After caring for her ailing mom for 10 years while working full time and raising kids, Bonnie Osborne realized how much she could have used a helping hand.
So when Osborne retired from an administrative job at the University of Illinois in August 2010, she was excited to learn about a program searching for older volunteers to help people with their elderly and infirm relatives.
“I thought, ‘What can I do to make myself useful?’ and this came along and just seemed to fit the bill for me,” said Osborne, 65, who lives in Palos Heights and has cared for 18 foster kids over the years.
Under the Legacy Corps respite program, volunteers who are mostly over 50 years old receive 20 hours of training and then spend up to 12 hours a week helping out caregivers. They receive a monthly $150 stipend and at the end of a year are eligible for $1,250 in education tuition. The program offers its services in a number of states, including Illinois.
Legacy Corps, a branch of AmeriCorps, is administered by the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health and funded through the Corporation for National and Community Service. The program, which started in 2001, grew from 360 to 588 volunteers in the last year.
Osborne volunteers for Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, which has offered the program almost since its inception. LSSI serves Park Ridge, Des Plaines, Niles, Skokie, Morton Grove, Glenview, Northbrook, Mount Prospect and some south suburbs, as well as Chicago.
AgeOptions, the suburban Cook County agency on aging, began offering the program earlier this year in the south suburbs.
“We feel that the baby boomers are a largely untapped resource,” said Linda Siegel, a field manager for Legacy Corps. “They’re happier with themselves, they’re busier, they’re engaged, and they change the lives of caregivers.”
Osborne helps several families, including a man in Hometown whose wife has a form of muscular dystrophy. Osborne and a close friend who trained with her, Janice Benson, alternate days with the man’s wife, taking her for walks, grocery trips and doctor’s appointments. Earlier this year, Osborne and Benson started a separate support group where caregivers can share their experiences.
LaQuella Webster, who lives on the South Side of Chicago and cares for a mother with balance trouble, said the extra help from an older, responsible and experienced caregiver is a relief.
“She (the volunteer) can talk about things my mom is familiar with since she’s a little bit closer to her age,” Webster said.
Constance Reed, 62, the respite volunteer who helps Webster and her mom, joined the AgeOptions branch of the program earlier this year after caring for her own parents for years before they died. Reed attends Valley Kingdom Ministries International in South Holland, one of a network of churches and social services agencies that works with AgeOptions.
“I like the idea of helping, plus it’s a really hard place to be in when you’re older and you have a parent who has lived to be older,” Reed said.
Sarah Stein, caregiver coordinator at AgeOptions, said volunteers like Reed bring a wealth of experience.
“They really get it,” Stein said. “They’re very caring, dedicated and knowledgeable people.”
