Want to stay in your home as you age?
We can help!

Welcome to Raleigh Village East (RVE), a non-profit organization designed to help adults 55 and older who want to “age in place” and remaining in their homes as they age. With the help of volunteers and by providing access to useful resources, our virtual village can provide support to supplement that from family, friends and communities of faith.

Raleigh Village East invites neighbors who live within our RVE neighborhoods to be “Villagers”: those who need help, those who might provide help, and those who generously support RVE through donations. In this way, our senior Villagers will gain both the practical means and confidence to live their lives to the fullest in the homes and communities they love, and all who support them will be part of a multi-generational network fostering social engagement, pursuing shared interests, and just having fun.

Today, Raleigh Village East Villagers come from neighborhoods including:

Capitol Heights
Capital Park
Chavis Park
Cotton Mill
Idlewild
Madonna Acres
Mordecai
East Mordecai
Oakdale
Oakwood
Pilot Mill
South Park

Aging brings inevitable changes that may require different levels of support from time to time, and aging alone can pose problems. Raleigh Village East offers an alternative to leaving your home and community through its network of neighbors, volunteers and service providers. Our goal is that by working together we can stay independent as long as possible.

Message From Our CEO

Dear Villagers,

It’s almost Spring, but we just lived through another extreme cold weather snap in Raleigh. As a single 60-something, I’ve had to make sure the condensation pipe from the heating unit was wrapped so it didn’t freeze like last time, lay in cold weather food, and make sure some of our more fragile Villagers were prepared to lie low and drip the faucets.

I have been thinking a lot about other storms, the health kind. I read a JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) article which concluded that many Seniors don’t have enough support to weather the 2-3 weeks at home after a fall, illness or hospitalization to get well enough and strong enough to stay at home.

This year, Raleigh Village East will do an even deeper dive on what it truly takes to “age in place.” We have learned a lot about how to manage the temporary crunches: the provision of food, durable medical equipment, and getting to doctor visits. But we will expand our Services Committee to see how to better provide ongoing support.

Villager Membership Application Form

I never envisioned we would be this involved with helping Villagers maintain and adapt their homes, and when I did consider it, I thought grab bars and potty rails. We do a lot of that along with small emergency repairs and more large-scale modifications.

While we all know that gentrification is an ongoing threat to Seniors, especially in Southeast Raleigh, but the details of what it takes to keep someone in a generational homestead can be daunting.

We have helped dozens of people apply for the Raleigh Revitalization Program to repair their homes, and if only it was that simple. We have written letters vying for more time to sort out code violations, made small emergency repairs and modifications, applied for property tax reevaluations, made referrals to sort out deed issues resulting from wills that only specify “the heirs, and a host of other barriers and complications.

I have a favorite saying which is, ‘if it was easy, no one would have asked me.” So it is here. We are determined to continue to find ways to allow those who want to stay in their homes and communities to do so.
We also have a lot of joy along the way: cards, Christmas parties and lights tours, bingo and a lot of visiting. Come and join us as a Villager, if you want to volunteer or donate, or if we may be of service to you or a family member, friend or neighbor.

Best,
Deborah

PS: You can also e-mail us at [email protected].