Get involved
Ninety minutes a week, a dozen front doors
Volunteers are how meals arrive hot, how the phone gets answered on a Sunday and how somebody notices that the curtains have not opened today.
Roles
Six ways to help this month
Pick the one that fits your week. If none of them quite do, ring us — we will invent something around what you are good at.
Meal delivery driver
Collect hot meals from a kitchen and take them to about a dozen homes on a fixed route. You use your own car and we reimburse mileage.
Friendly visitor
Sit with the same neighbour each week. Tea, crosswords, the newspaper, the dog. This is the role people tell us changed their year.
Telephone reassurance caller
A short scheduled call to check that someone is well, has eaten and has their medication. Training and a call script are provided.
Technology coach
Help at a drop-in session with tablets, video calls, patient portals and spotting scams. Patience matters far more than expertise.
Senior center helper
Serve congregate lunch, set up an exercise class, greet people at the door or help run a farmers market voucher day.
Office and events support
Mailings, data entry, event set-up and staffing an information table at a community fair.
How it works
From first call to first route
Tell us roughly what you would enjoy
Call or send a message. There is no long application at this stage — we just want to know your city, your rough availability and whether you drive.
Have a conversation
A volunteer coordinator rings you within a few business days to talk through the roles that fit, and answers anything you are unsure about.
Background check and orientation
Roles that put you in someone's home require a criminal background check, which we pay for. Orientation takes about ninety minutes and can be done in person or online.
Shadow a route, then take your own
You ride along with an experienced volunteer first. Nobody is sent out alone until they say they are ready.
Start with a phone call
Ask for the volunteer coordinator, weekdays 8:30am to 5:00pm.
Call 757-461-9481Looking for paid work instead?
We hire drivers, aides, care managers and counsellors across all eight localities.
See careersI thought I was dropping off lunch. It turns out I am the only person some of them will speak to before Thursday.
Good to know
Questions volunteers ask
For meal delivery, yes, along with a valid licence and insurance. We reimburse mileage. Many other roles — reassurance calls, technology coaching, center support — need no car at all.
Not sure what you need?
Call and describe an ordinary day. A resource specialist will work out the rest — including services that belong to other agencies.