Minnehaha Academy, Living Well partner to provide students and residents with priceless interactions
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – All week, high school students from Minnehaha Academy will be outside of their classrooms. Instead of being at school, they're learning lessons by serving the community.
One of the many places students are volunteering is Living Well Disability Services homes across the Twin Cities.
Their first stop was the Living Well home in Mendota Heights. Four sophomores spent the morning playing games and doing arts and crafts with the residents who live there.
"[You're] communicating just through your actions and watching them smile, and just like, you know, validating them," said student volunteer Kari Ana Palmer.
"We have extra time, and it doesn't cost anything to give it," said student volunteer Lucas Eckman.
This partnership is part of a program at the Minnehaha Academy called Core Formation, where students volunteer at places in need all over the Twin Cities for a week, in lieu of going to school.
"No matter your age, you can always play a role in serving your community," said Jessa Anderson, the director of Core Formation.
Partnering with Living Well was intentional because the volunteer need is so great.
"It's a crisis, it's beyond crisis in our field," said Living Well CEO Tom Gillespie. "For Living Well, we're 100 staff short."
Living Well is just one of hundreds of nonprofits across the state providing at-home care, and all of them are suffering from staffing shortages right now. If they don't get more government funding to hire more people, homes are at risk of closing down.
"When homes close, folks are going back with family, they're going to nursing homes, they're going to hospitals, when they don't need that level of care," Gillespie said.
Living Well staff hope volunteers find something special during their time at the homes, and that keeps them coming back.
"I just think I have a new passion maybe to go into health care, and it's kind of something I've been interested in, and just like making people feel more like human," Palmer said.
Click here to apply for a job with Living Well, and click here to apply as a Living Well volunteer.