9547. (Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 337, Sec. 31.)

(a) The purpose of the Senior Companion Program shall be to provide personally meaningful volunteer community service opportunities to older adults who are low income for the benefit of adults who need assistance with activities of daily living. It is the purpose of this chapter to enable older individuals to provide care and support on a person-to-person basis to adults with special needs, such as older adults who are at risk for institutionalization, in accordance with the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12651 et seq.).

(b) For the purposes of this chapter “senior companion volunteer” means an older adult who is 60 years of age or older, who is low-income, as determined in accordance with Part 1208 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and provides at least four hours a day, five days a week, of senior companion services under this chapter.

(c) Requirements of direct service contractors:

(1) Be a city, county, city and county, or department of the state, or any suitable private, nonprofit organization, that demonstrates the ability to provide the specified services in a variety of settings, including, but not limited to, in residential, nonresidential, institutional and in-home settings.

(2) Demonstrate the ability to recruit, select, train, and assign staff and volunteers.

(3) Provide volunteer participants with the same benefits, transportation, stipends, and income exemptions as provided to the senior companion volunteers funded through the Corporation for National Service.

(4) Provide or arrange for meals, transportation, and supervision for volunteers.

(5) Provide benefits and meaningful volunteer service opportunities to low-income individuals 60 years of age or older.

(6) Serve adults who have severe functional impairments.

(7) Provide services to, but not limited to, all of the following:

(A) Older adults who have severe functional or cognitive limitations that result in an individual’s inability to leave the home.

(B) Individuals with mental or neurological impairments who are capable of participating in activities, but have been denied access to those activities.

(C) Older adults who have withdrawn from all social interaction.

(D) Adults with physical disabilities who wish to participate in home- and community-based services programs, but who remain on waiting lists until there is an opening.

(8) Maintain a systematic means of capturing and reporting all required community-based services program data.

(d) In addition to the opportunity to help other adults who have special needs, such as at-risk older adults, senior companion volunteers shall receive all of the following:

(1) Expenses for transportation to and from their homes and the place where they render their services or transportation in buses or in other transportation made available to them.

(2) One free meal during each day in which the senior companion renders services.

(3) Accident insurance, an annual physical examination, and a nontaxable hourly stipend.

(f) This section shall be implemented only to the extent that funds are appropriated for its purposes in the annual Budget Act or in another statute.