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Contact Altoona seeks volunteers

Courtesy photo Nicole Germaux, Contact Altoona executive director, and Chris Cohn, Contact Altoona board member and class facilitator, go over the schedule for the upcoming fall classes for potential volunteers.

Training classes begin Oct. 1

Contact Altoona, Blair Countys only 24-hour telephone helpline service, will be conducting fall training classes starting Oct. 1 at the Contact Altoona administrative offices, 2729 Eighth Ave., Altoona.

Contact Altoona training classes last two weeks with local professionals teaching classes of basic and advanced listening skills, understanding the elderly and helping people find information. The classes are free.

Contact Altoona has today, 60 active volunteers and for the fourth consecutive year, volunteers took part in more than 30,000 calls.

In addition to taking calls, Contact Altoona has a Reassurance Call Program, where the helpline volunteers make calls to those who request to be called that include shut-ins who are reminded to take to their medications and to those who just need someone to talk to.

Almost 70 reassurance calls are made daily by helpline volunteers. With the increase in the volume of calls, more volunteers are needed.

Once the volunteer completes the two-week training program, they are put with veteran volunteers until the new volunteer feels comfortable in working by themselves.

Volunteers can then select what shift they want to work, so they can plan their schedules around their work and daily activities.

“We are very accommodating to our volunteers when it comes to what shifts they would like to work,” said Contact Altoona Executive Director Nicole Germaux.

“A person who works during the day can volunteer in the evening hours and those that work at night can sign up for morning or afternoon shifts. We allow our volunteers to tell us when they want to volunteer.”

About 10 years ago, Contact Altoona put into place a call-forwarding service, which allows the volunteer to pull a shift in their home.

Helpline Coordinator Caitlin Calderwood said the call-forwarding program is very popular with the volunteers.

“The volunteer telephones into the call-forwarding system, and all calls are then forwarded to the volunteer’s home number,” Calderwood said. “We get a lot of our volunteers using this program, so they can volunteer and stay at home at the same time. If the weather is bad or if a volunteer does not like going out at night, this allows them to volunteer from home. It’s very popular today.”

Contact Altoona has been operating in Blair County since 1982, and each year the volume of calls increases. And with the volume of calls increasing, more volunteers are needed.

For more information on becoming a Contact Altoona volunteer and learning more about the training classes, call the Contact Altoona Administrative Offices from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays at 946-0531.

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