One of the remarkable characteristics of the United States is its volunteer spirit. This spirit is generated and conveyed by thousands of volunteers. While national, state and local government entities sponsor many volunteer programs, the non-profit sector also offers a rich array of volunteer opportunities for Americans. Volunteer driver programs have been providing transportation to older adults for more than sixty years. They are organized for many reasons. (1) Other services are not available. (2) Seniors cannot access services that are available. (3) They are inexpensive to operate. (4) They can provide transportation assistance. (5) They can get seniors where they need to go. The Beverly Foundation’s information about volunteer driver programs was gathered in the course of the Beverly Foundation’s annual STAR Search surveys from 2000 through 2010.
The volunteer driver program informational and resource materials available on the Beverly Foundation’s website describe what they are, what they look like, how they are organized, what makes them low in cost, and their risk factors (including liability, exposure, and insurance), and include a calculator for measuring their senior friendliness, and a variety of models, case examples and work books.
Technical Materials
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- Volunteer Driver Programs Fact Sheet
This Fact Sheet provides general information and data on volunteer driver programs. It introduces them in the context of volunteer organizations and discusses the main reasons the programs say they were organized: the lack of transportation for seniors or seniors’ inability to access many services; the ability of volunteer driver programs to get seniors where they need to go, to provide them with assistance; and their ability to provide service at a low cost. The fact sheet discusses how these programs are organized, organizations that sponsor them, the assistance they can provide, factors that can allow them to provide services at a low cost, and factors related to risk. Of special importance is the profile of 543 volunteer driver programs that responded to the Beverly Foundation STAR Search surveys from 2000 to 2007. Also presented are five organizational examples of volunteer driver program approaches.
Volunteer Driver Programs Fact Sheet - Volunteer Drivers Fact Sheet
This Fact Sheet introduces volunteer drivers as central elements to the American pastime of volunteering while emphasizing their contributions in the context of volunteering their time and driving skills to older adults by participating in driver programs. The data for the fact sheet were gathered in 2004 and 2005 in concert with the Beverly Foundation STAR Search program which, in addition to its survey of volunteer driver programs, asked volunteer drivers themselves to complete a survey on their volunteer experiences. In addition to a profile of the 714 survey respondents, the Fact Sheet discusses why they drive, the assistance they provide, where they go, when they drive, challenges they face, the time they spend, roles they play, and the satisfaction they receive. Of interest is the fact that 63% of the respondents were age 65+ and 54% had been driving fifty years or more.
Related Materials: Volunteer Drivers in America: The Hope of the Future. A Brief from the Beverly Foundation (2008), 2004 and 2005 reports on STAR Search/STAR Awards.
- Volunteer Drivers in America: The Hope of the Future (2008)
While this brief discusses the general topic of volunteerism in America (its local focus, rates of involvement, types of activities and older adult involvement), it also introduces three themes related to senior transportation: (1) the importance of mobility to older adults; (2) special conditions of the “old old”, and (3) the challenges older adults present to traditional transportation services. However, the brief’s central themes are the contributions, motivations, and satisfactions of volunteers who drive older adults. It emphasizes data from the Beverly Foundation’s 2004 and 2005 national surveys of volunteer drivers. In addition to volunteer driver demographics, data are provided on the driving experience; the types of people who drive; what driving means to them; the types of contributions they make to organizations, passengers, and communities they serve (such as time, assistance, vehicles, socialization, and financial savings); their motivations (why they volunteer to drive); the satisfaction they receive (helping people, feeling needed, getting to know riders, donating time and money); and clues to their success. The brief concludes with a summary of how volunteer drivers supplement what others cannot do, promote volunteerism, bring experience and expertise, make a variety of contributions, and advance volunteerism and volunteer driver programs in America.
Volunteer Drivers in America: The Hope of the Future (2008) - The ABC’s of Being an Effective Volunteer Driver: A tip Book (2007)
The Volunteer Driver Tip Book was developed in conjunction with Independent Living Partnership’s TRIP volunteer driver program. The tip book is a resource for volunteer drivers to hone the various skills they tap into in the course of their work. Following a classic alphabet format, each letter presents a term relevant to volunteer driving. The tip book includes the following topics. The Tip Book also includes links to additional resources on the internet.
The ABC’s of Being an Effective Volunteer Driver: A tip Book (2007)
- Volunteer Driver Recruitment: An Idea Book for Action (2006)
Volunteer Driver Recruitment: An Idea Book for Action is a product of the 2005 STAR Search survey, an annual survey conducted by the Beverly Foundation. In 2005 the STAR Search surveys targeted STPs which rely on the services of volunteer drivers. Survey respondents were asked to submit their creative strategies for recruiting volunteer drivers. The Idea Book originated from the responses of 140 participating programs. The Idea Book presents various methods and strategies for recruiting volunteer drivers. Elements include the types of people whom organizations should be targeting as volunteer drivers, the communication tools that proved the most effective in recruiting drivers, and the venues used to approach potential drivers. In addition to methods and strategies, the Idea Book includes summaries of the volunteer driver recruitment plans of the five winners of the 2005 STAR Awards for Excellence. The five recruitment plans were developed by the following organizations: Aging Services, Inc (Cedar Rapids, IA); Encinitas Out and About Transportation Program (Encinitas, CA); S.T.A.R. (O’Fallon, MO); Valley Program for Aging Services (Waynesboro, VA); and VINE Faith in Action (Mankato, MN).
Volunteer Driver Recruitment: An Idea Book for Action (2006)
- Risk Management in Volunteer Driver Programs (2006)
This review of risk management challenges and strategies was prepared by the Beverly Foundation at the request of AARP. It introduces three ways volunteer driver programs fill community gaps (providing rides to people who need them, offering opportunities for drivers to serve their neighbors, and supplementing transportation services in the community). It also makes the case that the positive contributions of volunteer driver program sponsors may diminished or erased altogether if people or properties are harmed as a result of their transportation delivery actions or those of their volunteer drivers. The paper includes five sections. Part 1 addresses risk management practices. Part 2 introduces risk factors related to transportation service delivery, including a continuum of risk factors for traditional and supportive (volunteer driver) transportation services. Part 3 discusses risk management strategies and describes strategies used by four volunteer driver programs. Part 4 provides examples of volunteer driver programs and their exemplary risk management practices in five key areas. Part 5 outlines recommendations for action and lists five valuable resource materials.
- Stories from the Road: Stories from the Heart (2005)
Stories from the Road was result of a Beverly Foundation STAR Search survey of 244 volunteer drivers, who as part of their survey response told stories about their volunteer driver experience. The seventy-five plus stories included in the book were selected as “the best of the best” submissions from the volunteer driver respondents. The book supplements the stories with general information about senior transportation and volunteer drivers, and includes photographs of many of the volunteer drivers and their riders, as well as information about the three award winning stories. Individually, the stories offer a glimpse at the roles of a volunteer driver. As a whole, they weave what one reader described as “a tapestry of human lives enhanced by a need presented and a service delivered.” Happily, they undermine much of the “common knowledge” about volunteer drivers concerns about liability and insurance, expense related to driving, the burden of commitment, and the difficulty of finding time to drive. For the most part, the drivers tell stories that describe their experiences as opportunities – to help and support and listen and laugh; and their contributions as helping people who, through no fault of their own, need someone to drive them so they can get where they need to go. Many of them say that they, the volunteer drivers, are the ones who really benefit. Stories from the Road can be purchased on www.amazon.com.
Stories from the Road: Stories from the Heart (2005) - The TRIP Model
This Fact Sheet discusses the needs of older adults for transportation assistance, ten challenges faced by public and community transportation services in providing that assistance, and provides highlights of the age group that is in most need of assistance. It also includes a discussion of those who provide assistance, and provides a description of five types of transportation assistance for seniors including: gentle support, physical support, activity support, personal support, and special support.
A central feature of the Fact Sheet is s a chart which includes data on five programs that illustrate different types of assistance and provides a brief discussion of each program. It also presents a calculator for measuring the level of physical assistance that can be made available to passengers by drivers, escorts, family members, friends, neighbors, and caregivers. Assistance types include: gentle assistance, physical assistance, activity assistance, personal assistance, and special assistance.
- The TRIP Model Brochure
Resource Materials
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- How to Meet Operational Challenges of Providing Transportation to Seniors: A Workbook for Faith in Action Members (2008)
In 2007, the Beverly Foundation’s STAR search and STAR Awards program targeted members of the Faith in Action network. 225 Faith in Action organizations that provided transportation to older adults responded to the survey. Following analysis of the results of the survey, the Beverly Foundation made a series of recommendations and subsequently prepared a “How to” workbook which dealt with the following ten topics: #1 Design and Service Priorities; #2 Reporting Capacity; #3 Transportation Literacy; #4 Linking Relationships; #5 Multiple Funding Options; #6 Infrastructure Reduction Methods; #7 Transportation Assistance Methods; #8 Attention to Insurance; #9 Volunteer Driver Recruitment; and #10 Senior Friendliness. Attachments include definitions and useful links, results of the 2007 STAR Search Survey and STAR Awards, and a list of survey respondents.
How to Meet Operational Challenges of Providing Transportation to Seniors: A Workbook for Faith in Action Members (2008) - Turn Key Kit: A Web-Based Resource for Volunteer Driver Programs (2005)
The TurnKey Kit was developed as a no-cost technical assistance tool, and its contents can be downloaded free of charge on the STP Exchange website: www.stpexchange.org. The Kit provides information about how to plan, organize, implement, and evaluate volunteer driver programs. Its special purpose is to support and promote the expansion of volunteer programs that provide transportation to older adults in America. The topics of technical support included in the TurnKey Kit are: the Planning Kit, the Implementation Kit, the Evaluation Kit, and the TRIP Kit (a volunteer driver program model). The informational materials included draw on the research of the Beverly Foundation and the practical, service delivery experience of the TRIP program of the Independent Living Partnership.
Turn Key Kit: A Web-Based Resource for Volunteer Driver Programs (2005) - Transportation Options “How To” Booklet & CD (2003)
In 2002 the Beverly Foundation developed a booklet of senior transportation options for its local community. It was created because of the Foundation’s belief that in order for transportation services to be available to seniors, seniors must be aware of the types of transportation services that exist. In 2003, the Transportation Options Booklet was redeveloped as a CD and was included in an AoA funded Easter Seals Caregiver Transportation Project. The resulting collaboration between the Beverly Foundation and Easter Seals produced a customizable electronic template (sometimes referred to as a “drop in the facts” CD) that can be used in identifying transportation options that are available to seniors in a typical community. The template provides a framework from which to inventory and assess existing transportation options, gaps and needs, which can then be organized into a community-based transportation options booklet. The electronic template was later adapted to the needs of the United We Ride Program of the Federal Transit Administration. The electronic version of the template is available on the United We Ride website.
Transportation Options “How To” Booklet & CD (2003)
