Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area

Hospice Volunteers exists to provide free, volunteer, non-medical support to individuals and their families during the last phases of life, to loved ones throughout the grieving process, and to educate the community regarding issues related to death and grieving.

Description:
Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area's(HVWA)free services are available to anyone in the central Maine area. Volunteer outreach visitation covers a 25-mile radius of Waterville (27 communities). HVWA is a Maine state licensed agency. Hospice Volunteers who work with clients receive comprehensive training and subsequent continuing education and support. Careful screening and background checks are done on volunteers.
Depending on need and availability they donate on average 2-4 hours each week.
Anyone who has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and has a prognosis of two years or less is a candidate for HVWA services. Services offered to these individuals include respite, assistance with errands, chores and transportation as well as compassionate listening. A special support group for their caregivers meets monthly.
Bereavement support is available to anyone who has experienced death of a loved one rather from illness, accident or sudden and unexpected. Volunteers also work with grieving people of all ages either one-on-one or as support group facilitators. Several specialized bereavement support groups are available to adults.
Hope's Place provides support group meetings for grieving children, teens and their parents. This program is modeled after the Center for Grieving Children in Portland, Maine.
Camp Ray of Hope is a weekend retreat for grieving families and individuals and is offered statewide. Families network, learn healthy coping strategies and share their experience of loss with others in the same life situation.
Complementary Care Volunteers offer free sessions such as massage, Reiki, polarity and reflexology to clients, caregivers and bereavement clients. These sessions are available at the Hospice Community Center, 304 Main St Waterville. Arrangements can also be made to deliver this service to our Hospice clients and their caregivers in their homes.
A select group of volunteers are also available to build handicap ramps for our hospice clients at their homes.
Community education and outreach is available to businesses, churches and organizations. This service includes several topics on Hospice, issues related to end-of-life or grieving. Grief in the Workplace offers training, debriefing and support following the death or diagnosis of a co-worker, fellow parishoner or colleague.
A comprehensive lending library of audio visual materials are available to the community at the Hospice Community Center, 304 Main St.Waterville.
Financial support is gratefully accepted to these programs and services through donations, memorial gifts, and/or participation in special events throughout the year. The Endowment Committee welcomes inquiries regarding bequests and deferred gifts to benefit Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area.

History:
In 1980 Waterville Hospice Inc., as we were then known, began offering volunteer one-on-one support to area families. In 1986 Waterville Hospice became a United Way Agency making it possible to hire a volunteer coordinator for five hours per week. And so the agency continued to grow due to a very dedicated group of volunteers and a formalized leader. Our office, at that time, was a small room with one window and desk (now a file storage room) on the second floor at Nicholson & Associates, CPA's. In 1992 we entered into a contractual agreement with Kennebec Valley Regional Health Agency, providers of home health. KVRHA (now HealthReach) was starting a Medicare hospice program and looked to us to provide the volunteer component as mandated by the Medicare hospice benefit. Our referrals doubled as a result of this team effort. To more clearly identify ourselves and the services we provided we changed our name in 1992 to Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area. Up until 1994 the main focus of our program had been the one-on-one direct care volunteer support, however we were increasingly aware of the need for a formalized bereavement program. To assure that bereavement needs were adequately addressed, HVWA hired the first Bereavement Coordinator in January of 1994. She developed the bereavement program to include correspondence, one-on-one volunteers, support groups for adults, bereavement support for students in the school setting, Camp Ray of Hope, Grief in the Workplace, and the Community Education Monthly Forum. Since bereavement services were also offered to families who had experienced sudden, unexpected deaths our numbers rose substantially, and volunteers became more in demand than ever for both one-on-one support and group facilitation. To accommodate our expanding library and meetings with volunteers and clients another room was added to our office space in 1996. Under the guidance of a capable board of directors HVWA raised funding to purchase our own building in 2001 at 304 Main St. Waterville. Today there are multiple support group and individual meetings held at this Hospice Community Center. In 2007 the building adjacent to our Hospice Community Center was acquired and updated to serve Hope's Place, our program for grieving children and teens. HVWA currently has a staff of eight and 250 volunteers who provide support to clients, as committee members or on the board of directors and as Friends of Hospice on fundraising events. We invite you to contact us and explore how we can support you or how you can be of assistance to HVWA. Visitors are welcome at the Hospice Community Center!

Contact people:

Dale Marie Clark, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Terry Brandwein, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email) Jillian Fortin, Youth Services Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (207) 873-5094

Address:

304 Main Street Waterville, ME 04901 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.hvwa.org

Directions:

The Hospice Community Center, 304 Upper Main Street is located on the corner of Main Street and Eustis Parkway, Waterville. Hope's Place for grieving children is located next door at 302 Main St. Visitors should check in at 304 Main. . . (more)   Nearest Bus Stop: N/A, N/A minute walk

Last updated on June 30, 2009