May is Older Americans Month. A special month for older individuals to celebrate aging with dignity, liveliness and boldness doing the things they love. Check out an article featured on The Westerly Sun's website featuring Debra Tanner, SRIV's Executive Director and long-time office volunteer Eileen Kelly:
Southern Rhode Island Volunteers’ mission is to enhance lives by inspiring, creating and supporting a lifelong culture of service through our volunteer members and affiliates across Southern Rhode Island.
Here are some highlighted offerings and needs for December 2024 & January 2025:
Letters To Santa - We are currently looking for volunteers willing to come into our office some time between December 1-18th to reply to letters that children sent in to Santa.
The WARM Center is currently looking for volunteer’s willing to help seniors during tax season.
Tabitha’s Closet is currently looking for volunteers. Tabitha’s Closet provides families with affordable donated clothing. This opportunity is located at the Peace Dale Congregational Church on Tuesdays 3-7 pm, Fridays 3-5 pm and Saturdays from 9:30-12 pm. Stocking shelves and sorting clothes is currently one of their main needs.
Narrow River Preservation Association is currently looking for volunteers. If you are interested in conservation, watershed education, and coastal clean-ups then this might be for you.
LINKS North Kingstown Mentor and Academic Guide Program is currently looking for volunteers to work with students in the North Kingstown Elementary Schools. Academic Guides work in the classroom for an hour or more once or twice a week to help students with subjects directed by the teacher. Mentoring offers one on one support with students. Mentors are asked to commit to spending 40-50 minutes per week with a student for at least one school year. All mentoring meetings take place on school grounds and during school hours.
South County Health is currently looking for volunteers to help with their new permanent gift shop located in the lobby of South County Hospital. This opportunity is available Monday-Friday from 9am-12pm, 12pm-3pm, or 3pm-6pm.
Tri-County Education, Employment and Training Department is seeking volunteers to work directly with students 14-21 years old to provide tutoring or mentorship. Academic Assistance is individual tutoring for subjects like math and writing. This is to help these young adults to prep for GED exams. Mentoring would be working one on one with these young adults to provide guidance and support towards academic and vocational goals. All meetings will take place on one of the Career Center sites and meeting with clients would be on a bi-monthly basis for about an hour to an hour and a half.
Our senior neighbors need your help. Opportunities include:
CRITICAL NEED: Transportation to and from medical appointments, dentists, therapies, pharmacies and the similar independent aging support appointments. This is a very flexible opportunity. You can choose the geographic communities/area you wish to serve, days, times—there’s no schedule. When a need arises, you’d get a call based on your preferences and if you’re available, great-if not, we’ll call you another time.
Delivery of groceries once a week is another way to help a homebound senior. Thursday mornings is delivery day from some major markets when our volunteers deliver to 3 or 4 senior homes their weekly groceries; other times include individual pick-ups and deliveries which work the same way as medical transportation scheduling does.
Before delivery of groceries, our volunteers take orders over the phone at the office. We are looking for a sub volunteer interested in coming in on Tuesday or Wednesday mornings to cover for the regular volunteers who assist seniors with online grocery orders. This takes place in our office 9 am to noon. Your task would be to call seniors who are ordering from local markets, help them with their online order and submit the order to SRIV’s coordinator for Thursday delivery.
Companionship is a way to brighten the day of an individual homebound senior or disabled person. There is a great need in the Westerly, Hopkinton, and Hope Valley areas.
Southern RI Volunteers has opportunities for volunteers on our Development & Marketing committee. Our team meets by zoom (the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 pm for 1 hour) to discuss, develop and work on two events each year and to discuss ways to share SRIV’s mission, volunteer and client stories to educate our neighbors across our southernmost 13 communities in RI.
Members of our Development team as well as all volunteers also support community events like the Washington County Fair and Charlestown Sea Food Festival among others if they are interested. These are seasonal community events that support local nonprofits and more. These opportunities are open to individuals 13 plus years of age.
Join our dedicated and fun Development & Marketing committee—to learn more, contact Deb at SRIV. Leave your name and number at 401-552-7661 or email info@southernrivol.org.
How about being a volunteer “sub”. Be on our call list to see if you might occasionally be available to deliver meals on wheels in the South Kingstown, Narragansett and Exeter areas. This is only an occasional opportunity or a sub opportunity for a regular volunteer who is away for any length of time.
Hoping to meet you soon and call you one of the team!
Call SRIV at 401-552-7661 Monday through Friday between 9 am and 3 pm for info.
*Southern Rhode Island Volunteers is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. Your generous donation helps us support hundreds of people throughout Southern RI.
Main Office: P O Box 1047, 100 Park Lane, Charlestown, RI 02813
Hours: 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Monday-Friday
Phone: (401) 552-7661
Fax: (401) 552-7663
