It began over 20 years ago on Boston’s Beacon Hill: what if there was an organized network of neighbors who helped older neighbors with tasks that can be challenging for some seniors, but are critical to remaining independent, living at home, and connected to community? The Village movement took off, and there are now 300 across the country. The first Rhode Island Village launched nearly a decade ago in Providence.

The basic plan for a Village is not complicated. Volunteers sign up to offer services of their choosing, such as yard work, grocery runs, tech support, or rides to medical appointments. There is no personal care; villages work with partners including Meals on Wheels and local Health Equity Zones if further supports are needed.

Members join, and pay a nominal, pay-what-you-can fee. Nobody is ever turned away for inability to pay. Volunteer coordinators then match member requests with volunteers. Volunteers are not obligated to accept a certain number of assignments, they can sign up as their schedules allow.
When the success of the Providence Village became apparent, other communities wanted to replicate their model. So under the leadership of Caroline Dillon and Susan DeRita, the Providence Village changed its name to the Village Common of Rhode Island in 2019, and in addition to serving the Providence community, took on the additional work of helping other villages get launched.

Centrally coordinated

“We operate as a hub and spoke model,” said Dillon. “We’re the hub, and the villages are the spokes.” The Village Common, a 501c3 non-profit with one full-time and one part-time staff member in addition to their volunteers, takes care of central administration, including maintaining insurance, conducting background checks for volunteers, maintaining the database and infrastructure that coordinate the volunteers, communications (including a weekly calendar of events and a monthly newsletter), budget/finance tasks, coordinating services for members, and arranging programs and activities, including a caregiver support program.
Local villages are led by steering committees and recruit members and volunteers and design supports based on member needs.

Dillon and DeRita stress that each village is unique, and reflective of its community. “A village is just one part of the ecosystem supporting older adults,” said Dillon, noting that libraries, public safety, and senior centers are all part of the picture. Barrington became the second village in Rhode Island, shortly followed by Edgewood. “We had a big launch event scheduled for April of 2020, which of course did not happen,” said Susan McCalmont of Barrington. They didn’t get underway in earnest until 2022, with 50 members. Now they have about 130 members and over 70 volunteers.

A growing community

Since then, several more communities have come online, including Burrillville, Glocester, Westerly, and just this summer, Aquidneck Island (Middletown, Newport and Portsmouth). According to volunteer Kathleen Burke, the Aquidneck Island Village was initially going to be just Newport, but the steering committee realized it made sense to support the entire Island with one Village.

Additional local villages are under development in Cumberland, Exeter, Jamestown and Warwick; Bristol/Warren and Richmond are beginning the process or organizing their steering committees and recruiting volunteers. In Providence, a village focused on supporting the growing population of Spanish speaking older adults is being formed, as is a statewide Circle of Pride to connect older LGBTQ+ persons. It takes about a year to launch a new village from concept to operation. “It’s important to slowly onboard new villages so that we are able to maintain our strength at the hub, said Dillon.

A remedy for isolation

As the state’s population grows older, and social isolation and loneliness is on the rise, the Village neighbor-helping-neighbor approach benefits the entire community. To get involved with an existing village in your community, or to begin the process of launching a village in a currently-unserved community, visit www.villagecommonri.org or contact Susan DeRita at community@villagecommonri.org, 401-228-8683 x4.

Village volunteers don’t just help with the heavy lifting and offer rides to medical appointments, they fill invisible needs too — especially the need for social connection. For Burke, whose volunteerism with the Aquidneck Island Village extends to communications and coordination as well as other one-on-one member tasks, village involvement is as fulfilling for her as it is enriching for members. “These are things I would do for my parents if they lived nearby,” she said.

“Our volunteers are our gold,” said Dillon. “They stop social isolation in its tracks.”