Friday, March 25, 2011
Saving Service: Don’t Forget the Older Adults
(L-R) Dorothy Dottin, Mal Coles, Betty Smith, Caroline Trowbridge, Patrick Corvington, Mary Gunn, Akemi Minami, and Bill Wolff
The threats to national service are very serious. Congress wants to eliminate or greatly reduce funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, AmeriCorps VISTA, and other programs.
Thankfully there have been many debates about this, thousands of phone calls to legislators, newspaper editorials, and an active web presence to Save Service. In most arguments, the discussion settles on the thousands of young adults in service to America and the millions of people they serve.
My organization benefits hugely from these young Americans, and every year we welcome about 40 new AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA members who dedicate a year of service, sometimes two, to our mission.
AND they are joined, day in and day out, by over 300 older adults, all Experience Corps members, who tutor young children in literacy. They range in age from 55-90. They serve between 5-20 hours every week, year after year. They are black, white, hispanic, and asian. They are retired teachers, secretaries, and advertising executives. They serve to seek meaning and they make an impact. For many this service is their “encore career”.
Their impact was clearly on display yesterday when CNCS CEO Patrick Corvington and Atlantic Regional Director Mal Coles visited the Blackstone School in Boston. The Blackstone is one of Boston’s 13 “turn-around schools”, a designation given by the state when a school fails to meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for several consecutive years.
Corvington and Coles met with members from Experience Corps to see how service programs are affecting the turn-around effort in public schools. Joining us was a team of City Year members who also serve at the Blackstone.
Lisa Lineweaver, the school’s Director of Accelerated Improvement had this to say: “Experience Corps members, by working with students in grades K-2, are helping to turn this school around. The progress that students are making is significant, and it is due in part to the work of Experience Corps. We need this extra help, and we can’t accomplish our goals without them and without other partners like City Year.”
Our guests were impressed. “Tell your story”, Mr. Corvington advised. “We are in a fight. Most people don’t know the impact that service organizations are making, especially in education.”
So let’s not forget the powerful contributions that older adults are making all across the nation as we talk about “saving service”. It’s not just for young adults. It’s for everyone. And we need everyone’s help not only to turn around under-performing schools, but to turn around communities in need.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Experience Corps in US News and World Report
Today, the be
nefits of Experience Corps for both older adults and children are highlighted in US News and World Report’s article, Senior-Student Mentoring Can Be Great Win-Win.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Healthy Aging All Summer Long
Each Wednesday morning this summer, Meg Licht, myself and a group of ten other tireless Experience Corps members gather in Franklin Park to partake in some exercise and easy conversation. Along the two mile trek around the park’s public golf course, Read more…
Friday, March 5, 2010
Live to be 100?
Dr. Thomas Perls, Director of The New England Centenarian Study wants to help you get there, healthy & happy. Learn more about his work in this recent Time Magazine article, click here to read it. Dr. Perls will be speaking on March 25th at the Social Innovation Forum’s breakfast: “Healthy Aging: Fostering Vibrant Lifestyles Among Adults 60+.” Generations Incorporated is the 2010 Social Innovator in Healthy Aging.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Experience Corps Highlighted on NBC!
Our Experience Corps program is featured on NBC’s Making a Difference!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Monday, September 8, 2008
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson
Paul and Nancy Thompson are in their late 50′s and have been married for 40 years. They were raised in the same neighborhood of Boston, attended the same schools, and went to the senior prom with each other. They chose to stay in Boston and raised their kids here. Both of them spent their lives teaching in the Boston Public Schools–Paul as a second grade teacher, Nancy as a high school foreign language teacher.
Both newly retired, who would blame them for taking a well deserved vacation, a hiatus away from the world of work? Instead, both will continue to work part time in their new “encore careers”. They had a month off between retirement from the Boston Public Schools and their start date at Generations Incorporated, where they will each be responsible for the oversight of a “cluster” of schools which will host our intergenerational programs.
They are transferring a lifetime of important work to a new sector: helping other older adults, our Experience Corps members, to work as mentors with children. They have immediate credibility…a lifetime of experience in the schools, life-long commitment to Boston youth and Boston communities, and they themselves are of the same generation as the mentors they will oversee.
This is yet another important reminder that, especially in this very challenging economic environment, some of the greatest resources for under-resourced non-profits are at our finger tips. Take a look around and tap into the ever growing population of older adults as they begin to retire. Have fun, have time off, continue to contribute in new and meaningful ways.
