Senior Support Services
Meals on Wheels South Texas has expanded their service area to serve those 55 and older. We will provide companionship, food and nutrition services, respite services, and medical transportation. By targeting these areas, we hope to help our beneficiaries live independent lives.
We want to activate volunteers in each county we serve, encouraging a sense of community and utilizing local resources, knowledge, and relationships. With your help, we can fight social isolation in our communities.
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Your Role as a Senior Support Services Volunteer
Older adults living in South Texas experience high rates of social isolation, food insecurity, limited medical access, and caregiver burnout. Meals on Wheels South Texas plans to connect volunteers and beneficiaries to services that address these problems.
- Volunteers providing companionship will be responsible for socialization and increased access to the beneficiary’s community events and resources.
- Volunteers offering food and nutrition support will assist with transportation to and from the grocery store, shopping assistance, and home-cooked healthy meals.
- Volunteers in respite services will help relieve caregiver burnout, increasing social support for both the caregiver and beneficiary.
- Volunteers helping with out-of-town medical transportation will provide assistance to an underserved (and sometimes ineligible service by insurance coverage) area.
By volunteering, we not only affirm to ourselves that we bring value into the world, but we create connections and provide meaningful experiences to those being serviced. You can work to help alleviate, and even prevent, the physical and mental health risks linked to loneliness and social isolation among the seniors in your community. Not only will you get to know your community better, but you will also improve the lives of your beneficiaries, their family, and their caregivers. Your service is essential to our community.
How do you become a volunteer?
First, fill out the application form or get in touch with the Project Director at americorps@mowstx.org or by calling 361-576-2189 ext. 118.
As a volunteer, you will develop a friendship with your beneficiary. Our beneficiary’s safety is a top priority and because of this, our volunteers must complete all required background checks.
Pre-service requirements include:
- Be 55 or older
- Ability to fulfill time commitment
- Pass all required background checks, including National Public Sex Offenders Registry and state criminal history check
- Pre-service orientation and training
Once you have completed these steps, you will receive your first assignment as a certified AmeriCorps Senior Support Services Volunteer.
What are the benefits?
As a certified Senior Support Services Volunteer, you will receive the following benefits.
- Meaningful relationships with people in your community
- A sense of value by providing service to those in need
- Annual recognition event
- Time reimbursement/stipend (if eligible)
- Mileage reimbursements
- Secondary insurance coverage
- Branded clothing
- In-service training to better equip your skills as a volunteer
Being a Volunteer
What Do You Do as a Volunteer?
As a volunteer, you will follow the approved assignments, however you may suggest new activities to do with your beneficiary to MOWSTx staff. The following list of activities is not comprehensive, but it gives you an idea of what is allowed and not allowed:
Appropriate Activities
1. Personal Care
- Encouraging exercise, taking walks with client, or providing information on exercise or recreation
- Providing grief support
- Reminding client to take medication (Do not administer medication)
2. Social/Recreation
- Providing companionship, talking, listening, cheering up, general peer support
- Playing games/puzzles (checkers, Jenga, scrabble, monopoly, puzzles, word searches, etc.)
- Playing card games (Crazy Eights, Bridge, Canasta, Go Fish, etc.)
- Doing simple craft projects
- Fostering client contact with family and friends
- Story telling/Beautiful Questions
- Looking at photo albums or sentimental objects or creating a photo album/scrapbook
- Attending local events/parades/festivals in the community (Visit your local chamber of commerce or public library website event calendar)
- Going out to downtown shops, parks, free museum days, discount days at theater, Farmer’s Market, local historic sites, picnics, etc.
- Gardening, bird watching, dancing, karaoke,
- Watching/listening/reading client’s favorite tv shows, movies, music, podcasts, books
3. Nutrition
- Preparing light meals and snacks
- Doing light grocery shopping
- Organizing and labeling food
- Providing health and nutrition information (client should consult with doctor/nutritionist before making significant dietary changes)
4. General Assistance
- Driving client to grocery store or other simple errands
- Helping client shop inside grocery store
- Making occasional appointments (medical, handyman services, family visits, etc.)
- Helping with light retail shopping
- Doing light housework
- Doing light pet care
- Helping with basic tech services
- Helping sort mail
5. Information and Advocacy
- Providing information about community services/resources and eligibility guidelines
- Bringing unmet needs to the attention of Meals on Wheels staff
Inappropriate Activities
1. Personal Care
- Activities usually performed by doctors, nurses, or other professionals
- Administering medication (only remind client)
- Personally feeding, dressing, or grooming
- Assisting client with getting out of bed, getting to bathroom
2. Social/Recreation
- Giving opinions or providing advice in legal, financial, or family conflicts
- Political/religious activities
3. Nutrition
- Preparing food for person other than client
- Altering client’s diet without consulting doctor or family
4. Home Management
- Assisting with money management, helping budget funds, depositing cash in banks, handling client money except when making purchases with client’s direction
- Borrowing money or personal items from client or client’s family
- Loaning money or lending personal items to client
- Cleaning for person other than client
- Extraneous house cleaning or home maintenance
- Heavy lifting
5. Information and Advocacy
- Helping clients receive a service
