I was the first Executive Director of Faith in Action Caregivers. The program started when the bishops of four denominations in West Virginia (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and United Methodist) came together after learning about the efforts of Robert Wood Johnson’s Foundation (RWJF) Faith in Action program.
A program had already started in Shepherdstown, WV (Good Shepherd Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers). The Rev. Stan Jones, an Episcopal priest in Shepherdstown, brought the information to his bishop, and the concept grew from there. The bishops issued a letter to their congregations and said that because West Virginia had an aging population who were often isolated from services needed to remain independent, the congregations needed to step in and create interfaith volunteer caregiver programs to provide for this population segment. The bishops even offered to match the RWJF grant in their selected four communities.
Ohio and Marshall Counties, where Wheeling is located, were among those. Approximately two years later, we began serving Belmont County in Ohio.
Pastors in the Wheeling community came together and were quite excited about starting a program. Elizabeth Liska, the mentor for the Mid-Atlantic Region and founder of a program in Manassas, Virginia, met with the group and convinced them to attend an applicant workshop in Dayton, OH.
They gathered early one morning and drove the 5 hours to Dayton in a church van. On the way home, they formed Faith in Action Caregivers with a Board of Directors. They presented a successful application for the RWJF grant and were matched by the bishops. They took care of all the initial paperwork, such as incorporating the organization and applying for nonprofit status with the IRS.
All of this was completed by the end of 1994, and their first order of business for the new year was to hire an executive director. They advertised for the position, and I was blessed to have been chosen as the Executive Director. I started in March 1995.
On the first day of the job, I was shown a temporary office that did not have a stick of furniture or even a telephone! That’s how new the organization was. I remember telling the Board I would only do a little for the first six months.
They were somewhat surprised, and some thought they had made a mistake hiring me. Then I explained that I could only begin recruiting volunteers once I put a program together. There was much work to be done with developing volunteer guidelines, creating a volunteer training program, working on a strategic plan with measurable goals, creating forms and brochures, and starting the outreach to congregations.
Six months later, we moved to a new office and slowly built a program that went from serving zero care receivers to over 1,900 per year. When I retired in 2016, the organization provided more than 15,000 hours of volunteer service each year by giving care through transportation, picking up groceries, errands, and many more activities.
This organization was more of a ministry, and I felt called to it and always felt this is where I was supposed to be. I received a master’s degree in American Frontier History and taught 7th-grade history for five years. When I married, I left teaching because my husband and I worked in the same school. I took a job with the county mental health system conducting drug and alcohol prevention programs in the schools. From there, I worked for Girl Scouts of Black Diamond, recruiting and training volunteers and setting up Girl Scout troops in a five-county area. I gained skills and knowledge from all these positions that led me to Faith in Action Caregivers.
Our volunteers were a special group and primarily came from a call to faith from the various congregations in the tri-county area. We do not have a religiously diverse community. Congregations are predominantly Christian, with a heavy concentration of Catholics. Our diversity came with the one Jewish Temple in Wheeling; they engaged in the ministry from the beginning. Volunteers came from all faith traditions to serve as volunteer caregivers. This truly enhanced the program.
When I accepted the position of Executive Director, I had no idea that this would grow to become more than a job. It became a vocation. It has allowed me to grow and develop my skills. It has deepened my faith. I have learned first-hand the blessings that come to caregivers. It gave me a better understanding of faith traditions different from mine. This understanding of others was critical to the survival of the program.
I was also surprised by the tremendous success of the program. This was the first time anyone had ever heard of the concept before we introduced interfaith volunteer caregiving. Early on, doubt plagued us about whether the organization and the idea of volunteer caregiving would succeed. But when people from our congregations started to volunteer, the rest is history.
The other surprising thing I found tremendously helpful is that the agencies serving older adults came together in the tri-county area to support each other’s efforts. In building our coalition, we convened a group of agencies that served older adults and met with them monthly. This coalition meeting broke down barriers and gave the agencies a forum to work together to benefit their clients.
This coalition included governmental agencies, private for-profit businesses, and nonprofits like ours. We collaborated by sharing information and forming ways to best serve our clientele. We made back-and-forth referrals and organized joint events, such as health fairs and collecting presents for older adults in nursing homes at Christmas. It was an exciting process to see happen.
Funding has always been a challenge. We struggled for a long time to find our signature fundraiser, which turned out to be a triathlon. In 2016 (the year I retired), we raised approximately $40,000, primarily through sponsorships. Getting people to volunteer also helped with recruiting efforts for the rest of what we did.
We knew from the beginning that sustainability would be determined by our ability to raise funds and support the organization’s work.
We based our funding on individual donors, congregations, special events, and grants. Individual donors became our largest segment of funding. The congregations gave what they could. We never asked for a specific amount. We developed various fundraising projects such as a semi-annual hoagie sale, gift card sales, and the triathlon. The grants for which we applied were from local foundations that often only required a letter of request.
The Board of Directors changed over the years, but each group believed in my ability to lead. They gave me every opportunity to learn about fundraising and running a nonprofit organization. I went to every workshop I could. In 1997 I was asked to mentor the other West Virginia programs by the Faith in Action national office. As a mentor, I planned and organized quarterly meetings with the other directors and collaborated with communities interested in starting a Faith in Action program. Eventually, I worked with programs in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and other states.
The need for the type of services Faith in Action Caregivers provides continues to increase yearly as the area’s population ages. Since the area’s economic background was coal mining and steel mills, it’s an economically depressed area. Aging people remain here, but their children and grandchildren have moved out of the area to find employment. The population is now nearly 25 percent of people over 60.
They seldom have support from family members because they live in other communities. Faith-based volunteers became an answer for us because older adults trusted the volunteers and the organization. As people continue to age in this area, it gets harder to recruit volunteers. Recently retired individuals have become a good source of volunteers looking for a way to give back to their community.
Faith in Action Caregivers taught me that people of all ages have gifts to give. Some people have the gift of conversation, some the gift of cleaning, some love to drive, and some like to do office work. Everybody has a gift to give, which has touched me most about the program.
One of our volunteers was an older man who had done a lot of jobs in his life. Mostly he worked selling insurance and selling used cars. His gift was that he loved to drive. He was upset if we had a trip to Morgantown, WV, to the university hospital and didn’t ask him first. Those who rode with him always asked if he was available because he treated them nicely. He opened car doors for them and treated them to lunch or snacks along the way.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, a retired woman recently lost her husband. Her pastor suggested that she volunteer with Caregivers. She didn’t seem to enjoy driving people to medical appointments, so she asked if we could use help in the office. She had worked in an office all of her working life. Even though she was in her late 70s, she volunteered in the office three days a week for the entire day. It gave meaning and purpose to her life again, just as driving long distances gave a purpose to the life of our other volunteer. These volunteers reminded me that regardless of one’s state in life, there is a way to give back to others.
In my life, there have been many jobs and many individuals who helped me become the person I am today. All of them are close to my heart, but some have a very special place in my heart because they are no longer with me in this life to share the blessings I have received. Those I met through Faith in Action Caregivers collaborated with me to conduct the organization’s affairs with honesty and transparency. They helped make decisions based on the values of the organization. In times of difficulty, we relied on our faith to get us through. They have given me hope and courage to face what seemed like an uncertain path at the time.
They supported and encouraged me. They offered guidance and help. They lifted me up and let me shine. They taught me humility, compassion, generosity, kindness, faith, and acceptance. Serving as the Executive Director was the most significant job I ever had.
For those thinking about a career in the nonprofit world, I strongly encourage them to investigate the blessing of serving in a faith-based program. I talked about different gifts earlier. Only some people are cut out to be an Executive Director. Some have the fantastic gift of matching just the right volunteer with a care receiver. Some have the gift of recruiting and training volunteers. Some have the gift of soliciting donors or planning fundraising events. All are needed in this work. All are needed to answer the call to serve, making a difference in the lives of older adults.
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