Friendly Companion or Activity Leader for Elders at Episcopal Homes

Do you enjoy spending time with older adults? Episcopal Homes is seeking compassionate volunteers to serve as one-to-one companions or group activity leaders for our residents. As a volunteer, you can read aloud, write letters, play games, share stories, and build meaningful connections through conversation and shared experiences. Reminisce about your lives, families, careers, travels and hobbies and come make a difference in someone's day. You can visit once a week or twice a month on a schedule that works best for you.

Please complete this application to get started: Contribute to Our Organization | Episcopal Homes

Watch our video to learn more: We Got Lucky Video from Episcopal Homes resident

Here are some regularly scheduled activities you can consider:

Courtyard Strolls - Our gardens are lovely this time of year and our residents need one-to-one visitors to take them to enjoy the flowers around campus. We would love to match you to some interesting people! This is primarily pushing folks in wheelchairs and enjoying the Minnesota summer weather.

Healing Touch Practitioners - If you have a Level 2 or higher training in providing Healing Touch, we would love to have your skills in serving our Episcopal Homes residents. You will be joining a great group of volunteers with the support of one of our chaplains. They meet once a month and provide healing touch services to residents on a weekly basis. You can volunteer once a week, every other week, or once a month.

Chapel Escorts - We have Episcopal Services on Friday mornings, and our residents need a volunteer escort to get to the chapel. If you want to volunteer just once a month or every other week, that works too.

AA Meeting Escort and Friend - We have a couple of residents who would like to attend our Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Wednesday afternoons, but they need an escort (someone to push them in their wheelchair) to the meetings 2-4pm. You are welcome to join the meetings or visit other residents during the hour between escorting.

Garden Helper - Do you love getting your hands in the dirt and planting and tending to flowers, herbs, and vegetables? We are looking for a volunteer to help with watering the pretty flowers indoors and outdoors at our Episcopal Church Home and elsewhere around the campus during the summer months.

Trishaw Escorts - Our residents love a ride on our bicycle made for 2 passengers and 1 driver. Volunteer escorts are needed on Tuesday afternoons to help residents get from their rooms and apartments to the front entrance of their buildings. This is mostly pushing people in wheelchairs or walking with them to their destinations and bringing them back again. We are happy to report that we have enough Drivers for the season!

Flower Brigade Helpers and Drivers - We are all about flowers at Episcopal Homes! We would love a couple of volunteers to help with Friday afternoon preparation 3-5pm filling the vases with water and food. On Saturdays we are looking for a couple more substitute drivers to pick up Trader Joe's flower donation and deliver it to Episcopal Homes from 9-10:30am. Also on Saturdays, we need a few more co-leaders to help with the flower arranging and leading the other volunteers 9:30-11:30am. These lovely bouquets are then shared across the campus in our public spaces for all to enjoy!

Bingo at The Gardens - Looking for an easy volunteer assignment you can do as a young person? We have Bingo on Thursdays 1:30-3:30pm and we need volunteers 14 years old and older to gather residents, bring them to the community room, assist them with finding their numbers, and to hand out prizes. Want to try your hand at being a Bingo Caller? That is an option too!

Mahjong Escort - Do you like to play Mahjong or want to learn? One of our residents needs an escort to the other side of our campus to play the game with other residents on Tuesday mornings. This is a great way to spend a lovely morning!

Monthly Birthday Parties - Our Episcopal Church Homes has monthly birthday parties with decorations, cake and entertainment on a Friday at the end of every month. If you would like to help set up the party, gather residents, and help celebrate the residents, this is the fun activity for you, 12:30-3pm!

Reading to Residents - Many of our residents are avid readers but don't have the eyesight to enjoy their favorite books or a daily newspaper anymore. You can read aloud to residents one-to-one or in a group. Just let us know what days/times work best for your schedule.

Pretty Nails - Do you enjoy painting nails and providing a light filing while having some good chit-chat? Our ladies would love the special attention and company. This is another volunteer position with a really flexible schedule.

Activity and Library Carts - Our carts have books, magazines, CD's and players, coloring pages, games, puzzles and lots of other fun things to do. As a volunteer you can go door to door at our temporary and long-term care homes to offer these activities to the patients and residents. Spend some one-to-one time with them brightening their day!