Helping elderly and disabled adults in the North Central community is getting easier. Now, volunteers can go online to use a “real-time” map to find homebound adults in their own neighborhoods who are waiting for assistance.

“We believe this is the first application of its kind in Arizona and possibly the nation,” said Elizabeth Banta, Beatitudes Center DOAR executive director. This groundbreaking concept was brought to fruition by a new Valley global mapping company and a team of Beatitudes Center DOAR staff members.

Beatitudes Center DOAR is a Phoenix area nonprofit serving homebound elders, disabled adults and family caregivers. This innovative organization teamed up with NiJeL to create a Google Maps “mashup” for the greater Phoenix area showing the locations of homebound elders who need volunteer assistance. NiJel calls a “mashup” the combination of data overlaying an online map.

          Two new maps are being used. The first one highlights the general location of residents who need “ongoing services” and shows volunteers the elders who need help with things such as grocery shopping, friendly visiting, and computer assistance. This gives volunteers a “real-time” opportunity to easily find out whether there is someone nearby waiting for assistance.

          The second is a “transportation services” map that shows users the homebound elders who need transportation to a doctor’s office for a medical appointment. Beatitudes Center DOAR is featuring these two maps on its Web site at www.centerdoar.org. Funding for these Web-based maps was granted by Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

          “It will be easier than ever for our volunteers to see who in their neighborhood needs help right now,” Banta said. “The maps are directly linked to our database. When a homebound person requests a service—such as grocery shopping—we can immediately update our database and that change will appear on our maps very quickly.”

Banta believes these maps will actually reduce the time homebound elders wait to be paired with a volunteer.

          Therese Davis, coordinator of Services for Beatitudes Center DOAR, said she especially hopes new people will be motivated to volunteer after seeing these maps. “Once people realize that someone in their own neighborhood needs help, I think they’ll be happy to assist a neighbor who lives right around the corner,” Davis added.

Additionally, Beatitudes Center DOAR is using a third map that highlights the location of existing volunteers to help employees pair them with people in need.

          “We wanted to develop something that was fast, simple and intuitive, so we chose to create a Google Maps mashup for that reason,” said JD Godchaux, co-executive Director of NiJeL.

He explained that these maps feature an address locator so a volunteer or potential volunteer could search a home or work address and immediately see existing volunteer opportunities nearby. Also, the identities of people who need services are protected. Only limited information about each homebound adult, such as first name only and major cross streets, is given out.

To see the map in real time, visit www.centerdoar.org and click on the map. For more information about becoming a volunteer with Beatitudes Center DOAR, call 602-274-5022.