County’s Senior Service Agencies Seeking Volunteers

Ventura County’s senior service agencies are looking for a few good people. Actually, they are looking for a lot of good people.

That need was highlighted Wednesday at the Ventura County Government Center, when 24 area nonprofit agencies gathered to explain their programs for seniors and put out the call for more volunteers.

“We have two part-time people fielding between 600 to 800 calls a month,” said James W. Wortman, executive director of the Ventura County office of the Alzheimer’s Assn. “The situation is desperate. We need help. We need volunteers.”

The gathering was organized by VOCAL, a countywide information, recruitment and referral center that helps match volunteers with seniors organizations that need their help.

The session kicked off a monthlong outreach effort to recruit volunteers. VOCAL is run by the Ventura County Personnel Department with a grant from the county’s Area Agency on Aging.

County statistics show that nearly 13% of the population of Ventura County is 60 or older. Of these, about a quarter of the seniors report problems with getting around or taking care of themselves. Twenty percent of the county’s senior population lives alone.

Agencies that work with those over 60 agree that the lack of volunteers needed to combat the increasing workload is their biggest challenge. This was one of the reasons VOCAL was organized, said Kittie Templeton, 84, one of the founding members of VOCAL in 1994.

VOCAL is compiling an information bank that would let agencies needing volunteers, or individuals wishing to volunteer, call one number and be connected with the most appropriate match.

“There are people out there who say they’d love to volunteer if only they knew where they were needed, or only if they were asked,” said Betty Krause, volunteer administrator for the county’s personnel department. And volunteer outreach and recruitment are often one of the last tasks at an overworked agency. VOCAL, Krause said, aims to remedy that by bringing both parties together.

For information, call VOCAL at 654-3361.