T. Crandall

As a multi-faceted artist whose creative passions run from filmmaking and writing to photography and singing, Crandall knows the important role having a balanced personal life plays in his professional work. As Crandall sees it, each of his outside interests - his published book of poetry, for example, or his film shorts which have screened at film festivals around the world - are sources of personal strength for facing the challenges of work.<br /> <br /> By caring for himself, the idea goes, Crandall can do more to care for others. And it's a practice he gets to implement in the professional sphere, too, as program manager at <a href="http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/org_detail.jsp?orgid=4063" target="_blank">Legacy Corps</a>, a San Francisco-based organization that provides "respite" care for caregivers in home environments.<br /> <br /> The concept of <a href="http://chtop.org/ARCH.html" target="_blank">respite care</a> is simple but powerful. Caregivers are people too, and by supporting them in their personal lives you can strengthen the entire caregiving process.<br /> <br /> Legacy Corps does this by placing volunteer teams of temporary caregivers as part-time substitutes for often stressed-out primary caregivers. So while caregivers get much-needed breaks to attend to personal business, spend time with their own families, or even just relax, the volunteer team members get life-affirming experience helping the sick or frail manage on a daily basis.<br /> <br /> That the volunteer teams are "intergenerational" - groups are composed of one youth and one senior - is a powerful facet of the Legacy Corps program. And it's something that especially resonated with Crandall when he was thinking about taking on the role.<br /> <br /> "I've always had a fascination for human development," he said. "My career has had a strong youth development focus, and I wanted to factor an exploration of adult development into my work. This way I get to examine the process of development across the life-span up close and in very personal ways. It really doesn't get much better than this for me professionally!"<br /> <br /> So far, Crandall's biggest challenge at Legacy Corps has been <a href="http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/opp_detail.jsp?oppid=229220">finding senior volunteers</a>. While many young people have shown interest in developing relationships with and supporting older people, he says, the response from potential senior volunteers has been more restrained. A few senior volunteers, such as Vera Whelan (pictured above with Crandall), have been tremendously giving of their time and energy, but overall the challenges have been formidable.<br /> <br /> "It may have to do with stereotypes and negative representations of youth in the media which can have an effect on the interest of older people in a program like this," he said.<br /> <br /> Since he started at Legacy Corps, Crandall has used VolunteerMatch to recruit new volunteers. VolunteerMatch's convenient listing manager tools let him list Legacy Corps opportunities alongside those of the program's parent organization, the Family Service Agency of San Francisco.<br /> <br /> "VolunteerMatch has been great and enabled us to reach many potential volunteers," said Crandall. "Two of my best volunteers found out about the program through VolunteerMatch."