Faith In Action® National Program Report

What Did the Coalitions Look Like?

• Friendly Visitors Project Reaches Home-Bound Elderly in Nebraska Farming Community A Faith in Action project in Nebraska negotiated the tricky terrain of providing needed help to fiercely independent elders. more

  By primary sponsorship:
  • 419 (38 percent) were freestanding interfaith coalitions.
  • 190 (17 percent) were religious-based agencies.
  • 482 (44 percent) were secular agencies, in partnership with local faith congregations.
  • Religious-based organizations (free standing and agency) accounted for 609, or 56 percent, of all projects.
• Some 9,226 individual faith congregations were represented among the 1,091 interfaith coalitions.
  • Four denominations, Methodist (14 percent), Catholic (13 percent), Baptist (13 percent) and Lutheran (10 percent), accounted for 50 percent of the participating congregations.
  • The addition of Episcopal (6 percent) and Presbyterian (8 percent) participation brought the total to 64 percent.
  • In addition, Jewish (4 percent), African Methodist Episcopal (1 percent) and 16 other denominations accounted for 36 percent.

The coalitions funded under Faith in Action, Phase 2 provided diverse services:

• Ohio Circle of Friends Volunteers Reach Out to Rural Areas When the Red Cross stopped providing rides to distant health appointments, a Faith in Action project in rural Ohio stepped in. more

  Half of them provided care to people of all ages with chronic conditions of all kinds.
• A third focused primarily on the elderly.
• 11 percent have focused on people with AIDS.
• Others concentrated on the mentally ill, people with dementia, children with disabilities and people with chronic substance abuse problems.

Who Were the Volunteer Caregivers?

• Volunteers were predominantly female (70 percent).
  • The majority of female volunteers were ages 31 to 64.
  • Female volunteers aged 65 and over exceeded in number the female volunteers under age 30.
  • The ages of male volunteers were similarly distributed, with men 31 to 64 accounting for 53 percent of all male volunteers.
• Almost half the volunteers were employed full-time (37 percent) or part-time (10 percent); approximately a third were retired, and 13 percent were students.
• Some 58 percent of volunteers were reported to be "moderately well off," 37 percent to be managing and 5 percent barely managing.
• Some 88 percent had their own car, 4 percent used public transportation and 8 percent depended on rides from others.
• The service the volunteers most frequently provided was a friendly visit and/or telephone reassurance (22 percent), followed by transportation (14 percent). Other commonly provided services included:
  • Meal preparation and delivery (11 percent)
  • Linking to community services (8 percent)
  • Shopping (8 percent)
  • Respite/hospice (6 percent)
  • Assistance with correspondence/financial management (4 percent)
  • Bathing/grooming (3 percent).

Who Received Care?

• Interfaith Caregivers Group in Oregon Trains Volunteers to Help Elderly Residents In rural Oregon, staff at a Faith in Action project learned by trial and error how to meet the needs of isolated elderly and disabled residents. more

  Of those assisted:
  • 64 percent were elderly (40 percent were 75 and older)
  • 24 percent were 65-74 years of age
  • One in four was between 31 and 64 years old, and about one in eight was under age 18
  • By gender, 66 percent of those receiving care were women.
• Most of the recipients had minimal income but enough to be excluded from publicly funded programs. Two-thirds of the recipients were either poor or "barely managing."
• The majority of persons receiving care were either homebound (22 percent) or unable to get out without help (40 percent).
• Some 32,000 (44 percent) of people served lived alone.
• 40 percent lived with a family member.
• 16 percent had living arrangements with unrelated persons.
• Social contacts were "few" for 36 percent of persons and "some" for 49 percent. Only 15 percent experienced many social contacts.