Building an Intergenerational Service-Learning Infrastructure in Gerontology

Building and sustaining community partnerships is one of the salient challenges in successful long term, service-learning programs. Creating these partnerships as service-learning programs in gerontology are launched may appear to be the most difficult issue facing faculty and universities. However if these partnerships are not sustainable, service-learning in gerontology programs will be short-term 'will-o-the wisp' phenomena. This article will examine three model programs to see how the issue of community partnerships has been addressed. The programs, two in Minnesota and one in Pennsylvania, were each funded in a coordinated national program to further intergenerational service-learning in gerontology. The Corporation for National and Community Service awarded funds to these three institutions as part of a multi-year grant to encourage adoption of this innovative pedagogy across the United States. The grant, "Sustaining and Expanding a National Model for institutionalizing Intergenerational Service-Learning in Gerontology Education" was directed by the Association For Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) and Generations Together/University of Pittsburgh. Over the past 5 years the grant has been successful in spreading the word about the effectiveness of intergenerational service-learning as an educational pedagogy in gerontology courses. Dr. Rona Karasik, Associate Professor in the Department of Community Studies at St. Cloud State University, identifies the unique challenges facing intergenerational service-learning programs at a state-supported public institution in Minnesota. White Earth Tribal College in Northern Minnesota is uniquely focused on important cultural sensitivities to the Anishinaabe Native Americans that are ably described by Dean Ann Brummel. These sensitivities are quite different from the nexus of religious, moral, and philosophical concerns that underlie partnerships at the University of Scranton, an institution in the Jesuit tradition, outlined by Professor Marjorie Maddox of the School of Nursing. Each of these individuals provides a brief summary of the project they developed to foster intergenerational service-learning in gerontology. Their insights and understanding seem particularly helpful to those trying to build and strengthen similar programs. (Paul Roodin)