Bowling Green and Warren County launch website to assist high-risk individuals during pandemic
BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- Modeled after similar volunteer match programs in Louisville and in Elizabethtown, an online COVID-19 Community Action Center for Bowling Green and Warren County launched Thursday.
Using geographic information systems (GIS) to help find and arrange matches between elder or high-risk residents requesting assistance and low risk volunteers who can help, this project is a collaboration between WKU Geography staff and students, the City of Bowling Green, Warren County government and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.
The website is a place where residents of Warren County can request a volunteer or sign up to be a volunteer for a neighbor who is self-isolating during this time of social distancing. Businesses and organizations can also use the site to offer resources or recruit volunteers for COVID-19 relief work they are doing.
The Warren County Sheriff’s Office will review driver’s licenses of all potential volunteers, and volunteers will receive a short training to make sure they are healthy and practicing social distancing for very low contact or no contact deliveries. This project has been developed in consultation with United Way 2-1-1, BRADD Aging Services, Warren County Emergency Management, and other partners. Bowling Green Coalition of Active Neighborhoods (BGCAN) and Age Friendly BG volunteers are also contributing to the project.
Karen Foley with Bowling Green’s neighborhood and community played a role in creating the initiative.
“We are so fortunate here in Bowling Green, Warren County, and even in our region to have the kind of organizations that we do that really do come together and tries to be innovative,” Foley said.
To request a volunteer match or to sign up as a volunteer, visit the website linked from the City’s Coronavirus Response Page at www.bgky.org/coronavirus or access it directly at http://www.warrencountyky.
