Door shuts on RSVP volunteers
About 300 people gathered Sept. 31, 2017 at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn for the 20th Annual Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon to recognize service by RSVP volunteers from throughout Idaho's five northern counties. The program will end March 31 when grant funding ends. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press file)
COEUR d’ALENE — A longstanding, popular placement service for senior volunteers throughout North Idaho will soon come to an end.
The grant funding for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program will expire March 31, and with it, RSVP will sunset.
For more than 20 years, RSVP, coordinated by the Area Agency on Aging of North Idaho, has placed seniors 55 and older in volunteer positions throughout the region. In recent years, it has supported more than 700 senior volunteers serving nonprofits, schools, police departments and more.
“This is a great program, but it hasn’t received additional funding in quite some time,” said Chris Martin, vice president of finance and business affairs at North Idaho College. “We are choosing not to apply for the next round for the RSVP grant.”
NIC is the sponsoring agency for the Area Agency on Aging of North Idaho, and the college is contracted by the Idaho Commission on Aging to deliver core services for the region’s elderly. These in-home and community services include protection for abused and neglected vulnerable adults, case management and care coordination, nutrition and a long-term care ombudsman.
“We want to focus on the core services under that contract,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, (RSVP) is not part of our core.”
The federal grant that supports RSVP no longer covers the cost of the program.
RSVP in North Idaho received $67,000 last year, and the cost of program salaries alone is $66,000.
The total price of running RSVP in North Idaho last year was $88,350. NIC had to pony up $22,350 to subsidize the grant and keep the program going.
“The RSVP is great, but it was an extra,” Martin said. “This has been a phenomenal program. It’s amazing, what happens.”
But it just stopped making fiscal sense, he said.
All the other Area Agencies on Aging in the state are also dropping RSVP for the same reasons, Martin said, with no pushback from the Idaho Commission on Aging.
Dan English, director of the Area Agency on Aging, said the loss of the program is disappointing, but seniors serving others will go on with volunteering.
“It wasn’t the beginning, and it won’t be the end of volunteering here,” English said.
English said they sent notices to the volunteers advising them of the situation, and he and RSVP director Bob Small are encouraging program participants to continue their service.
English said it would be nice if another agency or organization would step in to take over RSVP in North Idaho.
“We would be more than happy to share our experience with them,” English said.