The national Village to Village Network provided a model and expert advice, demonstrating how volunteers working at the grassroots level could offer practical assistance to their aging neighbors. Just as important, those volunteers provide a line of defense against isolation and loneliness.

With Finer as its first president, the Village began operations with a handful of volunteers in November 2013 as the nonprofit Greater Lewes Community Village. In 2015, already growing, GLCV hired its first paid employee, Executive Director Jackie Sullivan. In 2019, having expanded into Rehoboth Beach and Milton, the organization changed its name to Village Volunteers.

By the summer of 2020, the Village had grown to more than 260 members served by more than 140 volunteers — an extended family of support for some of our most vulnerable neighbors. Also that summer, Village Volunteers signed a collaboration agreement with a new branch, South Coastal Village Volunteers, extending the same services to the ZIP codes of Bethany Beach, Millville, and Ocean View.

While transportation and home service are key parts of what the Village does, says Sullivan, “We are much more than a ride organization. We are the relationship organization.”

We welcome you as a member, as a volunteer, or just to find out more about the Village. Get to know us before you need us!