Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
RSVP nonprofit consultants shift seamlessly to virtual
County agencies don’t have resources to help
The pandemic has created hurdles for many community groups, but for RSVP’s Volunteer Executive Consultants (VEC), it’s full speed ahead.
A high-powered cadre of mostly retired corporate managers, academics and nonprofit executives, VEC provides free services to area nonprofits, many of them small and understaffed. VEC furnishes experts to help its clients create strategic plans, raise funds, attract board members and volunteers and carry out other vital business functions.
“The program has transitioned well,” said VEC Program Manager Sheri Wilensky Burke. “Everything we do now is virtual.”
Workshops and office hours
In some ways the public has benefited from VEC’s conversion to virtual meetings. A set of spring and fall workshops staffed by VEC experts that used to cost $20 for non-clients to attend in person is now free and open to the public via Zoom.
“Last fall our theme was adapting to COVID-19,” Burke said. “The upcoming spring workshop theme is ‘Taking Charge of Your Future,’ with an awareness that COVID isn’t going anywhere quickly.”
Workshop topics include Engaging Volunteers, Wednesday, March 24; Exploring Sustained Collaboration, Tuesday, April 20; and Why and How to Measure Program Effectiveness, Wednesday, May 19.
Each 90-minute session begins at 10 a.m. To register for these workshops visit www.rsvpmc.org/eventsnews.
The volunteer consultants also staff an Expert Office Hours program run by the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Regional Foundation Center, held on the second Wednesday of each month. The March 10 topic is Board Development, with free, 45-minute individual or small group Zoom sessions available at 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. To view upcoming workshops visit www. freelibrary.org/programs/ bric/nonprofit#Events.
“We always receive wonderful feedback about the (VEC) volunteers.” said Caitlin Seifritz, the Center’s nonprofit services supervisor. “Nonprofits are so grateful to be able to talk through their project or goal with an expert. Plus, knowing that they can request ongoing assistance to continue working with a VEC is a big plus.”
The workshops and 45-minute consultations are “a good way of introducing ourselves to prospective clients, as well as to help current clients,” Burke said.
Who are these nonprofit clients and how does VEC help them?
Reading Allowed
Some 55 VEC volunteers are currently assisting 31 VEC nonprofits in planning, fundraising, leadership, marketing and other crucial areas. A typical collaboration lasts six months, with two to four virtual meetings each month. One such project is with Reading Allowed.
Angela Marks, a certified specialist trained to assist readers of all ages overcome learning disabilities such as dyslexia, founded Reading Allowed 18 months ago. It currently matches 27 volunteer tutors with 80 reading-challenged area students from age 4 to adult. All of its volunteers are certified in the Wilson Reading System, an intervention program.
“Teachers, psychologists, special education attorneys all refer kids to us,” Marks said. “We provide tutoring regardless of financial circumstances. The help our students need can be costprohibitive for many families. We charge on a scale based on household income. So far, we’ve been able to work with everyone who has approached us. Donations have enabled us to take on a few more kids.”
Reading Allowed began working with VEC in November.
“We were hoping to apply for grants,” Marks said. “I realized how much work we needed to do. I was spinning my wheels. I’d reached a wall. Then the Regional Foundation Center at the Free Library put me in contact with RSVP. They’re both incredible resources.”
A need for planning
RSVP, based in King of Prussia, matched Reading Allowed with a four-volunteer team led by VEC veteran Ed Green, a retired engineer, corporate information technology manager and for 13 years, an IT professor at Penn State Abington.
“VEC offered me an opportunity to share what I was good at and to learn things I didn’t know anything about,” Green said.
VEC’s Reading Allowed team includes VEC newcomer Dierdre Slattery, a semi-retired pharmaceutical marketing manager. Before joining the project, she received three hours of
remote training, then several weeks of mentoring sessions.
For Reading Allowed, “I didn’t anticipate being anything more than an observer, but it happened that from the first meeting, they were talking about business planning, and I had all this training,” she said.
The VEC team recommended that Reading Allowed develop a strategic plan, which would clarify the organization’s mission, values and goals.
“Angela Marks and her team think together with us, prioritizing goals and next steps,” Slattery said. “They always come prepared. Sometimes they send us notes to review. I think it’s beginner’s luck: They say not every client is a dream client, but Angela is a dream to work with.”
For her part, Marks says VEC “has been beyond invaluable. They’re just wonderful.”
Having completed Reading Allowed’s strategic plan, the VEC team has moved on to budgeting and business planning.
“Ed is so kind and patient,” Marks said. “No question
is stupid in his eyes. He sees the big picture — where we’re headed. We anticipate finishing around May. The planning has given me an order in which we’re going to do things and how we’re going to get there.”
Team approach
In nearly seven years with VEC, Green has participated in some 20 nonprofit projects. He also works with for-profit small businesses through the Senior Corps of Retired Executives.
“My approach is the team,” Green said. “We build a team of VECs, then form a team with the clients. Everyone is a partner in the effort.
“In corporate America, the focus is on returning money to the stakeholders. Small nonprofits are very different. They are primarily focused on their mission, their passion, delivering services. It’s nice if they make money to cover their expenses. Big corporations generally have enough people to get the job done. Small nonprofits don’t. They rely on volunteers, who need reasons to want to stay and become engaged.”
Green and his wife, Elaine, an adult literacy manager, as well as Sylvia Lifschitz, Ph.D., a marketing research expert, are facilitators for the May VEC workshop on measuring program effectiveness.
“You put your goals on a timeline,” he said. “If you front load goals, it’s impossible. If you back load them, you have no ability to make mid-course corrections. So you put them on a timeline and break them down into the objectives needed to achieve them.”
Green believes VEC’s new virtual approach “will stick, but we’re going to move to a hybrid environment. Learning is much better done face-to-face, but it’s a lot easier for people to come to a workshop if they don’t have to spend an hour on the Schuylkill getting there. At the least, we can record the workshops so they can be seen by folks who can’t attend at the scheduled time.”
For more information
VEC welcomes new volunteers with expertise in fundraising, grant writing, social media and other business areas. For information, email Kathy Stocker at kathys@rsvpmc.org or call 610-834-1040, ext.123.
• For a new volunteer form, visit https://monami.typeform.com/to/ N3MK42Qi
• Nonprofits requesting VEC management assistance can visit
• https://www.rsvpmc. org/vec-mangement-assistance-form
• Startup nonprofits can visit https://www.rsvpmc. org/vec-management-assistance-form-star
• To register for a VEC spring workshop, visit www.rsvpmc.org/eventsnews
• For more information on the Regional Foundation Center’s Expert Office Hours program, email nonprofit@freelibrary.org. For a schedule and registration form, visit https://libwww. freelibrary.org/calendar/ event/104322
• To learn about other RSVP programs, visit www. rsvpmc.org.
RSVP improves the lives of vulnerable populations in the Greater Philadelphia area and beyond with programs focusing on education and wellness that utilize a dedicated pool of 1,200+ volunteers. To learn more visit www.rsvpmc.org.
Frequent snowstorms including two big ones have left some senior citizens in Berks County looking for help.
Some of those who are unable to shovel their own sidewalks or clear their vehicles have been seeking assistance from the Berks County Office on Aging, which has received several dozen such calls, according to director Jessica Jones.
The options for those folks are limited if they don’t have family or neighbors to help them, she said.
It’s been at least a decade since Berks had a local group that connected seniors with volunteers who could shovel them out, and no one has stepped up to replace that organization, Jones said.
County agencies don’t have the resources to offer such assistance, she said.
“This is a difficult area for sure,” she said. “There is a definite need for it.”
So when her office gets calls from older adults asking who can clear their steps and sidewalks, her staff will help them brainstorm ideas, such as calling their church group to
see if anyone can pitch in, she said.
“But the bottom line is there is no formal resource in the community that exists,” she said.
While the situation exists every winter, this year’s been worse because of the harsher weather, she said.
The total snowfall this season is already up to 33.4 inches, about 4 inches above
the normal for a full winter, according to the Berks Area Rainfall Networks, and AccuWeather is predicting more snow this week and again Tuesday.
Jones saw the problem first-hand before Christmas when she helped deliver meals to seniors and had to navigate properties that had not been cleared from the previous storm.
“It was precarious walking,” she said.
If a senior calls and says they’re trapped in their homes and need to go somewhere, the office may direct them toward their local fire department, or make those calls for them to see if help is available, she said.
Otherwise the best solution is for people to look out for their elderly neighbors, she said, and offer to shovel, snowblow or plow for them if possible.
Berks Emergency Services Director Brian Gottschall doesn’t know how many calls the communications center gets from seniors seeking help after snowstorms, but he said if dispatchers do get a call about an elderly person trapped in their home due to snow they would send local police there for a welfare check.
Local police are the 24/7 access to municipal government in most jurisdictions when an inquiry originates at 9-1-1, he said.
If the call came from a jurisdiction covered by state police, Gottschall believes troopers would ask the Department of Emergency Services to then notify the local public works.
With so much snow still on the ground and more expected to come, Jones urged everyone to keep seniors in mind.
“If you know someone is struggling, maybe you could clear a path for them,” she said.
As I said in my last article, we are living in a unique time. We are being encouraged not to see our family and friends. We are told to avoid going to the movies, plays, museums, art exhibits and live sporting events. If you must go food shopping, make it quick! In your lifetime, have you ever been told you can’t go out to a restaurant??
While we can now see a light at the end of the tunnel, that light is still at least a couple of months away. We are in the depth of winter, so now is the perfect time to take the plunge and learn to use some technology that will make your days much more enjoyable, educational and entertaining.
With any new technology, you may want to consider asking someone
with experience for assistance. As I have said before, the most helpful trait in a teacher is patience. New technology is not easy to understand, and you want someone who will calmly answer all your questions and help you through the times you get frustrated.
I hope you have thought about or started learning about borrowing eBooks. Let’s now discuss streaming TV shows and movies.
Watching TV has changed dramatically in the last five years. Gone are the days where you have to schedule yourself to watch a TV show. You can now watch an entire season of a series anytime that is convenient for you. Also gone are the days where you had to rent a DVD to watch a movie. Almost all TV shows and movies can be streamed to your TV when you want to watch.
Let’s start with the technology you will need to stream. The first older piece of technology is a HD (high Ddfinition) flat screen TV. The TV should have inputs for HDMI attachments. Verify that you have HDMI ports prior to proceeding. The second older technology is a cable TV subscription. In the West Chester area, you have two choices for cable TV, Verizon Fios or Comcast Xfinity. You need to decide which company would work best for you.
If you don’t have a an HD TV package, I recommend you upgrade your current plan. The HD picture quality is dramatically better than an SD (standard definition) TV.
This is all the technology you need to start streaming TV shows and movies! This is because Netflix, the most popular streaming service in the country, is offered directly through Verizon and Comcast. Netflix has thousands of TV shows and movies, so it is a great choice to learn how to stream and get comfortable with the technology. It is also 100% commercial free!
The best way for you to get started is to call your cable provider directly. Most of the time you can get a free trail of Netflix before you must start paying for the service. After the trial, the monthly fee is $8.99 and up per month.
However, before you start paying for Netflix, make sure you fully understand how to use it. It is more complicated than changing TV channels. Even though the Netflix site is well organized, it can be intimidating to first-time users.
Hopefully, you enjoy the many shows and movies on Netflix and think the extra cost is well worth it. If you do, you may want to find out about other streaming services, and there are a lot of them — Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, HBO Max and Peacock to name a few.
Most of these services need to be accessed by a smart TV, streaming stick or a smart home device. These are more complicated technologies, so before adding additional streaming services, take the time necessary to understand what you will have to do.
I hope you enjoy the many entertaining shows and movies on Netflix or other streaming devices. There has never been a better time to watch TV!
Promoting Senior Wellness is provided by The Hickman, a Quaker-affiliated licensed personal care home in West Chester, where Hugh Bleemer is the outreach and admissions counselor. The Hickman does not endorse and is not affiliated with the companies and apps mentioned in this article.