People Plus and Brunswick police need volunteers for the Good Morning program, a daily check-in service for residents who are older, live alone or may be recuperating at home.
“It’s not just for seniors,” said People Plus Programs Director Jill Ellis. “It’s also for caregivers.”
On average, about 15 residents call a designated phone number and leave a voice mail. Calls come in by 9:30 a.m. or earlier, every day of the year. The caller leaves a message to say good morning or hello to the volunteer listener.
Some messages may be brief or chatty. After a while, the volunteer listener gets to know the caller’s voice and listens for clues, such as whether a caller sound disoriented or depressed.
“They get cued into the sounds of the voices, the messages,” said Brunswick Police Communications Supervisor Sonia Moeller.
If a volunteer can’t reach a participant, the volunteer calls an emergency contact, who may live next door, in the next state or across the country.
If the emergency contact cannot reach the participant, a police officer will perform a welfare check.
Participants agree when they sign up that the welfare check may involve an officer accessing a home by any means necessary.
All of the personal information participants give when they sign up for the Good Morning program remains at the police station.
“Our goal is to increase the participation rate,” Ellis said. “We want to serve as many people as possible.”
To do that, more volunteers are needed. It takes about an hour to call the list of people each volunteer checks on.
Volunteers often recruit other volunteers.
“I recruited my wife, my neighbor across the street, and my neighbor two houses down,” volunteer Jack Rhode said.
People requesting a check-in live in Brunswick and Harpswell. Nearby towns including Freeport and Topsham established a call-in program, too.
“We have one lady who blesses us all every day,” Moeller said. “It’s very sweet.”
People interested in becoming a Good Morning volunteer must complete an application and undergo a criminal background check.
To learn more about volunteering, contact Ellis at (207) 729-0757 or email programming@peopleplusmaine.org. Moeller can be reached at (207) 725-6620.
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