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A.  The office of elderly affairs shall establish a computer-based volunteer service credit program under which persons may volunteer their services to provide respite care, homemaker care, home repair and maintenance services as provided by La. Rev. Stat. 46:937.1(B) and (C), or related services to persons sixty years of age or older who are determined by the office to need such care.  Volunteer participants in this program shall receive credit for providing the volunteer services, which credit may then be drawn upon when volunteers or their spouses are determined by the office to need services included in the volunteer service credit program.

B.  The office shall establish a computer-based volunteer skills bank which shall include a registry of names, skills, and interests of persons earning service credits, an accounting system necessary to track service credits earned by each volunteer, and the capacity to provide each volunteer with monthly balances of credits earned and credits expended.

C.  To the extent possible, the office shall recruit and train a sufficient number of volunteers to assure the availability of volunteers to meet the needs of persons who have service credits and who need to draw on their accounts.  The office shall also develop a contingency plan for using the staff and programs of the office to ensure that services are available in return for credit in the event no appropriate volunteer is available.  The contingency plan shall be incorporated into rules adopted pursuant to the provisions of this Section.

D.  The office shall adopt rules necessary to administer the program, which shall include standards to screen and train participants and to limit the number of hours of credit which may be accumulated by each volunteer.

E.  The office shall coordinate this program with the parish councils on aging and other existing volunteer programs where feasible.

F.  The office shall report annually to the legislature on the implementation of the program.  The report shall include the number of volunteer participants, the number of credited hours of service, all costs associated with the program, any recommendations for program modifications, and any other information relevant to program effectiveness.  The first annual report shall be delivered to the legislature no later than thirty days prior to the 1988 Regular Session and shall include the office’s assessment of the feasibility of the program and any recommendations as to whether the program should be continued, expanded, or discontinued.

Acts 1986, No. 623, §1; Acts 1995, No. 1134, §1, eff. June 29, 1995; Acts 2013, No. 384, §5, eff. when one of the 20 executive branch depts. is abolished or a const. amend. authorizing creation of an additional dept. becomes effective, whichever is earlier.