Former Veterans Services Assistant Tapped as RSVP Director
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Retired Senior Volunteer Program welcomed a new director this week.
Lisa Torrey began her leadership role in the department on Wednesday and looks forward to working with city seniors.
"I'm super excited to be in this position and it's a great opportunity to serve my community," she said.
Torrey has been employed by the city for 11 years and has a degree in human services. She worked in the School Department's Parent Child Home Program as a special education paraprofessional for the district, and most recently as the administrative assistant in the Veterans Services Department since 2018.
This position is a step up from her former role within the city and provides an opportunity to expand her human services work, she said.
Throughout Torrey's four years in the Veterans Services Department, she helped veterans obtain state and local benefits through programs such as Chapter 115, a state initiative that provides financial aid for food, shelter and housing, clothing, and medical care to veterans and dependents with limited incomes.
Because a majority of the veterans she worked with were also seniors, she is bringing many tools from her former position to RSVP.
"There's a lot of crossover information that I can utilize," Torrey said. "Definitely there's a correlation between the two groups of people."
Former RSVP Director Jeffrey Roucoulet is now in the newly created post of business manager in the Department of Public Utilities. The position is responsible for assisting and indirectly overseeing the financial, personnel, and strategic management of the department.
It was approved during the fiscal 2022 budget season,
Roucoulet started his new position last month and has been keeping up on RSVP's departmental reports until the new director was found. He is now helping Torrey transition into the role.
Torrey's immediate goals for RSVP are to recruit more volunteers and get the department's brand out to the public. She said programs such as Wheels for Wellness, a volunteer community car ride service, can never have enough drivers.
On Thursday, the RSVP Advisory Board officially welcomed Torrey as the new director during its regular meeting. They also thanked Roucoulet for his work as director.
Volunteer coordinator Diane Monterosso reported that volunteer hours are starting to rise to pre-pandemic levels.
RSVP is 90 to 95 percent complete for 2021 with more than 28,000 hours and 246 volunteers. This is almost double the hours for 2020, which were about 14,400 (largely affected by the pandemic).
In 2019, there were 278 volunteers with more than 33,200 hours.
"It really looks like people are starting to volunteer again," Monterosso said, "And I imagine that number is going to go way up this year."
Roucoulet reiterated that Wheels for Wellness is insatiable and can never have enough drivers.
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