Life Focus: Around Buffalo

A young man helps an elderly woman carry her groceries to the top floor of her apartment building. A schoolteacher stays late every day to tutor a little girl struggling with word problems. Doing a good deed doesn't have to involve volunteering in a third world country.

Compeer of Greater Buffalo, an organization started in 1975, is focused on just that. Through the power of friendship, their aim is to help improve the lives of children and adults striving for better mental health.

Originating in Rochester, N.Y., Compeer has spread to 80 different locations throughout the United States. Buffalo is their largest.

"Compeer is a place to match volunteers with people who are struggling or who have struggled with mental health problems," said Sarah Stimm, the director of adult and senior services at Compeer in Buffalo.

"The goal is to match volunteers with a friend so they can find good healthy activities to do together," she said.

The organization currently has 350 volunteers that range in age from 18 to 85. According to Stimm, anyone can volunteer after filling out an application and undergoing a brief background check.

Stimm is also a volunteer. She has been meeting with her friend, an 80 year-old woman who has struggled with mental health issues, once a week for over 13 years.

"She is now fully recovered from any mental health issues and now mostly suffers from loneliness," Stimm said.

"We have lunch together once a week and just talk," Stimm said. "After doing this for a while it becomes almost a selfish thing because I really want to do it. She makes my day very happy."

Compeer has two main programs: the adult/senior program and the child/adolescent program. Their adult and senior program consists of anyone 18 and over in need of a friend, and the child/adolescent program consists of anyone between the ages of 1 and 17 years old.

The children's program is geared towards at-risk children. This doesn't necessarily mean that the child is diagnosed with a mental illness, but could mean that perhaps mental illness exists in the home or the child is in foster-care.

Compeer also offers many additional programs to reach out to people in the community. The program, "Lunch buddies," is the newest addition and consists of volunteers heading over to Falk School and having lunch with the students.

There are currently 300 adults and 400 kids on the waiting list for a volunteer.

"I signed up for a Compeer friend 25 years ago but the girl dropped out before I even got to meet her," said Fay, one of Compeer's newest additions. "I've been on the waiting list for 25 years but now finally have a friend."

Over a vanilla milkshake, Fay described how Compeer makes her life a whole lot better. She now has an outside friend to talk to and hang out with once a week, and enjoys the monthly activities like movie nights and pizza parties.

"It's a great program and also so great to have a friend. I think of her like a daughter," Fay said. "It makes my whole day to know I have a Compeer."

Making a difference in someone's life doesn't necessarily come from a heroic act, but from simple gestures.

Michele Brown, the executive director for Compeer, is also a volunteer who is friends with a 15-year-old girl that she visits every Saturday. They go shopping, out to eat, to the movies, to see shows and much more.

"She's become such an important part of my life," Brown said. "She is my role model and has taught me so much. She challenges me in ways my own children haven't."

Brown's son, Joshua Souter, a junior at UB majoring in English and communication, also volunteers his time with two brothers who are 11 and 13 years old.

"We hang out and play video games," Souter said. "I have been doing this program for almost two years and it's nice to do something for someone else and also for myself."

Souter makes time in his busy school schedule to meet with the brothers twice a week.

"I would definitely recommend this for anyone. You can gain so much through doing it and it's so much more rewarding than you could ever imagine," Souter said.

"There are doctors, psychiatrists and counselors, but when you don't have a friend, someone who believes in you, someone who doesn't make you pay them to see you, life can be tough," Stimm said. "That's what Compeer is here to help with."

Applications are available online at www.compeerwest.org or by calling 716-883-3331.