Free help?

Katie...you have some good points. I called a good amount of volunteers when I started out and, yes, some had forgotten that they put their names in. Most of those were volunteers who were students in need of community hrs. I now reach out to the ones who are current. I wait for about a month and go back to the wesite where there are usually about 4 or 5 new ones. I call them and get 2 or 3 that i will take the next step of meeting with them personally. I have a meeting with one next week. The more, the better for me. I dont know, i feel like ive hit gold with this site and, honestly, i was just as skeptical as most who posted above. You def have to be as wise as a serpant doing this, but you might very well find someone as gentle as a dove (as I have).

My take after reviewing it is that in concept it is a good idea.. and could possibly work out for some people. HOWEVER, in looking at my area, most of the members joined years ago .. some back in 2010, 2011. I have seen reviews that say they signed up and called the volunteers and they had no idea what elderhelpers even was.. and some reviews said they had to pay the 300.00 and got no volunteers at all.. and could not easily get their money back.

Seems like this would be a good idea..in theory... but is risky that you could end up paying 300,00 and never get anything out of it.. and possibly waste a lot of time.

300 seems kind of steep to take that chance. I can look up the volunteers in my area but have no way of knowing if the ones that I would choose would even be available or are still interested.

Sounds like the volunteers are also encouraged to make a donation..so getting money from both the volunteers and the people needing volunteers.

I'm also not too satisfied about how well the volunteers are checked out. I just don't see a level of detail that I would want to see to get involved in this.. Like.. what kind of background check do they do ? Who pays for the background check? Soo.. not enough warm and fuzzy for me.... too bad...

Check this out - doesn't sound like the same organization;

eldershelpers/Helpers/faqs-rates/

Is this organization's title actually Elders' Helpers? If so, the Michigan group charges $17/hour. That's not free.

I also just found some reviews, actually complaints. Concerns were raised of theft, false representations, etc.

There's one in Michigan so I can check it out with the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth which provides information on corporations in Michigan (if it is in fact incorporated or created as a legal entity). I'd like to see who's behind this group.

I do plan to do some more searching; it sounds too good to be true. I'm especially interested in their recruitment, screening and funding.

I just read a few reviews of the organization that are available online. I was not too impressed. The one that scared me most is that a volunteer hadn't been called or vetted, but decided to just show up at a job. The volunteer wrote that she could have been a mass murderer for all anyone knew.

Sounds great Somonago.. sorry for being so skeptical. I'm so glad you were able to find help! I'm considering looking into it. I could actually see me doing volunteering in the future when my caregiving for my parents comes to an end.

Its great that the volunteers actually want to help! I'm not used to that I guess :). Does the company do background checks for each volunteer.. or do you have to perform your own checks? Have you had any issues with volunteers?

Sounds wonderful. These are the types of volunteers that hospice can provide if you are enrolled. hospice trains their volunteers for several weeks and does the necessary background checks as well.

Yes, guys. I would def expect everyone to question this ie. spam, not legit, etc. Im just a normal caregiver in South Florida that stumbled upon this website. It does seem a bit too good to be true, but it is completely legit. Interestingly enough, the hardest part for my parents was accepting the volunteer's (Yvonne) help for nothing in return. Yvonne lost her father a few years ago & just wanted to connect with an elder person in the community. She actually considers this a tremendous blessing in HER life. Yes, Jessie, ty for your comments. And you are correct, there might be locations where there are less volunteers available. I literally called 25 people and found 5 out of those who I wanted to meet with. But my dilegence paid off! And I recently went back on the website and found another girl who is a nursing student in the area. I called her and she sounded wonderful...mature & very knowledgable. I will be meeting with her next week. Im hoping to find a handful of volunteers to have out there as needs arise. This has certainly been a blessing for us...well worth the effort and fee!

It is a legitimate organization that matches volunteers with people who need them. It is a registered non-profit. The fee probably helps cover the cost of filtering the volunteers to make sure they are okay and perhaps to cover salaries of people working for the group -- I don't know, but it all seems legit. The only reservation I would have is giving my money and not being able to get help. It sounds like somonago found a jewel with the money.

Rand the REALLY sad part is that I don't recognize your user name. And THAT means this could be spam.

Correct me, ladies and gents, if I'm wrong.

Sounds too good to be true. Its free but it costs 300 a year? I would be very skeptical about someone wanting to do so much for free on a regular basis. Older people are so vulnerable...approach with extreme caution!