Friendly Visitor Program

The Friendly Visitor Program is designed to enhance the quality of life of seniors in the City of Alexandria by providing social interaction, mental stimulation, and emotional support. Carefully screened and trained volunteers are individually matched with socially isolated seniors living in assisted living and health care communities or in their own homes, condos, and apartments. Once a volunteer is paired up with a senior who has similar interests and life experiences, the volunteer visits their senior for an hour each week. Over 300 matches have been made since the program began in 2012.

The Friendly Visitor Program provides social interaction, and relieves loneliness and feelings of isolation in senior citizens who are lonely or home-bound in the City of Alexandria. The Program is based on extensive research that has shown depression and loneliness to be major problems that lead to impaired quality of life among elderly persons, and that there are considerable health benefits of socialization. Since September, 2012 the Program has recruited volunteers who visit seniors each week. A total of 248 seniors and homebound residents have been enrolled in the Program since its inception in 2012. Below is the second evaluation of the impact of the Program on the seniors it serves and the Alexandria citizens who volunteer as the Program’s friendly visitors.

Dr. Diane Stoy conducted this impact study for SSA. Read it here: Friendly Visitor Evaluation 2019 – Final Report _February, 2019

 

If you would like to volunteer and make a difference in a senior’s life or you know someone who would benefit from the Friendly Visitor Program, contact Tanya Edwards at (703) 836-4414, ext. 120.

To download a volunteer application, click below:

Volunteer Application