CONTINUANCE - Southern Illinois University

Stories and Ideas for Increasing Graduation Rates and WellnessEast St. Louis Community College CenterIt takes a village to raise a child: the sad reality is that ittakes a village to allow a child to fall through the cracks.November 8 - East St. LouisSuccess StoriesSharon Ward and her nephewdelivered food boxes to SeniorCitizens throughout the community.At her local church, they gatherwith other youth to sort, packageand deliver food to seniors in thecommunity. Annually, CollegeStudents come home for theholidays, volunteer on Thanksgivingand Christmas to serve people hotHoliday meals. These experiencesgive the youth an opportunity toappreciate the blessings of unityand giving. When they work toprepare the baskets of food, theydepend upon each other to completea project successfully.However, the project isn’t completeuntil they can see the smiles on thefaces of people who have lived andloved in the churches and in thecommunity where the youth nowlive and love in. The greatest joyfor the youth is in realizing that theywere responsible for the smiles thatthey see on the faces of folks whoused to make them smile: formerSunday school teachers, retiredteachers, retired local businessmenand women, grandparents, auntsand uncles, neighbors and friends.These retired individuals alsobecome the teachers in their afterschool tutoring program. Thispicture is juxtaposed against thepopular picture of delinquent youthbringing harm to seniors. Thisis the type of activity that shouldbe replicated during the holidayseasons and throughout the yearas well…throughout the entirecommunity.Overall, our discussion wasinformative and offered promiseof great things to come. The groupnoted several intergenerationalthrusts in the East St. Louiscommunity which have notbeen identified as such. Forexample, several organizationsin our community are addressingdropouts and promoting healthylifestyles for all ages throughmentoring programs. Othergroups, like churches and otherfaith-based organizations havehosted children’s programsand services for years utilizingthe volunteer services of seniorcitizens, (after school activities withFoster Grandparents, Real Men/Women Read, tutoring, volunteerclassroom aids, and more) Wenoted that the connections betweenaging, education and service havebeen overlooked, and the benefitshave been minimized, althoughintergenerational communityrelationships seem to be quiteprevalent in this area.Ideas and Action1) Target existing intergenerationalinitiatives which already functionwell in this area.2) Identify other initiatives whichmay work for this community.3) Pool resources of the variousinitiatives to maximize effectiveness.4) Engage as many youth as possiblein activities which emphasize.Director Anita Brandon“Through the years, it took somelevel of collaborative inactivity forus to reach the devastating dropoutrates that we see in our publicschool systems across this greatstate and country. Hence, it willnecessarily take a greater level ofintentional collaborative activitywithin this and other villagesthroughout the state and country toundo a great damage. I am hopefulthat this and other discussiongroups can make a difference inthe lives of youth, older adults andeveryone else who reside in theEast St. Louis area. Inasmuch asthe old adage, ‘It takes a village toraise a child’ is true, the sad realityremains that, It takes a village toallow a child to fall through thecracks.”learning from and volunteeringservices to others.5) Promote story telling” and oralhistory local seniors can share therich history of the proud and strongpeople of East St. Louis.6) Engage older adults in Africandance projects with the youth onthe ESL Higher Education Campus;Hosting intergenerational poetryand spoken word events withteens/college students and olderadults.7) Invite local seniors to ESLCCC tohave tea and talks with young menand women about challenges in life.http://www.iii.siuc.edu/ 25