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RSVP Retired & Senior Volunteer Program
800 Forrest Avenue
Room #221
Gadsden, AL 35901
Phone: (256) 549-8147

RSVP is a national program, sponsored locally by the Etowah County Commission.  We have approximately 350 active volunteers who provide all kinds of community services for the citizens of Etowah and Cherokee Counties. Opportunities range from working with young children to working with other seniors, homeland security issues to free taxpayer assistance, working in thrift stores and food pantries to clerical and office help.

Volunteer opportunities also exist for those who prefer not to leave their homes: making telephone calls to the homebound; providing reminders by phone; or knitting or crocheting items for babies or hospice patients. Whatever your interests and skills are, we have a job for you where you will be needed, appreciated, and – most importantly – making a difference!
RSVP is a non-profit agency and is federally funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the state of Alabama, and at the local level by the Etowah County Commission.

MISSION STATEMENT: RSVP involves senior citizens age 55 and over in volunteer services within their own communities that match their personal interests, talents, and skills gained from a lifetime of experiences. This improves their quality of life while helping the community and those they serve.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of becoming a volunteer with RSVP, contact Traci Pondick.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AT RSVP WORKSTATIONS

Etowah County

  • AARP Chapter #3337

These volunteers have monthly meetings and perform different community service projects at regular intervals.

  • Alabama Cooperative Extension Service

Volunteers with this organization work with young people judging 4-H projects, and assisting with community service projects and educational programs.

  • Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Northeast Alabama

Besides mentoring a child, Big Brothers Big Sisters also need volunteers to design and update a website, helping with events by delivering supplies, setting up and taking down event material, and coordinating and supervising field trips for the children.

  • Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Alabama

The local Boys & Girls Club is an after-school home to sometimes over 100 children. Volunteers are needed to answer the phone, help with crafts, or just keep an eye on everyone!

  • Central-Carver Foundation

The Central-Carver Foundation runs a museum in the Carver Community Center that is committed to preserving the history of Central and Carver schools, and the people who attended these schools. Volunteers act as docents at the museum.

  • City of Gadsden

Volunteers may be needed in the Parks & Recreation Dept., helping with exercise classes or at one of the community centers in Gadsden, such as Carver, Elliott or Senior Activity Center, setting up and taking down materials for events.

  • Council on Aging

Volunteers with the Council on Aging may be trained and certified to offer counseling & guidance about the financial opportunities and pitfalls faced by senior citizens, the State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) and Medicare Supplements.

  • El Señor Club

The El Señor Club is a social club that meets weekly at the Senior Activity Center. Volunteers are          members of the club and you may be asked to prepare a meal, assist with clerical work or entertainment, and aid in community service projects.

  • Etowah Baptist Mission Center, Catholic Center of Concern & Salvation Army

Each of these organizations operates a thrift store, offer free meals to the indigent and financial assistance to help pay rent, utilities or for medicine. They need volunteers to take in and sort merchandise and donated items to be made available to their clients, interview new clients, or help prepare a meal.

  • Etowah County Circuit Clerk’s Office

Volunteers are needed in this office to help with filing, shredding, answering phones and checking the mail.

  • Etowah County Council of Community Services, Historical Society & Tele-Chek

Volunteer callers are needed for these workstations. For the Etowah County Council of Community Services & Historical Society, callers remind members of the monthly meetings, and for Tele-Chek, callers make a call to elderly, homebound clients just to make sure they are all right and maybe to remind them to take daily medications. This is a volunteer opportunity that can be done from home.

  • Etowah County Courthouse Information Desk

We need volunteers in the morning or afternoon hours to sit at the information desk in the lobby of the Etowah County Courthouse and give assistance to visitors who need directions to a particular department.

  • Etowah County Pregnancy Testing Center

The Pregnancy Testing Center will train volunteers to perform pregnancy testing, counsel young ladies who are pregnant, and refer clients to agencies for prenatal care, housing, or adoption services.

  • Etowah Historical Society

Volunteers are needed at the Historical Society to act as guides, showing and explaining displays and their historical significance; and also to help with electronically scanning and organizing documents to help preserve these pieces of history.

  • First Call for Help & United Way (they are in the same building)

Volunteers are needed at these workstations for clerical duties, answering phones, data entry, mail outs and helping with events.

  • Gadsden Public Library

The Library needs volunteers to reshelf books, work in the bookstore, helping with children’s or adult’s programs, or scanning old pictures and documents into the computer.

  • Gadsden Quilters Guild

Members of the Quilters Guild learn how to quilt, or teach the art of quilting. Some quilts are made to be donated and the Guild also has quilting shows.

  • Gadsden Regional Medical Center & Riverview Regional Medical Center

Volunteers at these two hospitals man the information desks in the lobby and on different floors to assist visitors seeking information by phone or in person; they may deliver mail, magazines or newspapers to patients or clients in the waiting room.

  • Greater Gadsden Area Tourism

Looking for help at the Downtown Civic Center, with mail-out and possibly help with First Fridays.

  • Habitat for Humanity

Volunteers assist in public relations, announcements, mail outs, lunches for construction volunteers, application screening, or in the actual construction of a home.

  • Head Start

Head Start needs volunteers to monitor on site visitors, providing them with name tags and retrieving name tags when visitors leave, being sure visitors sign in and out. Volunteers may also be asked to do some simple sewing repairs if possible or tutor or mentor a child.

  • Humane Society Pet Rescue and Adoption Center

As a non-profit agency with limited funds for staff – volunteers here are a necessity in helping with receptionist and clerical duties, fundraising efforts and special events.

  • Manna

Volunteers at this workstation deliver prepared meals to the elderly & homebound.

  • Reading Buddies

Volunteers are needed in local elementary schools to listen to a student read and gently instruct them – thus encouraging better reading skills and comprehension.

  • RSVP Community Service

This is a catch-all category for any type of volunteer work not done through an organization. You may tutor children, sit with an elderly person, go shopping and pay bills for someone who is homebound, bake a cake for a sick person, do minor home repairs or cleaning for a neighbor in need it’s all VOLUNTEERING!

  • Senior Nutrition Centers

Volunteers at Senior Nutrition Centers help with meals, setting the tables, delivering meals to the homebound, cleaning up after a meal, programs and presentations. This is a wonderful opportunity to socialize and get to know people.

  • Tax Counseling Program

If you’re good with numbers or computers or both, this is for you! TCE offers free tax preparation services to low income or elderly taxpayers at six sites across Etowah and Cherokee Counties.

  • United Way

United Way uses volunteers for special events and mail outs.

CHEROKEE COUNTY

  • Cherokee County Health & Rehab

Volunteers at the nursing home assist with activities, such as bingo or entertainment. They also help in the beauty shop or with fund raisers.

  • Extended Family

Extended Family is a support group for people who have a loved one incarcerated. Volunteers are needed to help with a children’s program at schools, help with fund raising, knitting or crocheting ‘comfort covers’ for children who have to travel to visit a family member and clerical duties in the office.

  • H.D. Buttram Senior Nutrition Center

Volunteers help with lunch every day, deliver meals to homebound meals to homebound people, and also help prepare a program or entertain.

 

 

 

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