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Give the Gift of Your Time and Experience -- Volunteer

WISE & Healthy Aging accomplishes as much as it does thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who contribute so generously of their time and talents each year. Volunteers make a significant difference in the quality of life of those they serve and enrich their own lives through service to others.

Volunteer opportunities are as diverse as those we serve. Each opportunity is unique, and each has its own requirements in terms of time commitment and skills. We provide excellent training to help ensure the volunteer experience is fulfilling.

Regardless of how you choose to be involved, your efforts will make a difference to older people and their families in the Los Angeles area.

AARP Tax-Aide Counselors: A free, volunteer-run tax counseling and preparation service sponsored by AARP. These services are offered to all tax payers with middle and low income, with special assistance to those ages 60 and older.

Volunteers assist in preparing Federal and State tax returns of low- and moderate-income seniors and disabled citizens for at least 4 to 6 hours per week between February 1 and April 15 each year. Volunteers participate in an extensive, IRS approved training course, pass a qualifying exam, and become IRS-certified tax preparers.

Administration/ Main Office: We welcome volunteers at our various offices to answer phones, prepare mailings, file and disseminate materials, plan special events, and take on other tasks essential to help us better serve our clients and the community.

Adult Day Service Center: Caring for a loved one who is elderly and frail or has memory loss can be an exhausting task. Caregivers are often overwhelmed with the demands of daily life and providing full-time care to a loved one. The Adult Day Service Center is a safe place for older adults requiring some type of support during the day.

Volunteers of all ages are needed to interact one-on-one and in groups with older adults who are dealing with limitations due to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke. Activities include art, singing and dancing, exercise, cooking, gardening, games and discussions.

Advocates for Conserved Elders (ACE): ACE is a project developed in conjuction with the Los Angeles Superior Court Probate Division. Specially trained volunteers visit assigned elders and dependent adults under conservatorship in long-term care facilities and provide the conservatee with companionship, socialization, and a special advocate to report signs of abuse or neglect.

Volunteers are asked to visit twice a month - monitor the resident's care, well-being, health and safety. Most of all, establish a supprotive relationship with the conservatee!
The next 2-day ACE Training is being held on Saturday, July 17 and Saturday, July 24, 2010.

"America Reads" Intergenerational Reading Program Research shows that most students who fall behind in reading do not catch up after the age of 9. Kindergarten through to fifth grade is the right time, maybe the only time to really make a difference. Share your love of reading and change a child's life - forever!

Working with children in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified public elementary schools, volunteers are trained and placed as tutors to provide individual or small-group tutoring. Meeting weekly, volunteers help children believe in themselves as learners, and perform better in school as a result.

Congregate Meal Program: Ensure good nutrition for those living independently so they can maintain their health and independence. Help serve a nutritious lunch at one of five sites within the City of Santa Monica.

By helping at one of five sites, volunteers help ensure seniors maintain their health and independence. Lunches are served weekdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Friendly Visitors: Isolation and loss of social interaction due to poor health, lack of transportation or other issues are contributing factors to depression and self-neglect. The Friendly Visitor Program works to bring volunteers into the lives and homes of lonely, isolated seniors. An initial professional assessment is followed by regular visits by volunteers.

With the help of weekly in-home contact with volunteers, seniors maintain independence and safety, and improve the quality of their lives. Together they decide how to spend the time. Perhaps chat for an hour, take a walk, shop at a favorite store, visit a museum or place of worship, enjoy a restaurant meal. Volunteers also are able to monitor their well-being, identify changing needs,and ease access to community resources.

Information and Referral: WISE & Healthy Aging provides the community with information about, and access to, service regardless of who provides them. In this way, the agency is a "first information stop" for individuals, agencies, community leaders, businesses, professionals and other senior service organizations seeking expertise and special programs related to older adults.

Volunteers answer general inquiries from the public and direct persons to appropriate community resources. They provide general information about aging and refer people to appropriate programs and services within and outside WISE & Healthy Aging. A four-hour per week commitment is required to develop expertise in community resources and enter identifying information into the computer.

Peer Counseling: Developed in 1977, the Peer Counseling Program has become an international model for the delivery of counseling services to adults age 55 and older. In this program, seniors dealing with stage-of-life issues such as loss, ill health, retirement, and other changes can develop insight and coping skills.

Trained volunteers peer counselors age 55 and older provide individual counseling and facilitate weekly support groups to assist their peers in dealing with emotional issues that often arise as part of the aging process. Training and weekly supervision are provided by a licensed mental health professional.

Personal Money Management When the demands of maintaining one's finances become difficult because of physical or mental disabilities. WISE & Healthy Aging can step in to assist. The Daily Money Management Program is designed to help maintain the highest possible level of independence for persons who are having difficulty managing their daily financial activities. The program trains volunteers to provide in-home assistance with budgeting and bill paying or other financial needs.

Ombudsman: Representatives of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program serve as advocates for the residents occupying the more than 80,000 beds in long-term care facilities in the city and county of Los Angeles.The goal of the program is to investigate and attempt to resolve complaints made by or on behalf of individual residents in long-term care facilities.

As an advocate for residents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, Ombudsmen help ensure that residents are treated with consideration and dignity, that their human rights are respected and that they have a reliable visitor. All volunteer Ombudsmen undergo a 36-hour classroom training and receive certification by the State of California Department of Aging. Ombudsmen commit to a minimum of 16 hours per month and must have their own transportation.

Seniors Against Investment Fraud (SAIF): The project is sponsored and funded by the California Department of Corporations and educates seniors throughout California on how to recognize, avoid, and report investment and telemarketing fraud.

Trained volunteers communicate these messages to other seniors through local seminars.

Senior Fraud Prevention Call Center Every year thousands of Americans lose as little as a few dollars to as much as their life savings to fraudelent telemarketers. According to Congress, the loss is nearly $40 billion each year. Elders, especially, are targeted by con artists who are selling bogus products and services by phone.

In cooperation with the AARP Foundation, "Fraud Fighter" volunteers gather at the Senior Fraud Prevention Call Center in Santa Monica to contact people across the country who are at risk, they present a message about prevention, educate people about the signs of illegal telemarketing fraud, and prevent financial abuse of seniors.

WISE & Healthy Aging Volunteer Brochure Downloadable copy of our volunteer services brochure detailing all the available opportunities in WISE & Healthy Aging and the Greater West Los Angeles Area.