Trillium Family Services 4455 NE Highway 20 Corvallis, OR 97330 (541) 758-5951 (phone) (800) 695-7505 (toll-free) (541) 758-5949 (fax) Patrick Robertson, Director e-mail: probertson@trilliumfamily.org

Thank you for visiting us. If you are visiting from outside the Willamette Valley, you should know that much of the information here applies to all Foster Grandparent Program projects nationwide. If you visit the Foster Grandparent Program page at the Senior Corps Web site, you can use the form at the bottom of the page to discover locations of Foster Grandparents programs in your state, and look for the project office closest to you.

MISSION STATEMENT

The purpose of the Foster Grandparent Program is to provide opportunity for low-income persons, aged 60 or over, to provide supportive person-to-person services in health, education, welfare, or related settings, to help alleviate the physical, mental or emotional problems of children having special needs.

WHO ARE FOSTER GRANDPARENTS AND WHAT DO THEY DO?

Foster Grandparents are individuals over 60 living on limited incomes who make a commitment to volunteer at least 15 hours a week serving children in the Mid-Willamette Valley. Foster Grandparents serve children with a variety of special needs in public schools, day-care programs, correctional facilities and Teen Parent Programs. Foster Grandparents are helping children grow physically, socially, emotionally, and mentally in the Woodburn, Silverton, Dallas, Independence, Turner, Jefferson and Salem areas. Grandparents are also placed in group homes with developmentally disabled individuals who formerly resided at Fairview Training Center.  Currently about 75 senior volunteers are serving in more than fifty Volunteer Stations in the Mid-Willamette Valley.

HISTORY

The Trillium Family Foster Grandparent Program was established thirty-four years ago under the sponsorship of the State Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services Division.  Nationally, the Foster Grandparent Program was originally developed in 1965 with 21 projects as a cooperative effort between the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW).  The 1969 amendments to the Older Americans Act gave full administrative and funding authority to the Agency on Aging.   In July 1971, 67 FGP projects, with 4,000 volunteers, were transferred from the Agency on Aging to ACTION, where it was part of the Older American Volunteer Program.   In 1993, the Corporation for National and Volunteer Service Act created the Corporation for National Service (CNS), redesignated the Older American Volunteer Program as the National Senior Service Corps (NSSC), and transferred administrative and funding authority for NSSC, including FGP, to CNS, which has since been renamed the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).   By 1996 there were 300 projects in all 50 states with about 24,000 volunteers. In 2000, with the closing of Fairview Training Center, sponsorship of the Foster Grandparent Program of the Mid-Willamette Valley was tranferred from MHDDSD to the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), first as part of the Community Partnership Team, then operating out of the Director's Office, and most recently as part of Seniors and Persons with Disabilities (SPD) and housed at the North Salem Community Human Services Office. In 2005, in one of his last acts before leaving the office of Director of DHS, Gary Weeks relinquished sponsorship of the project as of September 30. Though his successor, Interim Director Bryan Johnston, chose to authorize DHS's recompeting to continue sponsorship of the project, the CNCS grant review committee chose to award the grant which funds the project to Trillium Family Services in Corvallis.

BENEFITS AND FUNDING

All Foster Grandparents are volunteers, though the majority of them are low income and therefore qualify to receive the non-taxable stipend and mileage reimbursement provided for in the program's guidelines.  The stipend is not a wage; it is offered rather as reimbursement of the estimated costs of being a volunteer.  It provides support so that persons who would volunteer, except that their budget does not allow for the personal expenses associated with volunteering, do not have to be concerned about those expenses in making their volunteering decision.  Persons who do not meet income requirements can still be Foster Grandparent volunteers, but would not receive the stipend. All volunteers receive the intangible benefit of contributing to their community, a proven personal depression beater.

The cash value of the benefits to the Volunteer Station from having another trained adult who offers one-on-one support for special needs children (or, in certain cases, developmentally disabled adults) has been estimated at $6000 per volunteer year.  The Volunteer Station receives this return from an investment of about $400/year in participatory contributions, meals, and amounts spent on volunteer recognition.

The Foster Grandparent Program receives approximately 80% of its funding from the Federal Agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service.  (The Foster Grandparent Program is a part of CNCS through the National Senior Service Corps, as are the Senior Companion Program and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program.)  The balance of the funding for Foster Grandparents comes from our sponsor and from other local contributions.

Contact Information

e-mail: probertson@trilliumfamily.org

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This page last updated on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 This page may be found at http://geocities.datacellar.net/fgpmwv