Arlington Neighborhood Villages

ANV aims to provide a wide range of programs, events, and services that address the needs of our senior population in Arlington, VA who wish to age-in-place. We provide this assistance via a large corps of dedicated, vetted and trained volunteers who provide services as well as opportunities for social connection for seniors. Beginning in late 2021, ANV embarked on a strategic planning process to identify organizational priorities, and the accompanying plans and tactics, that we will need to increase our reach and impact over the next 5 years. (The new Strategic Plan will be posted later in 2022 on this website.)

ANV's long-term goal is to become an essential part of the service network for Arlington seniors aging in place in all parts of the County, serving a diverse group of seniors according to income, ethnicity, race, and disability. For 2022 our top goals are to: 1) Increase visibility within the community; 2) increase cultural and racial diversity within our membership and volunteer corps; and (3 invest in staff and administrative support systems that build the capacity to achieve our long-term strategic vision to help more seniors age in place safely, with opportunities for meaningful social connection.

Programs and services available to members of ANV include volunteers performing errands (grocery shopping, medication pickup, cleaning supplies) and transportation to medical appointments, groceries, banks, beauty and barber shops. Other services include friendly visits and walking buddies; daily check-ins; simple household help such as changing light bulbs and smoke alarm batteries; technology assistance; decluttering assistance.

Membership in ANV includes access to the above services and also:
- Discounted emergency response system, “Lifeline,” provided through Virginia Hospital Center.
- Subscription to Arlington County 55+ programs that include exercise classes and local travel opportunities via the Arlington Seniors bus.
- Subscription to Washington Consumer Checkbook so that members can obtain information on reliable local service providers.

To reduce social isolation, ANV conducts social gatherings, outings, and educational activities: these include holiday potlucks, health and wellness programs; docent-led tours of local historical or cultural sites; weekly speakers on interesting topics; happy hours; dining out groups, and special interest groups – from gardening to bocce. During the pandemic, ANV shifted many of its activities online, and we have trained our members in how to use Zoom technology to access these meetings and events.

ANV is working to build a diversified portfolio of sustainable funding and a financial model that provides sufficient resources to support ANV growth in line with the new strategic plan.

ANV is in a unique position to be able to provide both direct support and the human connection to make aging in place in Arlington possible. A volunteer-driven operation, ANV has a clear view of the needs of seniors, and working with our partners, can provide more seniors in Arlington with the support, information, and community they need to age in place safely. We have a volunteer coordinator who oversees a growing corps of trained and vetted volunteers ready to help. Each month, more volunteers join ANV and receive training online.

ANV understands the extra challenges that seniors face if on a limited income. From the very beginning, ANV has been committed to not turning anyone away for inability to pay our membership fee of $500 annually. The Founders of ANV established a Financial Aid Fund with an initial anonymous matching gift of $5,000. Since then, without interruption, ANV has been able to provide assistance to all qualified applicants. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, ANV realized it was in a position (due primarily to its trained corps of volunteers) to extend services to even more of the most at-risk seniors in the County. The pandemic has caused us to build upon our previous success of supporting low-income seniors in-need and at-risk.

Securing dedicated funding for the Financial Aid Fund will be a continuous effort so that ANV can support more low-to-moderate income seniors via subsidized memberships. Our fundraising efforts include seeking gifts and grants from individuals, foundations, and corporations, focused on the need to build up the Financial Aid Fund to serve our most vulnerable seniors. ANV's growing success in obtaining philanthropic grants reflects the community's recognition of ANV's contribution to the health and well-being of seniors. In 2022, we are presenting a webinar on legacy planning to introduce our members to ways to leave legacy gifts to ANV. In addition, we are becoming more closely engaged with corporate Arlington, making ANV more widely known by becoming a member of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

ANV is agile in its ability to respond to new needs in its environment. As COVID-19 descended on Arlington, ANV quickly adjusted its spending to match expense to projected income, while placing top priority on helping seniors, especially lower income seniors. ANV also quickly pivoted to providing formerly in-person social activities online and also moved to online training of new volunteers.

ANV is a rapidly growing village. Membership has grown from 205 at end of 2017 to 355 at end of 2021; the number of adult volunteers has grown from 201 in 2017 to 380 at the end of 2021, of whom about 200 are active volunteers. Volunteer training has been moved online, and the process of onboarding volunteers continues to run smoothly.

In 2021, ANV volunteers fulfilled almost 2,700 service requests. Volunteers contributed 8,600 hours and drove 30,000 miles on behalf of our members. The number attending our events totaled 4,488. These figures are down from the previous year due to the safety issues related to Covid-19. We moved many of our events from in-person to online and trained our members how to access the events via their computers.

Requests in 2021 for transportation were almost 40 percent of all requests. About one-third of requests involved errands for groceries, prescription pick-up, or food delivery from the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). Other services performed included home chores/maintenance; technology support, friendly visitors and phone buddies. Our new phone buddy program has matched over 120 members with volunteers who call periodically for friendly conversation and to ensure the member has what they need to be safe at home.

When the Covid pandemic struck, ANV quickly pivoted to help Arlington's most vulnerable seniors regardless of their ability to pay the membership fee. We currently welcome over 80 of Arlington's most vulnerable lower-income seniors with "temporary" no cost subsidized memberships and another 64 seniors participate in ANV's Discounted Membership program where 80 to 90% of the membership fee is reduced for people with incomes less than $47,250. We are now engaged in outreach to those "temporary" members to fully incorporate them into the ANV family.

ANV's fall Financial Aid Fundraising Campaigns in 2020 and 2021 greatly surpassed our goals, raising almost $30,000 in 2020 to permit ANV to support more lower-income, at-risk and in-need seniors. In 2021, we raised $40,000 in our Fall campaign. We will build upon this success and make growing efforts to obtain grants from foundations and other nonprofits. Fundraising via donations and grants was over $100,000 in 2021.