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Baltimore County, MD / Time of Your LIfe / 3 Nov 2016
Baltimore County, MD / Time of Your LIfe / 3 Nov 2016
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From YouTube: Time of Your Life: The Season of Giving

Description

Join Alison Vogrin, Director, Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), for the Baltimore County Department of Aging as she discusses the Season of Giving.

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Welcome back to the time of your life., I'm your host, ethel rasmussen. volunteers, support communities and make such a difference by sharing their time and talent.

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to learn more about the many opportunities for volunteers,.

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I'd like to welcome alison vogrin,, director of the retired senior volunteer, program, known as rsvp,.

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At the baltimore county department of aging.

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welcome to the show, alison. thanks, ethel, for inviting me., the retired senior volunteer, program, known as rsvp,.

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Is a volunteer program for adults.?

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Can you provide our viewers with some background information about rsvp?.

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Sure., so rsvp is a federally-funded program.

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That mobilizes people 55 and over to get involved in work within their communities.

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For people who are familiar with americorps,, it's the same concept;.

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Seniorcorps is the name of the program..

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There is more than 270,000 people, registered.

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And basically, it's recognizing the talents and skills of people.

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Who are seniors and what they can get involved in in the community.

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So how it works is on a local level,. We have different rsvp offices,.

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And we're with the baltimore county, sponsored by the department of aging., and we connect individuals within the community who are looking to get involved.

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Let's talk about some of the stations that are registered with the rsv program, as well as some of their volunteer opportunities that are available. sure., so we're one of the largest in the state of maryland.

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We have around 40 agencies, non-profits, in the community.

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Obviously,, there's a great need out there;. This is only a small sampling., but they assert a diverse need--, a range of needs in the community.

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And anywhere from environmental to working with kids.

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To people with disabilities. so,, I wish I had enough time to talk about each of them because they're fabulous at what they do., but I want to just highlight some of them, just to give you an idea.

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And then people can always inquire about other agencies. We have.

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So,, if for those into physical activity work and out in the environment,.

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We have the gunpowder valley, conservancy and they are preserving over 500 acres of land.

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So anybody that wants to do trail, maintenance, garden, cleaning,.

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Stream, clean up, tree planting,, that is, for them.

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So, there are plenty of opportunities involved with that.

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Just recently, I went to progress unlimited.

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It's a day center is owings mills for adults, with developmental disabilities.

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And they are really in need of volunteers to do activities with their clients there.

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and I met a client who just would be thrilled to have somebody come in and build a puzzle with her..

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It's something simple. We all can do and it would make her day.

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And something that she would thoroughly enjoy.

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Our newest partner is the greenspring tennis.

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And educational foundation., so maybe somebody who wants to do something a little more physical but indoors., and it involves working with,, again,, youth and adults with disabilities. --.

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Giving them a skill, teaching them tennis., and you don't need to have tennis background,, which is the great part. but you're just coaching them along on the courts.

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Another one of our partners is casa, court appointed special advocates.

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And they are going in and representing children.

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Within the foster care system., so they're advocating on their behalf.

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there's over 600 kids across baltimore county who are in the foster care system, and only one third of them.

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Have volunteer representatives to speak with them and follow them through the cases-- as they go through the court system.

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So, there are plenty of different opportunities for sure;.

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Again,, that's only a small sampling, but if you like, working with people,.

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If you like, doing administrative tasks, or if you like, getting involved in other opportunities, so...,.

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Lots of wonderful opportunities. yes., the title of this segment is season of giving.

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with the holiday season rapidly approaching,.

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Would you mind discussing some of those special rsvp opportunities?.

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Sure. so actually, progress, unlimited that I mentioned, could use help.

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With just decorating their facility., so anybody who has a special touch with just putting up create--.

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Being creative,, they can use help with that..

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We also work with a number of shelters and food pantries.

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So churches for streets of hope is an all-men's shelter.

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They're going to be opening up in a couple weeks.

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and they serve men in the winter months.

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A lot of these men don't have families,, so the volunteers are their families.

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So spending the holidays with them is especially important;.

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It makes them feel good about themselves.

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and same with our other shelters and food pantries..

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This is a popular time to be serving holiday, meals.

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so,. They need extra support, --, whether it be restocking shelves.

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Or actually serving the meals to the clients who are coming.

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But beyond that, season of giving,.

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It's a good time to just start and help long term.

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All of the agencies we're working with, could use volunteers, year-round and most of them are volunteer-run themselves.

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So they solely rely on volunteers, and that's why it's important.

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That we recruit more and get people involved.

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so,. What a great way to give back in the season,.

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To kick off the new year, and get involved in some long-term volunteer work.

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So if you've inspired our viewers to volunteer,, how can they get in touch with you? sure., so they can call our office directly.

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We're actually in the towson bykota senior center., our number is 410-887-3101.

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Or our email,, which is volunteers@baltimorecountymd.gov.

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And our office will respond and what we'll do is we'll set you up.

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And we'll meet with you, we'll work out a placement,.

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Talk about our agencies, and then get you connected with the agency.

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And then what we do is we track the volunteer hours that you're doing.

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And contributing, as well as the impacts that you're making in the community- and we report them up on a national level so that congress can see locally in baltimore county.

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How we are meeting the needs and how we are working on.

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The overall picture of our country and helping our communities.

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Thank you for being here, today, alison,.

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To share about rsvp and the volunteer opportunities available in baltimore county.. Thank you for the time, and I really hope that people.

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Who are thinking about getting involved, they've been encouraged to.

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Because there are definitely lots of needs out there.

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and let me just say one thing:. I've spoken with a number of volunteers who work in a variety of capacities,.

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Different agencies, and they've all said the same thing, that they get more out of the work that they do than they give to the clients.

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Or to the trails that they work on.

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and it's just very valuable work to them., so everybody can get involved and we have an opportunity for everyone.

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So thank you. we're going to take a short break. when we return, learn about senior center travel, senior box office, and what's happening at your local senior center.

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( ♪♪♪ ).