SUSLA AmeriCorps Seniors Serving as Foster Grandparent Volunteers

The Foster Grandparent Program provides grants to qualified agencies and organizations for the dual purpose of engaging persons 55 or older, with limited incomes, in volunteer service to meet critical community needs and to provide a high-quality volunteer experience that will enrich the lives of the volunteers. Program funds are used to support Foster Grandparents in providing supportive, person to person service to children with exceptional or special needs. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency responsible for the nation’s volunteer and service efforts with AmeriCorps, the federal funding agency.

The Foster Grandparent Program provides grants to organizations with a dual purpose: to engage Americans 55 years and older in volunteer service and to provide one-on-one support to children with special needs to improve their academic, social, or emotional development. The volunteers in this program help children learn to read and provide one-on-one tutoring; mentor trouble teenagers and young mothers; care for premature infants or children with disabilities; help children who have been abused or neglected.

Through the SUSLA AmeriCorps Seniors Caddo/Bossier/Desoto Foster Grandparent Volunteer Programs serving as tutors and mentors providing needed strong, consistent relationships with caring adults that help build confidence and life skills with youth. They need extra love, nurturing, and understanding. The AmeriCorps Seniors Caddo/Bossier/Desoto Foster Grandparent Volunteer Programs at volunteer serving as a Foster Grandparent, fill the gap, bringing children in need together with seniors in a mutually beneficial experience. Although the Caddo/Bossier Foster Grandparent Program has operated in Shreveport/Bossier since 1971980, Southern University-Shreveport has been the sponsor since July 1, 2021, and now serves in DeSoto Parish as well.