A Year of Service: Senior Services Plus Foster Grandparents Tutor, Mentor More Than 400 Students

Feb 14, 2020 3:47 PM

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ALTON - In 2019, Senior Services Plus Foster Grandparents tutored and mentored over 400 hundred children throughout Madison, Jersey, Macoupin, and Clinton counties. Grandparents spent more than 51,000 hours helping children and youth build skills such as language, literacy, mathematics, and social and emotional development. 2,500 volunteer hours were dedicated to in-service training sessions where Grandparents learned new ways to nurture children, as well as many local Senior resources available to them for a better quality of life.

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Currently, there are 83 Grandparents serving in the program. Station Supervisors share moments where four of them delivered exceptional volunteer services:

“Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain loving one another.” – Erma Bombeck

Ms. Barbara Crowder, known to us as “Granny”, has been such a blessing to the children and staff at the Madison Student Support Center. Her willingness to give her time and talent in helping the students has been inspirational. Her unselfishness and caring attitude have proven to be a positive attribute, one she often passes on to the students she serves.

The compassion she shows to the students is encouraging for us all. She treats everyone with respect and kindness, no matter what the situation is. At MSSC, we know how stressful it can be for the students who find themselves in need of the services we provide. Ms. Crowder, Granny, provides words and actions in helping our students keep their dignity. Her approach and tenderness is such that the students have a comfort level while conducting meaningful conversations or working on a given assignment. She is truly appreciated by those she serves.

Madison Student Support Center is lucky to have Ms. Crowder as their Granny!

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Alton High School commends Lonetta Edwards, known at school as Ms. Jodie, for her exceptional volunteer service. Two female students, who were childhood friends, had not spoken to one another for a year. Staff and administration tried several times to resolve the issue, but there was no success. It wasn’t until Ms. Jodie mediated the young ladies that they became friends again. Ms. Jodie saved a friendship.

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Lubertha Boyd is an exceptional volunteer. Riverbend Head Start Essic Robinson partners with LUME Institute/St. Louis. Trainer Roxeanna completed a classroom observation, and during the feedback session she expressed how impressed she was with the emotional connections Lubertha has made with the children in the classroom.

The LUME approach is all about making connections with children and becoming emotional partners with them. We applaud Grandma Lubertha for her exceptional services at Riverbend Head Start.

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Our Foster Grandmother, Cathy Jones, is beginning her third school year with us in the on-site day care at the Scott Bibb Center, a branch of Lewis and Clark Community College. Cathy has gone above and beyond her regular duties. She has taken extra special care of a 2-year-old girl in the center.

Cathy has noticed when this little one needs to use up some extra energy and will take her for a walk around the building, or even outside if the weather is good. She also became aware that the center needed a change of books and asked for some holiday books to read. She even knows which favorite books this little girl enjoys the most!

We can always count on Cathy to fulfill the roll of “Grandma” with all the children that attend our center.

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In order to provide optimal community support, The Foster Grandparent Program:

Is required to have at least 75 percent of their volunteers in education focused work sites with clearly defined performance measures and coordinating outcomes and outputs.
Pays an hourly stipend to those who live at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.
Requires that all volunteers must submit to and pass an Illinois State, NSOPW, and FBI Fingerprint background check.
Can commit to a minimum of 15 volunteer service hours per week.

There are no educational requirements for volunteers, but they must have a desire to work with children in a mentor-tutor relationship. All volunteers are placed in appropriate mentor-tutor positions based on skill level, location, and age preference. To apply to be a Foster Grandparent, call Rose Glassbrenner at (618) 463-0067 or complete an application at Senior Services Plus, 2603 N. Rodgers in Alton.