Have an old cell phone in the drawer at home? Donating it to a program for senior citizens will give it new life and contribute to safety in the community. Phone chargers to accompany the phones are also needed.
Recycling cell phones helps senior citizens and others who need line to 911
A call is being sent throughout Champaign County for cell phones to give to senior citizens, victims of abuse, people with disabilities and others who could benefit from a direct line to emergency personnel, free of charge.
"It doesn't matter how old or new it is," Sheriff Brent Emmons said of donated phones that will be sent to The 911 Cell Phone Bank, where information will be cleared and the phones refurbished, or replaced if need be, at no charge and sent back to Champaign County for distribution.
Deputy Roy Mulkey said the electronic memory of each phone will be wiped to eliminate the risk of identity theft. He added the service chips or cards are removed so the phones only can be used
to dial 911.
People willing to donate phones can drop them off at various sites in the community. Emmons said drop boxes are located at municipal buildings, the Senior Center, corner of South Walnut and Thompson in Urbana, and Tri-County Community Action, 955 N. Main St., Urbana.
Susan Downing of Tri-County Community Action advised contributors also to donate the phone chargers if possible.
She said applications for obtaining the phones are available through the Seniors and Law Enforcement Together (SALT), of which Tri-County is a member.
Emmons said he believed the SALT program, established in Clark County and other areas of the country to reduce crime against seniors and address their law enforcement needs, could assist Champaign County seniors and those working for their welfare.
Twenty-five people attended the first local meeting in January and attendance has remained steady, according to Jackey Arrington of the Senior Center. Senior citizens and individuals and agencies that assist them are invited to the meetings held at 1:30 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays at the Senior Center. Law enforcement representatives also attend the meetings.
"Anyone willing to participate is welcome," Emmons said, adding the more people involved, the better the organization will be.
"It's geared toward being run by volunteer seniors," he said. "Volunteers are the key elements because their hearts are in it."
The group is seeking a senior citizen to serve as voluntary chair of SALT. Anyone interested in volunteering or in learning more about the position can call Emmons at 652-1311. The council will select the chairman.
Determining the needs of seniors
While there are plenty of programs that could be adopted by the local SALT council, Emmons said care should be taken to adopt only programs sure to benefit Champaign County seniors.
"We can set programs up now, but we don't want to set something up our seniors don't think they need," he said.
"The impatient part of me wants it all in place now, but the more logical side says priorities should be addressed first," he said. "There are a tremendous amount of programs out there that have been used, but it doesn't necessarily mean that's what our community needs."
The cell phone project, however, is something Emmons had no problem initiating. "We didn't want to wait on that. There is an obvious need for it."
As for other projects, Emmons said that's up to local seniors.
As a way for seniors to communicate their needs to the council, about 6,000 surveys were distributed throughout the county.
"The surveys were designed to identify what their priority needs are," Emmons said, explaining he hopes to have an Urbana University student review the surveys and develop a list of priorities.
A problem is surveys were distributed a couple months ago and fewer than 100 have been returned.
"We were hoping to get more feedback," Arrington said at Tuesday's SALT meeting.
Surveys can be obtained at the sheriff's office, the Senior Center and Tri-County Community Action, as well as many churches, pharmacies and assisted-living facilities in the county. Surveys can be returned to these locations or mailed to the address on the survey.
"Seniors are strongly encouraged to complete these surveys," she said. "The survey results will steer the council's future projects."
Emmons said a program such as SALT has been needed a long time.
"It's an opportunity for us as law enforcement and for us as service providers to build bridges and open lines of communication," he said. "It opens a whole new world to the services we can provide not only to our seniors, but to everybody."
Citizen Staff Writer Breanne Parcels contributed to this story.
"Ads published on this site are not for republication in print or web media without the expressed written consent of both the advertiser and The Brown Publishing Company."
