Care Calls Program

 ** Volunteers needed both English & Spanish speaking **

Care Calls - MOWAM matches homebound clients with a volunteer “phone friend”, and call either once a day for a friendly check-in or twice a week for a longer chat.  Just Say “Hello”. It’s the simple things that matter the most.

The purpose of the Care Calls program is to enhance the psychological well-being and safety of older individuals by providing reassuring phone calls from volunteers.  A long-term goal of the program is to decrease feelings of loneliness and reduce health problems related to loneliness including heart disease and depression.

 

Want to volunteer?

Care Calls matches a client in need of a friendly call or a wellness check with a volunteer.

Volunteers must:

  • Be at least 18 years old
  • Pass a Criminal Background Check                 
  • Be availabe to touch base with the client via phone 2 times a week or more
  • Long-term commitments preferred

 

Care Calls provides the following two types of reassurance calls, depending on the need of the client:

  • Daily Callers: Volunteers who call medically frail clients daily, Monday through Friday, for brief conversations (2-5 minutes) to check on their welfare and provide a telephone safety net; or
  • Phone Friends: Volunteers who call clients 2-3 times per week and who socially engage the clients in a friendly and supportive manner.

 

An effort is made to match phone friends with common interests.  The Care Calls coordinator offers helpful suggestions on how to engage with those few clients who are, at first, uneasy about coming out of their shell.

 

  Quotes from clients:

  • “My Care Calls volunteer is my best friend, we spend every holiday together.”
  • “My Care Calls volunteer is my link to the outside world.”
  • “I live alone. If something happened to me no one would know. My volunteer checks in on me daily.”
  • “My Care Calls volunteer is always so positive, she’s just like talking to a sister and she brings me flowers.”

 

If you are interested in volunteering for this program please contact our Care Calls Coordinator. 

 

*NOTE: Before becoming a volunteer, we ask that you speak with a volunteer coordinator, fill out an application, provide copies of both your driver’s license and car insurance, and allow us to run a criminal background check. You must also attend a short orientation session.

 

Junior League                                     

Care Calls is a project of the Junior League of Austin.                                                      

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