Alliance members at forefront in developing promising practices
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| Older adult volunteers from AJFCS take part in a community event honoring local veterans. |
Top of mind when most Americans conjure mental images of Florida are cloudless skies and miles of pristine, sandy beaches. Palm trees sway in a warm breeze, lining streets whose houses are tucked away behind walls or gates. These artificial barriers provide privacy and security for the wealthy residents who inhabit these resort-like gated communities, allowing them to live their American Dream free from disruption.
Reality paints a different, grimmer picture.
Beyond the palm trees, on the other side of the gates, are thousands of Americans undergoing the natural process of aging almost entirely in isolation. Many of them are widows or widowers, or they’re struggling with the daily challenges associated with providing full-time care to a spouse.
Since most are non-native, they lack natural support from nearby family members. They’re unfamiliar with community resources offered by local municipalities and nonprofits, or they’re embarrassed by the perceived stigma in asking for help.
Financially, 42 percent of them are either on fixed incomes or below the poverty level. As they attempt to function and perform their daily routines, they quietly and unwittingly endure the emotions associated with isolation and crises.
ated communities create a microcosm where entire cohorts of the population age together,” says Jonette N. Arms, project director for the New Age of Aging, a five-year initiative of the Alliance for Children and Families. “That can make trauma and crisis more dramatic since it is geographically contained; but the overall experience is not unique. Older adults from coast to coast are facing the same stressors associated with the aging process.”
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| A group of older adults from MFS offer their firsthand perspective during a training session titled, “Profile of Older Adults.” |
The New Age of Aging, now in its third year, is helping ready the nonprofit human services workforce to meet the needs of a rapidly aging population. In each of its project years, the New Age of Aging awards at least 20 mini-grants to Alliance members to increase their capacity to address community needs created by the aging process.
Among the 45 members to receive awards in the first two years of the initiative is Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service (AJFCS), West Palm Beach, Fla. Seed money from the New Age of Aging enabled AJFCS to implement a peer-to-peer project that addresses the needs of, and emotions experienced by, aging residents in southeast Florida’s “gated ghettos.”
By recruiting volunteers from within various gated communities to engage residents and thus serve as ambassadors for the social services community, AJFCS is creating social and civic capital by reaching older adults in a nonthreatening and neighborly fashion.
In less than two years, the project outcomes speak for themselves. The project has grown from eight ambassadors to more than 60, volunteers hail from 19 different gated communities, and at least 200 individuals have been reached.
Harnessing the Expertise of 50+ Adults
“Civic engagement can be a highly effective tool to help improve the quality of life for adults over the age of 50,” says Linda Nguyen, director of civic engagement at the Alliance. “By recognizing and harnessing their skills and leadership potential, organizations provide individuals with a means to connect more passionately with their home communities, address community needs, and solve problems.”
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Yet, research shows that there are few models or best practices in the field of older adult civic engagement. There are, however, promising practices.
“While our members are often hesitant to call their work a ‘promising practice,’ it’s undeniable that several Alliance members are at the forefront of older adult civic engagement,” says Peter Goldberg, Alliance president and CEO. “Through the New Age of Aging initiative and our civic engagement program, the Alliance provides seed money, networking opportunities, and knowledge development resources to help members realize the potential of civic engagement initiatives for older Americans.”
In addition to AJFCS’ Ambassadors Project, he points to an initiative underway at Alliance member Metropolitan Family Service (MFS), Portland, Ore. Goldberg calls both first-rate examples of how Alliance members are leading the way.
With funding from the Alliance’s civic engagement program, MFS is working toward fulfilling one of the agency’s strategic objectives: to involve significantly more adults over age 50 in community service. This objective manifests itself in three goals: to greatly expand the number of MFS volunteers who are 50 and older; to elevate the roles of volunteers by providing training and leadership opportunities; and to impact community needs by addressing critical social issues.
This has required a new framework for MFS’ volunteer program, one that is better equipped to attract, train, and retain volunteers over the age of 50.
“People who are 50-plus come to us with a lot of skills,” says Stefana Sardo, liaison for community engagement at MFS. “I know this from personal experience in projects we’re working on. They have more skills or different skills than we do as a staff, and we need to respect that and try to tap into that.”
Attracting, Training, Retaining
As step one, MFS is currently working on a project to recruit more baby boomers to its volunteer ranks. The organization has assembled a speakers bureau of eight volunteers, ages 55 to 82, who serve as advocates for volunteerism, especially volunteerism within MFS. The establishment of the speakers bureau addresses the recruitment component of MFS’ strategic objective. Future projects will tackle training- and advocacy-related goals.
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Current members of the speakers bureau are at varied life stages of employment, retirement, and semiretirement, but each brings pre-existing skills in public speaking. The group includes a retired salesperson, a former business person, and the chair of a neighborhood association.
The speakers bureau puts more hands on deck, Sardo says. “Once properly oriented to the agency, they can go out into the community and promote MFS’ volunteer needs at least as well as, but likely even better than, agency staff.”
Before they accept speaking engagements at events such as meetings of the city council, neighborhood associations, or church groups, members of the speakers bureau receive a thorough orientation to the organization and its mission. This includes visits to MFS program sites to gather firsthand experiences and observations, which are weaved into their speeches.
Keeping a Finger on the Community’s Pulse
“Adults age 50 and up possess a wealth of talent, skill, and experience,” Arms says. “Research shows that older adults not only have the skills necessary to contribute to their communities in a meaningful way, but they also have the time and—most importantly—the desire to make a difference.”
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| Don Bellairs is a member of MFS' speakers bureau, a volunteer group comprised of adults over the age of 50. Each member serves as an advocate for volunteerism. |
In southeast Florida’s “gated ghettos,” the adults over age 50 who serve as ambassadors in AJFCS’ Ambassadors Project are making headway. Ambassadors feel greater connection to and control over the well-being of their communities. Just as importantly, ambassadors are connecting their “clients” to resources and services that can dramatically improve their quality of life and allow them to age in place.
“By nature, older adults tend to wait before asking for help because they’re afraid of accessing the more formal system,” says Jenni Frumer, associate executive director at AJFCS. “Many have a fear that if they let someone know that they’re struggling, it means they lose independence. The truth is that sometimes just a little bit of help can go a long way in helping them maintain their independence.”
By placing articles in their neighborhood associations’ newsletters and through natural conversations on the tennis court or at the mailbox, ambassadors leverage the indigenous relationships they have with neighbors and serve as an early warning system.
“This is a project that’s run by the volunteers,” Annette Botnick, community engagement coordinator says. “They come up with the ideas and tell us what is important to their peers.”
The ambassadors’ roles vary from community to community and connection to connection. Some may assist neighbors with grocery shopping or visit them in the hospital. Others may have short-lived relationships, only long enough to connect a neighbor with AJFCS’ services.
“One of the strongest components of the program is our robust, centralized intake process,” Frumer says. “Our ambassadors are supported by the knowledge that they don’t have to have the answers. They are the liaisons to getting somebody to a professional who can assess what that individual’s needs might be.”
Ambassadors receive ongoing monthly training. These meetings typically center on a particular topic, such as home organization skills or advance directives. They also present an opportunity to discuss specific challenges ambassadors have encountered, or to provide refresher training in communication and how to recognize individuals in crisis.
“Each community has its own unique flavor, its own unique needs, and the ambassadors from those individual communities are the ones who have the best understanding and knowledge. Their finger is on the pulse of that community,” Frumer says.
Learn more about Alpert Jewish Family & Children's Service, Metropolitan Family Service, the New Age of Aging, and the civic engagement program.
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