Agency draws on vast array of options to make matches

Volunteer Services Agency programs help volunteers as well as the community.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Just like connecting the dots, Volunteer Services Agency links people eager to work with organizations that need them.
The agency, part of the United Way, makes those connections through three programs: The Volunteer Center, The Retired & amp; Senior Volunteer Program, known as RSVP, and Volunteer Service to Seniors.
The Volunteer Center links people of all ages and skill levels with appropriate organizations, explained Virginia Leskanic, director of the center. "We recruit and place volunteers with more than 200 nonprofit organizations and schools in Mahoning County."
Volunteer opportunities are available for both adults and teen-agers:
*Delivering meals to shut-ins.
*Tutoring children.
*Sitting with the elderly.
*Packing food baskets and distributing groceries at food banks.
*Providing tours at museums.
*Delivering cards and flowers to hospital patients.
*Serving meals at shelters for the homeless.
*Planting flowers at clinics.
*Reading the newspaper over the radio for the visually impaired.
Volunteers also serve on policy-making and advisory committees, mentor students and entrepreneurs, and raise funds for community service organizations.
Not locked in: The primary advantage to volunteering through the center is the vast array of options, Leskanic said. Volunteers are assigned to sites based on their interests. If they discover that they don't like doing that type of work, they can try something else.
"We have a one-on-one discussion about what they like, volunteer opportunities and what they have to offer," she continued.
Volunteers can also choose how much time they want to spend. In short-term opportunities, volunteers spend one day, one week or a few weeks at a task. For longer-term opportunities, they spend a certain number of hours every week.
"We try to accommodate the volunteers. It's all in what they want to give, Leskanic said. "Giving to the community means more than giving dollars, it's giving of one's self. I like to say it's the rent we pay for life."
RSVP matches individuals 55 and older with organizations, said Maureen A. Drummond, project director. They work from a few hours a week to almost full time.
Reason to be: The program helps retirees and those with no regular work schedule remain productive. "It gives them a sense of purpose and keeps structure in their lives," Drummond observed.
Many choose to volunteer where they can continue the type of work they've done throughout their lives, she said; others choose things that are completely different, developing new skills.
The 870 RSVP members in Mahoning County all receive supplemental insurance while on duty.
The third program of Volunteer Services Agency Inc. is Volunteer Service to Seniors. Through this program, volunteers provide visitation and transportation services to the frail elderly, Drummond explained. Referrals come through Help Hotline and other agencies and "is based on need, not income."
Seniors served by the program receive regular telephone calls and reminders from volunteers, and may be provided with transportation to doctors' appointments, she said. In addition, volunteers visit those the program serves "just to give someone who lives alone another face to look at."
Social outings to places such at the Butler Institute of American Art, Gorant Candies and White House Fruit Farm are also provided through Volunteer Service to Seniors. These activities, Drummond said, "are really stimulating for them."
The program currently serves 385 clients.