Generations Serving Together for Social Change
What happens when you bring people of multiple generations together to serve their community? You unleash a multigenerational force for good. We are proud to announce that we are an Encore.org Generations Serving Together grantee! This $25,000 grant allows us to harness each generation’s unique talents to address community concerns.
In the coming year, we will launch, strengthen, and study initiatives that bring AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Senior volunteers together in service to their communities. According to the Pew Research Center, 79% of Americans see major differences between younger and older adults. What if older and younger volunteers had more chances to work together to solve problems and bridge divides?
Encore.org commissioned a study through the University of Chicago to find out what Americans think about generations serving together. The study showed that older people want to share what they’ve learned from life, and younger people are eager to incorporate their insights. There are almost equal numbers of people alive today at every age, from birth to age 70 and beyond. It has never been a better time to bring varying age-groups together to resolve local challenges. We must seize this moment!
At Seniors in Service, we’ve always had intergenerational programs where senior volunteers tutor young students and volunteers support their elders as Senior Companions. This is different. Instead of one generation SERVING another generation, people of all ages will SERVE TOGETHER to co-create a better future for us all.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Seniors in Service to show that national service, which has traditionally been age-segregated, can play a critical role in bringing older and younger corps members and volunteers together to create real change,” says Eunice Lin Nichols, co-CEO at Encore.org.
Our first initiative is to collaboratively fight food insecurity by partnering with USF School of Aging Studies, Feeding Tampa Bay’s Trinity Cafe, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Food Pantry. Seniors in Service is excited to see this social change in action by working together across differences in age, culture, and identity.
Join our first cogenerational volunteer team!
Contact Chris Noble (813) 492-8916 cnoble@seniorsinservice.org