May 15, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Forum promotes age diversity in  social progams
by Kristin Pazulski

Residents and community leaders in the Northwest were challenged to reassess the area’s social programs to see how they could serve all age groups at the May 9 forum sponsored by Northwest Interfaith Movement.

The day-long community forum, titled “Living the Good Life in Northwest Philadelphia: Creating a Community for All Ages,” was held to start a conversation about using the community’s current resources — such as library programs, religious congregations, civic groups, and more — for the good of the entire community, not just for a selected segment.

The day started off with keynote speaker Nancy Henkin, founder and executive director of Temple University’s Center for Intergenerational Learning, who addressed the nearly 70 residents and community leaders attending the forum.

During her address, Henkin acknowledged the strong sense of community and social support systems in the Northwest’s neighborhoods, but challenged community leaders and residents last week to think beyond its current networks.

The Northwest has a diverse demographic, Henkin said, but most of its programs, which are similar to those in other communities, are geared toward one single goal or demographic.

That, she said, can be changed.

“I’m excited you are moving in this direction,” Henkin said, as she spoke about her experience helping communities nationwide serve their residents.

She spoke about a community she had helped in Arizona that built a new art community center. The center served as a community gathering space and helped to bring its different cultures together through art traditions.

Henkin made clear, however, that new programs are not necessarily the answer. Communities such as Mt. Airy, Germantown and Chestnut Hill already have strong assets — libraries, nonprofits, community organizations, congregations — that offer services. These programs, such as senior centers, youth programs, religious groups, are narrowly focused but can be broadened and combined to serve other groups of people.

Henkin described the efforts as needing to “intentionally” improve the well being of elders, children and families in a community. She used the word “intentionally,” she said, because while any organization can say it invited every demographic to participate in an event or forum, it takes a real concentrated effort to ensure that diversity is present during an event or discussion.

For example, Henkin told about the intergenerational retreat she held for 21 years through Temple University. Henkin went out of her way each year to make sure that the 75 people attending each five- to six-day retreat were diverse in age, which over the years ranged from 13 to 100.

She said each time the retreat was held “people just clicked.”

It took her a few years to realize that the cooperation was easy because people are “searching for this sense of community” — a diverse, multi-generational give-and-take communication, and it is not easily found.

This sense of community, she said, can be created in the community by integrating programs already serving young people and elders, such as having a senior center and day care facility in the same building with separate and common areas, and she challenged organizations in the Northwest to try it.

After Henkin spoke, the forum’s participants split into four groups to discuss what resources are already in the area and what can be done to integrate those. One of the “brainstorming sessions” hosted by Elaine Dushoff, a NIM board member, consisted of a retired librarian, a retired nurse, local congregation members, staff from the Philadelphia Corporation for the Aging and representatives of civic organizations.

The main ideas that came from that session were to work on integrating young people and seniors through education, gardening and park use.

Allathea Joniec, who works for the Free Library of Philadelphia, pointed out that there are four library branches in the area and that all have programs as well as space for meetings and gatherings. She also mentioned later in the meeting that three of the branches just recently received a Wii, a video game system with games that involve physical movement to play rather than a thumb-activated controller. She said these have appealed to the young and seniors alike, and a Wii sports tournament might make for an ideal multi-generational event.

Also brought up was the idea of bringing seniors into the classroom — so they can learn as well as help educate and interact with the students. Most participants in the brainstorming session said they would like to steer away from computer-based learning and communicating, with the idea that personal interaction is necessary, but Charles Day, the only male in the group, said not to dismiss technology completely.

The discussion turned to how young people do not depend on their elders for information on things like gardening and cooking because everything can be Googled. The group said why not embrace that, and turn a Google search into active collaboration by having a young person look up something online but then actually go outside to do it.

Another suggestion, by Elayne Blender, was that the community could take Henkin’s five-day retreat and create something similar, but shorter, in the Northwest.

“The retreats are a very intentional gathering together,” she said.

After the brainstorming, participants were given stickers on which to mark their favorite ideas, which had already been written down. The sheets of papers with ideas and marked favorites were posted during the lunch break for everyone at the forum to scan.

In the afternoon, there were four more breakout sessions, but these had more focused discussions. There was one on lifelong learning, another on affordable housing, a third on economic development and the final one on individual and family wellness. A number of speakers joined each of these, from residents to business leaders, civic leaders and organization directors.

Fittingly, the day’s events took place in the NewCourtland Education Building at Germantown Nursing Home Campus, an organization that assists seniors in making the transition from nursing homes back to the community. Although the forum was designed to promote cross-generational projects, most of those attending were older adults, mainly female.

Since the forum was meant to be a first step in a long process toward intergenerational cooperation and full community service, the day’s goals did not end with the closing statements. A two-hour follow-up meeting, open the public, will be held on Monday, June 2, from 6-8 p.m. at NIM’s offices, 7047 Germantown Ave.

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.