When Lotte Bailyn first became a member of the Cambridge Neighbors, she did so with the expectation it would serve merely as a form of “insurance.”
“But then I got hooked,” said the 94-year-old Belmont resident.
The Village Neighbors program, which provides social and practical services to its members, was founded in 1999 by a group of friends in Beacon Hill who were looking for a way to develop a community-based approach to “empowering adults at all stages … to live a fulfilling life.” In 2002, it became a nonprofit organization with members living throughout the Boston area.
Nearly 20 years later, there are more than 300 Villages worldwide, including more than 20 throughout Massachusetts. The Cambridge Neighbors, which has membership spanning Somerville, Watertown, and Arlington, has also provided resources to Belmont residents for the past seven years.
“The mission is to help people stay at home, and they do it by providing volunteers,” said Bailyn.
Bailyn said she was familiar with the program prior to her husband’s death a few years ago, but at the time, she and her husband felt they already had the support network they needed.
“When he died, I felt a little more vulnerable,” she said.
The Cambridge Neighbors, a fee-based membership program, offers members access to volunteer drivers, technical assistance, social gatherings, and informational programming, for example. It also connects seniors with vetted trade vendors.
“One of our big things here is to create a sense of belonging, a sense of community,” said Executive Director Jan Latorre-Stiller. “Many are isolated as they grow older, especially if they don’t have children around. This provides a way to connect with others in their community.”
The Cambridge Neighbors host dinners and coffee hours, as well as visits to museums and educational talks.
According to Latorre-Stiller, the organization typically has around 225 members. Members can choose varying levels of involvement depending on what practical or social services they’re looking for.
“A lot of our volunteers are members,” she said. “It sort of goes with our ethos: neighbors helping neighbors.”
The Neighbors organization helps to bridge the gap between the services local councils on aging can provide and the community’s needs.
“We typically have good relationships with [councils on aging],” Latorre-Stiller said. “We do overlap. I think they’re wonderful resources. The thing is, they deal with hundreds, if not thousands, of people. They can’t, because of capacity issues, provide the level of attention we would provide to members. They (COA) offer a lot of wonderful programming but it’s really two different versions of the same thing.”
In a way, it’s like a “concierge service,” she said.
For members, belonging to something like this is really reassuring them that there is somebody there so that if something goes awry, or they need something, they know who to call,” Latorre-Stiller said. “If we don’t provide it, or don’t typically provide it, we will find a way for them to get what they need.”
For more information, go to cambridgeneighbors.org or call 617-864-1715.
