

Public Relations

We need volunteers who are interested or talented in photography to take pictures at our events. We are also looking for people who write well and who are interested in helping us put together a newsletter. In addition, volunteers who can design posters and brochures or who are willing to do speaking engagements to groups are needed.

Committee Members

We need volunteers who are willing to help us with committee work. We have a volunteer advisory board that helps us with fund raising and public relations. Eventually we will be developing a board of directors that will have responsibility for directing the organization into the future. We need people who believe in our mission and who are willing to lend their talents and professional experience to enhance our work. We will particularly need people with accounting, legal, public relations, fund raising, and social work backgrounds.

For information on these and other volunteer opportunities, please email us.

***As volunteers you will be the organization's vital connection to our community. Your main purpose will always be to serve our elderly friends. However, it is very important to the future of our mission that you help get other people interested in our work. We are always looking for new groups of people to present our mission to. If you are connected to any groups that may be interested, we are always open to doing a slide show and speaking engagement for them. Also, if you have any connections to businesses that may help us with donations, we would be very grateful.

©2009 Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly
Last updated: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 01:17:26 GMT
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