Baltimore County, MD Time of Your LIfe, 1 May 2018

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From YouTube: Celebrating Older Americans Month With RSVP

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Alison Vogrin, RSVP Project Director, Baltimore County Department of Aging.

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( ♪♪♪ ).

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Welcome to the time of your life with the baltimore county department of aging., I'm your host, ethel rasmussen..

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Today's show keeps you in the know, by conveying important and interesting information about the contemporary topics that impact you, our viewing audience.

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our show covers. A celebration, provides important resources.

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And offers inspiration to all..

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We are pleased to have baltimore, county's, retired and senior volunteer program, volunteers, pat shiflett and charlie conklin on the show.

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Stay tuned to be inspired by these two rsvp volunteers,.

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And the ways in which they give back to the community.

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the show continues with katelyn deranger-poncheri,.

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Assistant director at the ateaze senior center, who will share information about bcda's annual concert in the park.

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At oregon, ridge, an event not to be missed..

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The show concludes with debbie orlove, community business liaison.

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At the baltimore county department of aging.

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debbie provides information about senior center travel, senior box office and what's happening at your local senior center.

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Older americans month is celebrated each may to honor the many important contributions made by older adults.

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It is also a time when those contributions, reimagine aging stereotypes.,.

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Here to talk about older americans, month, volunteerism.

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And how to volunteer right in their communities is alison. Vogrin, rsvp project director at the baltimore county department of aging.

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Alison, welcome to the show. thanks, ethel for the opportunity to appear again..

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Let's start the show, with some background about older americans, month.

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Can you share a bit of history of the origin and why we celebrate it?.

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Sure., so it started back in 1963 under the direction of then president john f. kennedy.

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And it was a time when there were very limited services for seniors.

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And he wanted to be able to recognize what seniors had given back to their communities..

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So every year since then, there's been a proclamation.

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That the month of may is designated as a time to celebrate all that seniors. Give.

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This year's theme is, engage at every age,”.

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Which means that anybody at any age can get out there, stay active.

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And enrich their lives.

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Baltimore county's, retired and senior volunteer program, known as rsvp,, is a volunteer program for older adults.

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Can you talk about the program and what it offers?

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sure. so we're a federal grant program.

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We've actually been around since 1971.

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although,, we're still working to get our name out. There.

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we're basically a liaison. That's working to connect people.

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Who are 55 and over with volunteer opportunities.

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Throughout baltimore county., I was just reading the other day that there are over 1.5 million non-profits across the us.

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So when you hear people say they're bored and they don't know what to do with their time,, I doubt it's because they don't know what to do.

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it's. Just they don't know how to get started and that's where we would help people get connected with those agencies,.

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Find the best match for them, based on their skills and experiences.

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So it's really looking at what they've done in their lifetime and how they can share that to benefit others in the community.

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Now,, the stations associated with rsvp, offer a wide range of opportunities.

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Knowing there's an opportunity for everyone,, what type of volunteer opportunities are a part of that program?.

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Right. so as you said, it ranges.

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You could be working with kids to non-kids.

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One of the I've got a few pictures that I wanted to show..

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One of the first pictures here is of a volunteer steve fauser.

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Who is working out doing tree maintenance, planting trees.

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And it's a great opportunity to be outdoors.

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A very much needed service- and I know charlie conklin- will talk about that later..

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We also have volunteers who are in the schools and the classrooms.

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So they're mentoring. they're working on comprehension, math skills with the students.

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We have over a 170 schools across the county, so there's lots of opportunity there.

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and then we have the baltimore county christian work, camp.

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they're, getting ready for their work camp. This july 15th through the 20th.

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And they need volunteers to help. Do home modifications.

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For people of low income and elderly and here, they're constructing a ramp.

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they've helped people who haven't been out of their houses in years, get out.

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So that's coming up and we would strongly encourage volunteers for that.

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Then we also have the home team..

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They are team of volunteers that is going out to visit.

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With homebound elderly clients to give them companionship.

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But they're also delivering food as well to those who can't get out to get that.

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And then we have the community assistance network..

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They have a food pantry in dundalk where they're serving about 50 clients a day and they need volunteers to just help sort through the food boxes.

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And they also have a homeless shelter in rosedale, as well as in catonsville.

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So there's lots of needs, but beyond that, we have about 30 agency partners, all together.

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actually, a little bit more.. So if you didn't see something there that was of interest to you,, we have it all.

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And if we don't,, we would be able to refer you to other agencies outside of the program.

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Lots of choices out there. yes., baltimore, county rsvp program is obviously a very committed workforce.

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In making a big impact in the community., how many volunteers do you have and how many hours do they give each year?.

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So currently, we're about 1,100 volunteers.

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We are one of the largest programs across the state of maryland and delaware.

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And last year, it was over 140,000 volunteer hours.

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Which is very impressive and I'm sure it's underreported, because well, we encourage everyone to give hours..

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There are probably more hours that they're doing that they're, just not even thinking about it being volunteer, work.

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Obviously, there's lots of benefits to volunteering, especially for older adults.

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Can you talk about those?.

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So research has shown that volunteering as little as two hours a week.

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Which I think we can all find the time to do, has mental, emotional and physical health benefits.

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So it reduces stress, increases socialization.

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They say eight out of ten people who have been surveyed said: they've made new friends as a result of volunteering.

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The carnegie mellon study showed that people who volunteer.

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Reduce their chances of hypertension by 40%.

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And they did over 200 hours in that one year period..

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So the physical benefits are there.. The mental and the emotional.

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Just all around that life-fulfilling purpose that you have.

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And then they even show that people live longer when they volunteer.

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So, who wouldn't want to live a longer,, healthier life?.

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Let's say: you've inspired some of our viewers to jump into action.

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How can they become an rsvp volunteer to look at the opportunities that are available?, so we are in the office.

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We're actually, under the department of aging in baltimore, county.

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And we can be reached at 410-887-3101.

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Or we can be reached by email, volunteers@baltimorecountymd.gov.

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And both carmen and myself are available..

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We would set up a time to meet with anybody, who's interested.

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To assess what they want to do and we can make that connection with the agency.

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Outstanding., thank you for taking the time to showcase the rsvp program.

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Yeah., thank you very much.. We're going to take a short break. when we return, be prepared to be inspired by two rsvp volunteers.

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