St. Vincent Healthcare Foster Grandparent Program

The Foster Grandparent Program is an AmeriCorps Seniors national volunteer program that provides older Americans the opportunity to put their life experiences to work helping children in their communities.  Foster Grandparents serve as mentors and tutors to children in the classrooms who need extra help. This is a federal national service program sponsored with matching funds through it's local sponsor, the St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation. 

Although structured like employment, enrolled Foster Grandparents are volunteers. If income and program eligible, they receive an hourly tax-free stipend of $4.00 plus other benefits. 

The program strives to keep volunteers safe and provides sneeze guards, face masks, or other protection measures if needed. We work with the teachers to provide a safe, supervised, and productive service opportunity for our volunteers. We follow the guidelines set forth by the volunteer stations and our federal and local sponsors. We appreciate our volunteers and we want what's best for them.  

At this time, we are accepting applications for the 22/23 school year. 

Foster Grandparents (FGs) are classroom "grandparents".  They are mentors and tutors in an assigned classroom (school, Head Start, or other youth programs), working directly with children to help them in areas where they are struggling.  Always supervised by a teacher or other staff person, FGs work on teacher-assigned tasks such as reading, helping students with their assignments, being there to listen to the students, playing games, etc. Although a FG may indirectly work with all the students in the classroom, the FG targets a few children who need their help the most, as measured through classroom assessments. 

The program asks for a 12 hour/week minimum commitment during the school year.  In turn, the FG will earn a stipend, transportation reimbursement, holiday and leave hours, training, and annual recognition.  Foster Grandparents do not provide their own educational material, but serve at the direction of the teacher to help children.