COUNCIL OF THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS
RETIRED SENIOR AND VOLUNTEER PROGRAM
The Retired Senior and Volunteer Program (RSVP) is a program developed primarily to support volunteers 55 and older for various community endeavors. CSM does sign on volunteers under 55 into the program as they become available. The Coordinator for the RSV P is Lyvonne Dyer, under the supervision of Barbara Caceres.
RSVP is currently serving the counties of: McDowell, Raleigh, Wyoming and newly added Mingo.
When Ms. Caceres started with the program in June, 2003 there were only 2 volunteers. The program in January 2008 has over 200 volunteers 55 and older and 115 volunteers under the age of 55. CSM now has 17 Neighborhood Watch (NW) groups and 10 designated stations for telephone reassurance calls. Tamarack currently has 9 volunteers and we hope to place volunteers at the Kimball War Memorial Building in the near future. There are 12 designated emergency disaster shelters within McDowell County and one in Raleigh. We are still working to develop shelters for Raleigh, Wyoming and Mingo. Seven of these shelters are stocked and fully operational if the need arises and 4 of these are designated missions and have groups that also use it in the summer time to perform work within their communities. We are working closely with the American Red Cross to help stock and get these shelters operational with the volunteers trained and ready.
We now have 4 volunteers age 55 and older working with Mentoring Children of Prisoners. This is a program that was currently under the supervision of the RSVP. This program works with children that have atleast one parent in the correctional system. Statisticall, approximately 70 percent of these youth are destined to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. This means we must garner our forces and strive to change this alarming statistic. This program has recently received a $600,000 grant to be used over a three year period and has become it's own program at the Council of the Southern Mountain.
If you would like to be a volunteer contact the following RSVP staff.
Lyvonne Dyer, Program Coordinator 304-862-3144 ext. 229
Barbara Caceres, Program Director 304-862-3144 ext. 231
In the following listing, NW stands for Neighborhood Watch Groups)
From August 31, 2006 until August 31, 2007 ages 55 and over there were:
17 NW groups, 146 Volunteers, 9.882 Hours, 4,526 Patrols,21Incidents
10 Telephone Stations 51 Volunteers 11,268 Hours. 27,621 Calls
Em. Disaster Shelters 12, 24 Volunteers, 1,257 Hours
Mentoring Children 4 Volunteers, 300 Hours
Economic Dev. 23 Volunteers, 1,386Hours
From August 31, 2006 until August 31, 2007 under 55 there were:
17 NW groups, 96 Volunteers, 5,333 Hours, 1,936 Patrols, 17 Incidents
10 Telephone Stations, 2 Volunteers, 208 Hours, 1,170 Calls
Em. Disaster Shelters 12, 20 Volunteers, 616 Hours
Economic Dev. 4 Volunteer, 766 Hours
RSVP has completed 3 trainings for the Emergency Disaster Shelters along with the American Red Cross. One at Anawalt, and one at the House of Hope located in Squire, and the last located at the Big Creek People in Action in Caretta.
The Council of the Southern Mountains is honored to have Ms Barbara Caceres as Director for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). Ms. Caceres is a native of McDowell County and attended the first Head Start program sponsored by the Council in 1965. Ms. Caceres has worked for the Council for over seven years and in the RSVP since 2003 as the Coordinator then Director. Ms. Caceres has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bluefield State College.
Ms. Caceres supervises the programs in four southern West Virginia counties under RSVP which includes 17 Neighborhood Watch Groups. In addition, she works with volunteers to establish and maintain emergency disaster shelters throughout the catchment area.
For more information about any of the programs under the auspices of the Corporation for National and Community Service sponsored by the Council of the Southern Mountains or to volunteer, please call Barbara Caceres, RSVP Director at
304-862-3144 ext. 231.
toll free: 866-436-4989