Interages, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland

Interages, Inc. used SaYES funds to expand its existing Intergenerational Bridges service-learning and mentoring program, which pairs newly arrived immigrant youth in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs with supportive older adult mentors to assist with the transition to U.S. culture, language acquisition, and personal development. In this project, high school students were matched with older adult residents of a subsidized apartment building adjacent to the campus. The high school students visit and converse with the older adults, building their own skills at the same time. An on-site coordinator organizes intergenerational activities for the pairs, and the SaYES mini-grant was used to purchase materials and fund two field trips to enhance these offerings.

Through mutual exchange, the older adults and the young people are respectively both providers and recipients of service. As a result of their participation, students improved their language and communication skills and reported increased self-esteem and confidence; two students who had never before thought of applying to college are now doing so with encouragement from their adult mentors. The adults, in turn, are stretching their own comfort zones; one wheel-chair bound resident who came on one of the field trips admitted that she had never been on the hydraulic lift before, but she wanted to overcome her fear so she could be there with the kids.

When the school system's student service-learning coordinator visited the program, she was so impressed that she invited program staff, as well as a student and an older adult volunteer to present to the Superintendent's service-learning advisory group!