What everyone wants to know, including those of us who are forming Raleigh Village East (RVE), is what services we can provide and at what cost to our members. Many of us thought, going into this effort, that villages following the Beacon Hill model would have a standard plan to follow, but, no, the plans and costs for the villages across the nation vary greatly. It seems that every village has to figure out a plan that fits its area and needs. So, we started by creating task groups to research the resources available in downtown Raleigh and have found that there are many. Now we are looking at how to use those services and how to augment them with volunteers. No village offers to meet all the needs a person has when illness or age limits mobility, but most villages try to connect members with as many services and volunteers as possible.
We at RVE have come up with a 3-tiered plan for most of our services.
Tier 1: Direct Services by Volunteers. These are the things we will recruit and train our volunteers to do, such as driving to doctor appointments, providing meals at the beginning of an illness, taking someone grocery shopping, helping with pet care, helping with small house and garden needs, and technology assistance.
Tier 2: Volunteers as Navigators. Because there are many services already in Raleigh, mostly paid services, and because it can be hard to learn about, sort through, and select what works best for each person, we plan to train volunteers in specific areas as navigators, persons who will come to the home and talk with a member when there is a need. So, if you cannot drive, what are your options? A transportation navigator can come help you look at the options and make plans. Or, if you have just returned from the hospital or rehab and you need to secure one or more health care or PT services, a volunteer navigator will help you sort through the options. In no case will a navigator recommend particular services, but s/he can help you know what is available and how to sign-up for your choice. Our Yard and Garden navigators can help you make plans for the care of your yard, perhaps get a one-time volunteer for some immediate needs, and then select from some local providers who are not too expensive if you need on-going yard care or need to shift to a low-maintenance garden.
Tier 3: Links to Paid Services and Reference Lists
While we will not “vet” vendors, we will have lists of providers that we know something about, as well as references offered by other members or persons from our neighborhoods. The paid staff member and the navigators will help a member use our lists to make an informed choice, whether it is to order meals to the home, find a handy-man for repairs, employee PT, OT, or a personal trainer who is available for “moonlighting.”
RVE is now previewing software created for Villages that will allow members to request a service, be it a volunteer driver, a navigator for a specific kind of service, or an annotated list kept by the office. That software will also allow a volunteer to match up quickly with the request.
Here is an example of how all three of these kinds of services might be offered:
Member X comes home from rehab and is not yet walking securely. She calls and asks for help with her two dogs. A member of the Pet Care Volunteer team, probably a navigator, comes to her house to talk details. Together, they find a volunteer dog-walker for up to 3 days, talk about veterinarians nearby and the kinds of services offered by each, and then look at a list of dog-walkers and their prices if that will be needed for longer than three days. To do further research, the member can use our lists to contact others who have used an individual for dog-walking.
Thanks for subscribing to our website and blog posts! Please stay tuned, services are not all you get with RVE. We'll talk about the social and educational dimensions of a village in future posts.
Learn More about RVE at our upcoming meeting: Raleigh Village East Information Session
March 15, 2020 3:00pm at Burning Coal Theatre
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