Are you an adult 55+ interested in volunteering to help local students? Sign up for the REAL Services Foster Grandparent program!
By: REAL Services + Home Comfort Experts
While REAL Services is primarily known for helping seniors around Michiana, one of the nonprofit’s programs also benefits children in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties.
The foster grandparent program at REAL Services is a volunteer program for seniors 55 and older to be paired up with children in the community. Volunteers provide support in a one-on-one atmosphere for special needs children as well as help with child literacy, provide one-on-one tutoring, mentor troubled teens, and help abused and neglected children.
The foster grandparent program was created by Americorps in August 1962 as a grant program to engage Americans aged 55 and older in volunteer service. REAL Services started participating in the program in St. Joe County in 1972 and in Elkhart County in 1991.
“We always say the foster grandparent program is a win-win-win,” says Mary Bradfield, the rental assistance program manager at REAL Services. “It offers opportunities for those 55 and older to tutor and become a mentor to children who are in need of extra help and support in the classroom. It helps enrich the lives of our seniors and gets them out in the community.”
Bradfield has been managing the foster grandparent program at REAL Services in addition to her other duties.
During the school year, foster grandparents are paired with three students and help out with additional duties in the classroom. REAL Services works with volunteers to place them in a location and with children in the age range they prefer to work with — from daycare to middle school.
“The grandparents provide extra help and extra support to kids who need it. It’s not necessarily always educational support, it can be emotional also,” Bradfield says. “They help them develop social and motor skills and work on their self-esteem and just be that extra friendly face in the classroom that sometimes kids need.”
Volunteers receive an hourly stipend (which doesn’t affect their income benefits), a transportation reimbursement, and are provided lunch each day. REAL Services also provides an in-service once a month where volunteers can also learn skills to help them in the classroom, or to learn about other programs REAL Services offers.
Bradfield says that school closures during the pandemic and health concerns from COVID-19 have reduced the number of volunteers in the foster grandparent program in recent years. The program normally has around 50 volunteers, but is currently sitting around 30.
Since volunteers work with children in the schools, becoming a volunteer in the foster grandparent program requires filling out an application, an interview, submitting to a background check, and going through a fingerprinting process. Once approved, volunteers go through an orientation process and receive one-on-one training with another foster grandparent in the school.
