Cisco helps send calls out to lonely elderly people in need

Internet Protocol technology network leader Cisco® helps keep millions of people in touch around the world each day – but thanks to a handful of its North Sydney employees, the company is now keeping in touch with a number of lonely elderly people in the community who are most in need of daily contact.

Around 40 Cisco employees at its North Sydney office are volunteering for Catholic Healthcare's ‘Community Links', a program which involves volunteers telephoning a designated isolated older person at a set time each day, to help make sure they are safe and well.

Catholic Healthcare started Community Links as a pilot program following the spate of seven lonely deaths reported in Sydney in early 2006, and it has now been launched as a full program.

“We are enormously appreciative of the generosity being shown by Cisco and its employees,” said Kerry Lovell, Catholic Healthcare's Corporate Partnerships Manager. “It shows great community spirit from everyone involved. We have so many people living alone in the community, and the simple act of receiving a phone call each day can make all the difference to the wellbeing of so many. Being involved in a program such as this is equally enriching for the volunteers."

The Cisco volunteers work in pairs, sharing the daily telephoning duties with a client with whom the volunteers have been ‘matched', based on similar interests.

Cisco distribution channel Account Manager Sarah Emmerson is one of the employees volunteering for Community Links. Mrs Emmerson has been with Cisco for eight years.

“Part of the reason I've enjoyed being with Cisco for so long is the involvement it has in the community,” Mrs Emmerson said. “I've done some volunteering in the past, but it is hard to give time when working five days a week. It's so much easier to make the commitment by being able to do this in our work time.”

Mrs Emmerson said she was hoping to make a meaningful connection with Community Links' client she has been matched with.

“Most of my grandparents are gone now. I miss that interaction, especially the talks I used to have with my grandmother on the phone,” she said. “I hope to build a strong relationship with the person l'm calling.”