Family Friends is a direct service that connects 45 volunteers to 90 families and 230 children every year. Older adult volunteers (55+) provide in-home support to Philadelphia families caring for children with special needs.
The volunteers are recruited from the neighborhoods in which families live, are carefully screened, trained, and then matched with compatible families. A Family Friends match is expected to continue as long as it remains mutually satisfying to the volunteer and family.
Evidence shows the program increases parenting skills, decreases caregiver stress and isolation, and increases effective family use of community resources.
Contact us for more information on ways to bring a Family Friends program to your community.
Created in 1989 as a model intergenerational respite program, Time Out Program engages 90 students and 128 families caring for frail elderly every year. The program carefully recruits, screens and trains college students to provide quality, low cost respite and home support services to families caring for their frail elderly at home.
In addition to benefiting caregivers who need a break from the stress of caregiving student respite workers gain invaluable career exposure to issues in geriatrics and gerontology.