Sally Kelly writes the “Senior Life” column for The Portager, a locally owned news outlet serving Portage County. In her September 9, 2026 piece, “Become a guardian volunteer for vulnerable neighbors,” she wrote about something she had never really thought about before: adult guardianship. Kelly’s own background is with children, not seniors; she started out placing guardians for abused and neglected kids at the Children’s Home in Akron. She draws a clean, useful line from that experience to this one. A legal guardian for a vulnerable adult does the same basic job a guardian does for a child: step in, under a court’s supervision, for someone who cannot currently manage their own health, finances, or home.
Kelly’s column focuses on Portage County’s own program, run by the Portage County Guardianship Service Board under Probate Judge Patricia J. Smith. Volunteers there are trained, supervised by the Board, and visit the person under guardianship to check on their well-being, all “through the least restrictive means possible,” which is the standard that should govern every guardianship in this state and, too often, doesn’t. If you are in Portage County and want to get involved, the Board’s executive director, Diana L. Clarke, can be reached at 330-839-3964. Start at portagecountygsb.org.
One clarification, because the details matter if you actually sign up. Kelly mentioned a three-hour online class. That figure can be right for a volunteer visitor who never becomes the legal guardian. The statewide Supreme Court requirement is different, and it applies only to people the probate court appoints as guardians. Under Superintendence Rules 66.06 and 66.07, an appointed adult guardian must complete a one-time six-hour Fundamentals of Adult Guardianship course, then three hours of continuing education each year after appointment. Training for appointed guardians is free through the Ohio Adult Guardianship Education Program. Volunteer visitors work under a public guardian or a guardianship services board; their training is set by that program and the local court, not by Rule 66. Ask which role you are applying for before you register for a class.
Why this Belongs on a Blog that Treats Guardianship as a Last Resort
I’ve spent time on this blog making the case that guardianship is a blunt instrument that should be a last resort, not a first stop, and one that badly needs oversight. None of that argument is a reason to walk past the volunteers who are already doing this work well, under real court supervision, for people who genuinely have no one else. A trained volunteer visitor is often the only check between an isolated ward and neglect. That is exactly the kind of oversight guardianship-reform advocates keep asking for, and it already exists in a few dozen Ohio counties, mostly unadvertised, and usually short on volunteers.
So consider this an invitation. If Kelly’s column got you thinking about it, here is where the same kind of program operates elsewhere in Ohio, as best we could compile it, and what the job actually is before you call.
Two different volunteer jobs
Ohio programs use similar words for two different roles. Ask which one a county actually needs before you apply.
- Volunteer visitor / guardianship support volunteer / friendly visitor: A public guardian, a guardianship services board, or the court itself remains the legal decision-maker. You are extra eyes and a friendly face. You visit monthly, watch living conditions, talk with caregivers, and write a short report. This is the Portage County PCGSB model Kelly described. Summit County’s Senior Visitor Program and Richland County’s Friendly Visitor Program work the same way. Rule 66’s six-hour / three-hour sequence does not automatically apply unless the court later appoints you as guardian.
- Volunteer guardian of the person: The probate court appoints you. You make, or help make, medical and quality-of-life decisions. You visit, attend care conferences, and file the annual guardian’s report. You almost never manage the ward’s money. This is the model used by the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging, Stark County’s Guardian Support Services, the Wayne County Volunteer Guardianship Association, Clark County’s United Senior Services, Summit’s Volunteer Guardian Program (now run by Adult Guardianship Services), Wood County, Medina, Williams, and others. Those volunteers do take the six-hour fundamentals course and the three-hour annual refresher.
Both roles change lives. The visitor role is often the easier on-ramp. The appointed-guardian role carries more authority, and more power to insist that a facility treat the person as a person.
Where Ohio’s Volunteer Guardian Programs Operate
A few things worth knowing before you use this table. Some of these programs are run directly by the county probate court. Others are administered by a nonprofit under contract with the court; Ohio often calls this a “guardian of last resort” arrangement, and it is a common model because courts themselves are rarely staffed to run a volunteer program. Where the court itself hosts the sign-up page, we have linked to it directly. Where a nonprofit administers the program, we have linked to them and named the court they report to.
Ohio has 88 counties and no single statewide volunteer-guardian agency. Coverage is uneven. Large holes remain in Appalachia, much of the northwest, and many rural counties. Wood County recently reported 433 open guardianship cases and only 17 volunteers. If your county is not listed, call the probate court anyway. Many courts will train an individual volunteer even without a branded program. The Supreme Court publishes a county-by-county probate resource guide.
Part of the sourcing behind any statewide inventory still traces to a 2019 Eye on Ohio investigation, cross-checked here against each organization’s current site. Program names, directors, and contact numbers change. Call before you drive anywhere or mail an application.
| County / region | Program | What volunteers do / notes | Where to learn more or apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allen & Putnam | Crime Victim Services Guardian Program | Volunteer guardian of the person. About 2–3 hours a month. Six-hour Ohio training plus program orientation. | Program page · Allen Probate |
| Butler & Warren | LifeSpan of Ohio | Volunteers often start as friendly visitors, then may be appointed guardian of the person for more stable nursing-home cases. | LifeSpan · Butler Probate |
| Clark | United Senior Services Volunteer Guardianship | Nursing-home residents age 60+ without willing family. Visit twice a month. Six-hour Supreme Court training. One-year commitment. | USS program · Clark Probate |
| Cuyahoga & Lorain | Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Adult Guardianship Services | Large mixed volunteer/staff model. Volunteers serve as guardian of the person; staff take more complex cases. | LMM · Cuyahoga Probate |
| Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Licking, Pickaway | COAAA Volunteer Guardian Program | Court-appointed guardian of the person for nursing-home residents. Two visits a month. Program attorney at the appointment hearing. Age 21+. | COAAA VGP · Franklin Probate |
| Hamilton | Cincinnati Area Senior Services / Personal Guardianship Services | Volunteer and professional guardians for unrepresented adults. Confirm current volunteer openings before applying. | CASS · Hamilton Probate |
| Holmes | Holmes County Probate Court | Court-based volunteer guardianship. Contact the court directly about current openings and local training. | Holmes Probate |
| Huron | Catholic Charities (Diocese of Toledo) Volunteer Guardianship | Matches screened volunteers with adults who have no suitable family. Volunteers report to Huron County Probate Court. | Huron Probate guardianships |
| Lucas | Lucas County Guardianship Services Board | Public guardianship board of last resort for indigent adults. Volunteer openings are typically at the Board/trustee level, not case-level guardians. | LCGSB · Lucas Probate |
| Marion | Marion County Adult Volunteer Guardian Program | Court-run guardian of the person. No handling of money. Six-hour fundamentals plus three hours of annual continuing education. | Ask Marion County Probate Court for the MCAVGP application. |
| Medina | Medina County Probate Court Volunteer Guardianship Program | Guardian of the person for indigent Medina residents without family. Health and placement decisions only. Age 21+, Ohio resident. | Medina Probate · (330) 725-9703 |
| Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Shelby | Life Essentials (Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley) | Staff and trained volunteers serve as guardian of the person. Monthly visits. Expanding coverage across the Miami Valley. | CSSMV / Life Essentials · Montgomery Probate |
| Ottawa | Ottawa County Probate Court Volunteer Guardianship (with RSVP) | Guardian of the person only. Court training and support. RSVP partnership can provide mileage or meal stipends for volunteers 55+. | Contact Ottawa County Probate Court. |
| Portage | Portage County Guardianship Service Board Volunteer Visitors | The program in Kelly’s column. Monthly visits to public-guardianship wards; written reports to the Board and Court. Age 18+, Ohio license, background check. Local visitor training (Kelly cited three hours). Rule 66’s six-hour / three-hour sequence applies only if the court later appoints you as guardian. | PCGSB · Portage Probate · (330) 839-3964 |
| Richland | Friendly Visitor Program + Mid-Ohio Guardianship Services | Court Friendly Visitors monitor facility wards monthly and file a short report. Separate agencies also provide professional or volunteer guardianship. | Richland Probate guardianship |
| Stark | Guardian Support Services, Inc. | Volunteer guardians for nursing-home residents. No finances. Monthly visit; initial and yearly training; annual court report. Matched by geography. | Become a volunteer · Stark Probate |
| Summit | Volunteer Guardian Program, operated by Adult Guardianship Services of Summit County; plus the Court’s Senior Visitor Program | The court launched the Volunteer Guardian Program in 2015. In 2022 it spun out as Adult Guardianship Services of Summit County (AGS), which now recruits and trains volunteer guardians of the person. The probate court still runs a separate Senior Visitor Program. | AGS volunteer page · Summit Probate volunteers |
| Union | Union County Guardianship Services | Evolved from a volunteer-guardian program into a case-manager model. Volunteer visitor options have existed alongside it. Confirm current roles with UCGS and the court. | UCGS · Union Probate |
| Wayne | Wayne County Volunteer Guardianship Association (WCVGA) | Nonprofit, active since 2012, that recruits, screens, and trains volunteer guardians of the person and presents them to Wayne County Probate Court. Age 21+, background check, short initial training. No estate duties. Appointed guardians still complete Rule 66 education. | WCVGA volunteer page · Wayne Probate guardianships |
| Williams | Williams County Volunteer Guardian Program (Dept. of Aging / Probate) | Guardian of the person for nursing-home residents. No estate duties. Training through the Department of Aging and the court. | Williams County Dept. of Aging · (419) 633-4317 · Williams Probate |
| Wood | Wood County Probate Court Volunteer Guardian Program | Urgent need: hundreds of open cases and far too few volunteers. Age 21+, background check, six-hour training, monthly face-to-face contact. | Wood Probate · (419) 354-9230 |
If a link has moved, start with the county probate court page. That office is always the appointing authority.
What it Typically Takes to Serve
- Age: Age 18 or 21 and older, depending on the program; Ohio resident or a local connection.
- Background: Application, interview, references, and a criminal background check.
- Dependability: Reliable transportation. Most visits are in nursing homes, group homes, or private residences.
- Training: If you will be appointed as guardian: the free six-hour Supreme Court fundamentals course, plus three hours of continuing education each year after appointment. If you will be a visitor only, the local program’s own training, often a shorter class. Confirm hours with that program. Do not assume Rule 66 applies, and do not assume it does not if the court later appoints you.
- Duties: A monthly visit in most programs, twice a month in some, quarterly in a few, and a short written report.
Once you are matched, this is usually a few hours a month: not a second career. The hard part is showing up steadily, including on the days the person no longer remembers your name and the facility would rather you did not ask about the unexplained bruise.
How this Fits Aging in Place
If you are reading this as a planner for your own later life, or as counsel to a client, take three actions that matter more than hoping a stranger-volunteer appears later:
- Name decision-makers now. Execute a financial power of attorney and a health-care power of attorney while capacity is clear. Name successors. Tell those people you named them.
- Settle a Trust: A properly drafted revocable living trust, paired with advance directives, does two distinct jobs. First, it reduces the odds that a court ever needs to appoint a guardian. Decision-making authority is already assigned to someone the person chooses, not someone a judge selects after a crisis. Second, in a trust-code state, a well-drafted revocable living trust keeps trust assets out of a guardian’s reach even if a guardianship is later opened for other reasons. That matters. A guardian facing personal liability for whatever happens to the ward at home has every incentive to solve the risk by moving him into a facility. Managing the risk in place is harder. A trust with the right successor-trustee provisions and clear guidance on care preferences removes that incentive at the source. It is one of the more effective, and most overlooked, ways to close off the on-ramp from “needs some help” to “placed in a facility because that was administratively simpler.”
- Write Your Values, not Just the Forms. A living will and a short letter of intent stating where you want to live, what “quality of life” means to you, and who should never be appointed, give any future guardian a compass.
- Build the bench. If you have no spouse, no nearby adult child, or a family that cannot serve, introduce yourself to the local volunteer program while you still can. Some of the best volunteer guardians started because they looked around and realized they might need one someday.
An Invitation
This work is not for everyone. It is for people who can keep a confidence, sit with silence, read a care plan, and politely refuse to be hurried out of a nursing-home hallway.
If that sounds like you, pick up the phone this week. Start with your own county row in the table. If your county has no program, call the probate clerk and ask two questions: “Do you have a volunteer guardian or volunteer visitor program?” and “If not, will the court consider training me?” If you expect to be appointed as guardian, complete the six-hour online fundamentals course so you arrive already serious. If you expect to visit only, ask the local program what class it actually requires.
Ohio is getting older faster than its family networks are getting closer. Courts cannot visit every ward. Facilities cannot be their own watchdogs. Families cannot always be who we wish they were. A trained volunteer, one afternoon a month, one person at a time, is how a community refuses to let a neighbor become invisible. Portage County readers: call PCGSB at 330-839-3964. Everyone else: use the table. Then go be the person you would want walking through your door.
Sources & notes
Sally Kelly, “Senior Life: Become a guardian volunteer for vulnerable neighbors,” The Portager, Sept. 9, 2026.
Portage County Guardianship Service Board, portagecountygsb.org. Director listed as Diana L. Clarke.
Supreme Court of Ohio, Ohio Adult Guardianship Education Program (Sup.R. 66.06 and 66.07) and county probate resource guides. The six-hour fundamentals course and three-hour annual continuing education apply to appointed guardians, not automatically to volunteer visitors.
Summit County: the Volunteer Guardian Program began in probate court in 2015 and, on January 1, 2022, spun out as Adult Guardianship Services of Summit County, Inc., which now administers that program. The court still lists a separate Senior Visitor Program.
Wayne County: Wayne County Volunteer Guardianship Association (WCVGA), waynecountyguardianship.org, active since 2012; volunteers are appointed by Wayne County Probate Court as guardians of the person only.
Additional program pages: COAAA VGP; Guardian Support Services (Stark); United Senior Services (Clark); Life Essentials / CSSMV; LifeSpan; Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry; Crime Victim Services (Allen/Putnam); Wood, Medina, Richland, and Williams County courts and aging offices.
This article is educational and is not legal advice. Guardianship is a court-supervised legal relationship. Eligibility, training, and appointment rules are set by each probate court under Ohio law and Superintendence Rule 66. Confirm current details with the local probate court before applying.
