The year 1995 must have been remarkable because three organizations were born that year: the New Deal Café, Friends of the Greenbelt Library and GIVES, the Greenbelt Intergenerational Volunteer Exchange Service.
The Beginning
Helen Geller, a gerontology student at the University of Maryland (UM), brought the idea of an organization to provide services to the elderly in their homes to the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee, which decided it was not something they could do. This led to the formation of an independent project design committee and affiliation with the existing Cooperative Caring Network for the first three years.
“We spent time trying to figure out what to call the organization. We wanted an easy acronym, one that would tell what the organization does,” said former mayor Judith Davis, a charter member and longtime vice president of GIVES.
GIVES began as a time dollar program, based on the work of Edgar Cahn, where service givers earn a credit for each hour they give, with the expectation everyone would offer services of some sort, and credits could be used to “pay” for services received. At first this was closely tracked, but it soon became apparent that some members needed services but were unable to offer any service in return, yet no one on the board wanted to deny needed services on that basis.
Services to be offered in the beginning included transportation, laundry, letter writing, reading, minor home repairs, pet sitting, sewing and mending, shopping and errands, telephone reassurance, visiting, gardening and yard work, light housework, respite care, meal preparation and delivery, closet cleaning, and packing and moving help.
Award for Excellence
In 1998 the Maryland Municipal League gave GIVES its Award for Excellence, recognizing the quality and variety of services offered. Its organizational structure was cited as being a model that could be replicated in other cities. Greenbelt beat 15 other municipalities with a population of 10,000 and above to win the honor.
Then-city manager Michael McLaughlin described GIVES “as an example of Greenbelt residents working together to ensure that their neighbors’ quality of life does not diminish when they are elderly or disabled.” He added, “Advantages of this program are a fostering of independence [and a] promoting of camaraderie and community spirit.”
Changes Along the Way
GIVES began with a board of directors and an advisory board, both with members drawn from residents from all over the city; city, county and state elected officials; city employees; city organizations; and local churches. There is no longer an advisory board.
At first volunteers staffed the office for two hours each weekday morning but that expanded to the current practice of four hours, from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. each weekday.
Services offered were gradually eliminated when there weren’t people who had the skills or the availability to provide them. Covid finally ended other services because GIVES stopped sending volunteers into people’s homes, said Carol Drees, president at the time. Throughout its history the greatest demand is for rides to appointments and to do errands. Current services also include friendly visits, to allow the principal caregiver time away, and occasionally pet care.
“The intergenerationality has been the hardest thing to achieve,” Davis said. With adult supervision, children and teens raked leaves for GIVES members, including Brownies and fathers and teachers with students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School and eighth graders from the former St. Hugh of Grenoble Catholic School. The students earned community service credits. This was a way to fulfill the intergenerational aspect of GIVES, although there were never enough volunteers to fulfill all the raking requests and the service has not been offered recently.
Volunteers
Former GIVES president Jean Cook said in the 50+ years she’s lived here she has been grateful that Greenbelt residents reach out to each other, “and I’m grateful for that now for me, since I no longer drive.”
A challenge in any volunteer organization is having people step up when something needs doing. Just ask Cook, president for 11 years. One day when Drees was in the office, Cook asked her if she would take over as president. When Drees declined, “I got on my knees and said, ‘oh please oh please oh please, we have to keep this going.’” Cook said. While the term was for two years, Drees agreed to serve for one and recruited Carol Shaw as vice president, to take over as president the following year.
Cook, Drees and Shaw became aware of a UM program which would assign business students to evaluate a program for a semester. At the time finding a volunteer meant a time-consuming process of telephoning volunteers until one agreed to fulfill the service request. The business student report said the organization had to get online or it would die. Then-city manager Nicole Ard made the connection to the Jewish Council for the Aging (JCA) which had a grant to assist senior villages, and GIVES qualified. Shaw said JCA “provides marketing assistance, the software for scheduling and training for drivers.” The training covers legal liability, ethics and how to treat people with special needs, Shaw said.
City Support
The city provides office space, insurance, internet access and equipment, including a telephone, computer and printer. This support means that members pay no dues and nothing for services, unlike similar programs in neighboring cities.
Other financial support comes from donations, in-kind contributions, grants and fundraising.
Community Involvement
GIVES volunteers staff booths at the Labor Day Festival Information Day, and in some years have participated in the parade. GIVES also participated in the Healing Hands commemoration of 9/11 held in Roosevelt Center in 2005, sponsored by Greenbelt Interfaith Leadership Association.
GIVES has sponsored AARP’s 55 Alive driving classes and also a CPR class. For over 10 years, until Covid, GIVES coordinated AARP’s tax preparation assistance in Greenbelt. That service will begin again during 2026.
It was a long birth process and there have been adaptations along the way, but GIVES still serves Greenbelt well.
