Senior volunteer program set to end

A nearly 40-year-old program that connects seniors with volunteer opportunities is ending this year due to a lack of funding.

Flathead County Commissioners voted last week to end the county’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program by late March after the program has struggled under growing administrative requirements and shrinking funding.

“We’ve got a big challenge right now, one that I don’t believe we can overcome,” Lisa Sheppard, the director for the Flathead Agency on Aging, told the county commissioners.

More than 340 seniors are part of the program, according to the agency. In the last five months, they’ve contributed 10,271 hours of volunteer time in 33 nonprofits around the Flathead County. Last fiscal year, the seniors gave 35,262 hours to the county.

The local branch of a national program is running off of a three-year grant from the Corporation for National and Community Services. In its second year, commissioners voted not to renew the grant for a third year when it expires March 31.

“In running the numbers, even if we get the grant, which we would for this third year, we’re going to be out of money at the end of June,” Sheppard said. “It’s just not sustainable, and that’s not a reflection on our amazing volunteers or staff — that’s what makes this so sad.”

Dropping the program means one full-time staff position and another half-time position will be cut from the agency, Sheppard said. She said volunteers already placed by the program should be able to continue serving wherever they’ve been located.

Commissioner Pam Holmquist said while the program has the potential to survive another year, it was taking a chance.

“If we feel there’s a problem coming, we probably should do something one way or the other — if we’re either going to continue it or not continue it,” she said.

She said if the program had to end part-way through a grant period, it could cause a paperwork mess.

The federally funded program requires a 30 percent match to the more than $50,000 grant from the host agency.

Sheppard estimated the agency was matching that funding by nearly 47 percent. She said the county was providing nearly $19,000 a year toward the program, with another $7,000 coming out of reserves. She said the agency valued the space used by the program at $9,000 a year.

She said the program was also hit with a $1,500 fine this year because the federal agency determined the consumer reporting agency the senior volunteers’ background checks went through wasn’t adequate.

“On top of that, we’ve been depending on about $12,000 a year or so from United Way and we have not received that funding,” she said.

She said United Way was unable to say how much money would be coming in this year, or next year.

“The possibility of not having that funding was a catalyst for ending the program early,” Sheppard said in an interview on Thursday. “But we already knew we were going to be in a dire financial situation this time next year, even with the United Way funding.”

Sherry Stevens, executive director of United Way serving northwest Montana, said contributions toward community organizations vary each year and are based on how much is raised during the annual campaign.

“The United Way Campaign has not concluded yet for this year,” she said. “Once we know what our final total is, then we will be contacting RSVP letting them know what their allocation amount would be for 2017.”

Stevens said the organization has given the senior program $341,757 over years of support.

Sheppard said for the nearly four decades the volunteer program has been in the valley, it has acted as a clearinghouse, connecting seniors who want to volunteer with an organization that matches their skills and interests. She said each day, the program’s staff spent hours getting to know each senior who wanted to volunteer in order to find the right fit.

When the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program ends March 31, Sheppard said seniors can still get information on places to volunteer, but the Agency on Aging will no longer be able to take that time to connect seniors to a nonprofit.

Stevens said she’s in initial conversations with the senior volunteer program to see if United Way Volunteer Center can take on the matching component of connecting volunteers of all ages to volunteer possibilities.

Sheppard said she believes the seniors already volunteering won’t stop when the program ends.

“I can’t say enough about the value of volunteers,” she said. “So much of our county depends on volunteers. For the AOA alone, we couldn’t offer all we do, like Meals on Wheels, without volunteers. They’re just amazing people.”

Sheppard said volunteers in the program will receive a letter sometime next week with details of the decision, letting them know they can still volunteer and thanking them for their work.

Nonprofits connected to the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program can expect a call from the agency sometime in the next week, she said. For more information, call the Retired Senior Volunteer Program at 406-758-5712.

Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.