Orange City Council is preparing to re-build a range of support strategies for local elderly residents and is looking for volunteers to help out.
The Council's community services wing has been given permission from NSW Health authorities to re-launch activities halted during the pandemic.
Orange City Council's Services Policy Committee Chair Cr Mel McDonell said it would take around twenty volunteers to get the programs off the ground again.
SUPPORT: Volunteer programs are set to start again.
"Orange City Council runs the best-known local support service, Meals on Wheels. That's continued with the support of Council staff rather than volunteers throughout the pandemic but now has a team of around eighty volunteers in place," Cr Mel McDonell said. "But other programs had to go on hold to keep both volunteers and clients safe."
"Now that community vaccination rates are where they should be, health authorities have given permission for some services to start again."
The Council runs a simple home visiting scheme which organises a volunteer to drop in on an elderly resident once a week for a chat. Something as simple as a short visit can make all the difference for someone living on their own. Another program arranges short bus trips and meals together at a local café for local elderly residents.
"Getting out and about again is all the more important after the long periods of isolation that were part of COVID," Cr McDonell said
Anyone who wants to volunteer should contact Orange City Council's Community Services Centre on 6393 8600 to pick up a volunteer information pack.
All volunteers will be expected to go through an induction process and be required to pass a police records check. Council will cover the financial cost of the police check.
