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Through Metropolitan Family Service, Foster Grandparent serves children in our community.
Foster Grandparent was established nationally
in 1965 to benefit two traditionally neglected populations: low-income older adults and special-needs children.
Services
- Tutoring in reading and math
- Mentoring
- Guidance through classroom activities
- Providing emotional and physical support
Last Year
- 70 Foster Grandparents volunteered each week
in Portland and surrounding communities
- More than 1,400 school children received academic
tutoring and classroom support
- Over 52,000 hours of service were provided by Foster Grandparents in
the tri-county area, meeting the critical needs of the community
Accessing Services
Foster Grandparent has 39 community partners in Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. Volunteers serve in schools, childcare centers,
children's hospitals, residential treatment centers, and other similar public and non-profit organizations.
Community Partners
- Serve primarily low-income and special-needs children
- Provide on-site orientation and training
for new Foster Grandparents
- Adequately supervise all Foster Grandparents
- Offer necessary information to aid in program evaluation and reporting
- Contribute a portion of the costs for volunteers to be placed at their sites
Volunteers
Foster Grandparent provides opportunities for adults over 60 to remain active and serve the communities in which they live.
Volunteers earn a modest stipend while serving 15
– 40 hours per week, while children receive individual attention and direction from a caring, dedicated adult.
"I feel like what I do makes a difference to the children."
"I like to do things that will benefit society."
For more information about how to support or volunteer, contact Foster Grandparent at 503.249.8215, ext.
17 or
fgp@metfamily.org
Corporation for National Service
Working with governor-appointed state commissions, nonprofits, faith-based groups, schools, and other civic organizations to help volunteers serve their communities.
www.cns.gov
AARP
Membership-based social welfare services created to benefit older Americans.
www.aarp.org
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fgp@metfamily.org
503.249.8215, ext. 17
Metropolitan Family Service
2200 NE 24th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97212 |
Nine years ago
71-year-old Thelma Bisaccio was grieving the loss of her
husband and needed a reason to leave her apartment. She
heard about MFS Foster Grandparent. Thelma called
immediately, signed up, took the training, and never looked
back. Today she has her own rocker at Helensview High
School, where she cares for babies whose student moms are
working hard to graduate from high school.
For five hours a day, five days a
week, Thelma rocks the babies, gives them their bottles,
reads to them, talks to them, or gets down on the floor to
play with them. She does everything that a loving
grandparent would do. "The program gets me out into the
community and makes me feel more useful. I wish I had found
it sooner," Bisaccio says. "It keeps me going."
Her area of the Child Development Center at Helensview High
School cares for up to 12 babies, ages six weeks to nine
months old. "I'm heartbroken when babies move on," she says.
"But I just love to watch babies grow and progress each
day."
The students of Helensview call her
"grandma" and are grateful that she is there each day to
care for their babies. Her supervisor Louise Jeffrey is
grateful for the extra pair of hands that frees other
workers to do more strenuous tasks.
Thelma has worked at Helensview High
School, her fourth location with Foster Grandparent, for
five years. During the summer months she works at the Police
Activities League Youth Center (PALS) helping supervise
children.
Thelma has an adult son and daughter, five
grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren of her own.
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