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| About | Services | Support | Resources | Contact | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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MATCH-UP Services: Friendly Visiting Volunteers visit their matches in their homes for approximately 1.5 hours once a week. The visits may consist of a chat over tea, a walk or reading aloud. Or they may involve simple assistance such as help with bills or changing a light bulb. Over time lasting, rewarding friendships blossom bringing happiness and joy to both senior and volunteer. Having a regular visitor can mean the world to a lonely, isolated senior. These visits provide much-needed friendship and support for those who may not have anyone else to depend on. Without the stimulation that friendship provides, an isolated senior can experience poor health, a lack of strength and energy, depression and disorientation, a sense of helplessness, and other physical, emotional, and mental health problems. Weekly friendly visits can change all that.
WCVB Channel 5 HealthBeat recently aired a story about one of MATCH-UP's friendly visiting matches. View the video clip on Channel 5's website… Friendly visiting can also take the form of "Telefriends" — support and reassurance by telephone for those who prefer that kind of engagement. We also have a bilingual (Spanish-English) chapter in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood where approximately half of the population is Spanish speaking. For over 20 years, MATCH-UP has been hard at work making matches throughout Boston and Brookline. In FY07, MATCH-UP served 240 elderly and disabled adults through on-going weekly friendly visits; 89 of these matches were formed in FY07. If you are interested in our friendly visiting service, please call us at 617-482-1510. Apply to volunteer with MATCH-UP…
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“The visits have turned into a life-long friendship.” | ||
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Friendly Visiting is MATCH-UP
Interfaith Volunteers' signature service. Volunteers of any age or
background are matched with elderly or disabled
adults throughout Boston who need companionship
and assistance. The visits spread sunshine into lives that may be
filled with loneliness and isolation.
"Thank
you, MATCH-UP, for Mary," says Carol, a 75-year-old
woman. "She sparkles up my life. Sundays are my worst days, but I
know that
she will be coming to visit and that makes all the difference."