Volunteers: Making a difference in Brantford

 

By Vincent Ball, Brantford Expositor

February 22, 2012

It's a personal touch that has made a world of difference.

 

For the first time in her life, Jo has a friend.

“I come every Saturday and we read, we watch movies and we go for walks when the weather is nice,”  Kelsey MacEachern said. “We listen to music and we just talk.

“She doesn't talk like you and I can. We just open our mouths and we have a conversation. But I know when she's stressed and I know when she smiles, you can tell that she's really happy.”

When Jo is stressed she will rub one hand up and down her arm. When she likes something, MacEachern can tell.

 

“We read Harry Potter together and she just loved Hagrid.”

They have read all of the Harry Potter books and are now reading The Twilight Series.

MacEachern is a senior student at North Park Collegiate and Jo, whose last name can't be used because it would identify her family, has been in the care of Brantwood Centre since she was a child. She lives in a group home operated by Brantwood, an agency that cares for people with physical and developmental challenges.

 

They were brought together by Debbie Thornberry, who recruits volunteers for Brantwood and works to build community connections for the centre.

“The staff people who work with Jo came to me and asked that Jo be put on a priority list for having a volunteer friend,” Thornberry said. “They noticed that when it was Christmas time or birthdays and when other residents of the home had visits from friends or family that Jo would become depressed.

“They would try to spend extra time with her because they knew that Jo doesn't have anybody in her life over and above the paid staff.”

MacEachern, meanwhile, had approached Brantwood after hearing about the centre and its need for volunteers.

 

“Kelsey was patient. She took her time with Jo, to get to know her and they have been friends ever since,” Thornberry said. “Some people may be nervous about being with someone who is non-verbal but Kelsey has worked her way through that.”

One time, when MacEachern was reading a story, she took a break to have some water, Thornberry recalled.

“She paused for her drink and was chit-chatting and put her water down, and Jo must have thought Kelsey was taking too long to get back to the reading and reached out and bumped her on the arm as if to say, 'Hey, break time is over,' let's get back to the reading,” Thornberry recalled. “It's a really special friendship.

 

“Jo's life is completely different. Jo has a valued friend that she looks forward to seeing every week and waits for her and gets excited.”

Often Jo will be waiting at the front door with her arms open for her friend or if Jo is in her room and she hears Kelsey coming in, she'll get all excited and start laughing and making noise, she added.

Asked if Brantwood needs more volunteers like MacEachern, Thornberry said the more volunteer friends, the merrier, for the people being cared for by Brantwood.

“The more we have the better but as we have seen with Kelsey, the value of just one volunteer like her is immeasurable,” Thornberry said. “Not even half of the people we serve have one friend.

“We need more people like Kelsey. The people we care for need more people like her.”

Some people may be hesitant because the people under the care of Brantwood have a variety of physical issues and many are non-verbal.

 

Part of it is attitude and part of it also is that it sometimes takes patience to get past the fear of communicating with someone who is non-verbal, Thornberry said.

“But we all need friends. We all need people who are in our lives because they want to be, not because they are paid,” Thornberry said. “We all communicate non-verbally all the time with eye contact, facial expressions, body language and laughter.

“By just being there and being patient you will be quite surprised to realize that communicating with someone like Jo isn't really all that difficult.”

Brantwood, like a lot of other social agencies, relies on volunteers to help with fundraising through its annual golf tournament and wheelchair basketball tournament. But the biggest challenge is finding volunteers who are willing to take the time to become a friend to one of the agency's clients, Thornberry said.

 

Other agencies are facing the same kind of challenges.

Many, like Nova Vita, the Alzheimer Society of Brant and Aberdeen Health and Community Services, have a core of volunteers to help them fundraising and deliver a variety of programs. But most, if not all, need more volunteer visitor or volunteer friends who will spend time with people in need.

At Nova Vita, women and children get as much help as the staff at the shelter for battered woman can give them. But staff can't do everything and the agency, which serves Brantford and Brant County, could use some help, Ashley Bye, whose job description includes volunteer recruitment, said.

 

“The staff here work extremely hard and they're helping women and children at a time in their lives when they are extremely vulnerable,” Bye said. “But a lot of the work we do here is counselling and the staff don't have a lot of time available to do the extras that mean so much to our clients.

“We're always looking for volunteers – people who will lend their time or skills to help women and children who really do need to spend time with people.”

It could be something as simple as visiting for coffee or tea, running a yoga session for some of the women or running an activity for the children who are in the shelter with their moms.

“These women and children have been through an extremely difficult time and they need the services we provide,” Bye said. “But they need more than that.

“They need time to chill, time to enjoy activities that will take their minds off the trauma for a while.”

Nova Vita is also in need of child care volunteers, people who can provide care while their parent or parents receive counselling as well as someone who can cover the reception desk.

Although Nova Vita isn't desperate for volunteers, there is a large need for more people and finding volunteers is always a struggle. The way people volunteer has also changed, she said.

“What I've noticed is that people are reluctant to make a long-term commitment to an agency or organization,” she said.

Aberdeen Health and Community Services is able to provide a lot of programs to people in the community including the elderly because they have a strong group of volunteers. The services include one-to-one exercise session, group exercise sessions, in-home hospice visiting, clerical and reception services.

One of the services delivered by volunteers is a visiting program.

“Volunteers are often the only link an isolated individual may have with the community,” Nicole Dowson of Aberdeen said, in a written submission to The Expositor. “A volunteer is the caring and concerned individual who provides support and advocates for the client's needs that might otherwise be missed due to a lack of formal support.

The volunteer also provides a caregiver with much needed respite so that they can continue to care for their loved one at home.”

Organizations however, struggle to recruit, train and retain volunteers, she said.

“As with so many things in life few do the work of many,” Dowson said. “Fewer people are giving their time to our community organizations and current volunteers are being asked to do more for the organizations.”

Meanwhile, MacEachern, the high school student who visits Jo once a week is heading off to university in the fall. She'll be a student the Health Sciences program at the University of Western Ontario.

But she'll be coming home a lot during the school year to visit her family and to visit her friend Jo.

“I'm coming back,” MacEachern said. “I'm going to be coming home, hopefully every week, at the longest every two weeks and I will be here to see Jo.

“I really care for Jo. It's about being friends and making a difference in someone's life. We're all happy when we have people in our lives and we have friends. It's just so important.”