The Ashby Village Board is very pleased to announce that it unanimously voted at its last meeting to expand the Ashby Village service area to include Richmond. Our recent efforts to increase membership and volunteer participation in Richmond began as a pilot project. Goals and evaluation measures were set to assess whether both Ashby Village, and Richmond members, could be well served by their inclusion.
We are excited to report that the goals for increased membership and volunteer numbers were exceeded (there are 23 Richmond members and 22 Richmond volunteers), and that a survey of members reported high satisfaction levels with Ashby Village as a way to build community and to give back to the community.
Some of the comments from the survey that sum up the Richmond cohort's excitement about Ashby Village so far include:
- It's the people that make the organization and they are great!
- Have really enjoyed it so far
- Really happy to be involved! Hope to be able to volunteer more soon in the future.
- Based upon my limited research and some personal experience, many people desire to 'age in place' if they have access to a community and support services that meets their needs. The AV model, including a core of paid professional staff, appears to the the best way to meet that need within a specific geographic area.
We want to thank the Richmond Planning Group, led by Julie Freestone, who contributed their time and energy to achieve these results. "Richmond residents are so excited about being able to join Ashby Village as members or volunteers. We're looking forward to recruiting more residents and offering some Richmond-based activities", Julie enthusiastically shared.
Other members of the planning group are Kate Jennings, Sandra Whisler, Sara Cleveland, Susan Newman, Dave Schulz, and Esther Feldman, and Mary Graham from Northtowns also contributed her expertise. Thanks also to the Ashby Village staff and Flo Raskin who supported the Richmond Planning Group in its work.
A warm Ashby Village welcome to our Richmond members and volunteers!