Beginning Alcohol and Addiction Basic Education Studies (BABES)
is a Decatur program targeting preschool to third grade children.
They learn and practice living and loving skills and make positive
early decisions about the uses of alcohol and drugs. Older volunteers
work puppets to tell stories about self-image and feelings,
about decision making and peer- pressure coping skills, and about
getting help and information.
Yorkville senior citizens through the Senior Services Association
helped the Just Say No program by making hundreds of Fuzzy Wuzzy
surprises for the students. They also participate in pen pal
programs with grades five through eight.
Nursing-home visiting is perhaps the most common intergenerational
program in Illinois. Principal Jerry Montague at Gilson Brown
Elementary School in Godfrey views the nursing home as a learning
center for his students. "A learning resource unbounded
in life¹s lessons was found near our school nursing
home for the aged, infirm and physically handicapped. The Blu
Fountain Nursing Home has been providing our students and teachers
alike with decades of living experiences the residents willingly
share. The elderly are not only giving, but they also receive.
Our children provide the aged with a glimpse of their own youth
coupled with the changes of the current generation.² They
provide individual activities, such as pen pals and letter writing,
making favors together, exchanging cards and presents on birthdays,
playing games students reading to residents, and residents reading
to students. Group activities include the Halloween parade;
Thanksgiving dinner; Christmas class programs; band, orchestra,
and choral concerts performed at the nursing home; gardening
activities; weekly coffee-room activities, with the residents
going to school for coffee, conversation, and student contact.
All school programs are open to the nursing home, and a school
activity newsletter is sent to the nursing home each month.
The residents of the Blu Fountain Nursing Home are not to be
outdone by the Gilson Brown students. Several residents attended
a class about being involved and useful. As a class project
they decided to write an essay entitled Bits of Wisdom. It is
dedicated to those students who are frequent visitors. The dedication
of the book reads as follows: ³To the youth of the 1990¹s
from the youth of the 1900¹s. We traveled by horse and
buggy and put a man on the moon.² These programs depict
a successful Circle of Helping that improves education and the
quality of life for all. The Hamilton County Preschool Intergenerational
Program in McLeansboro also views the nursing home as a learning
center and has developed much of its curriculum around the exchanges
between students and senior citizens. Supervisor Brenda Lueke
and teacher Dayna Frey tap the skills and forgotten talents
of senior citizens such as wood crafting, art, quilting, apple
peeling, corn shelling and others. They prepare the preschoolers
by discussing the life cycle using plants and animals and talking
about the past.
At the Children¹s Learning Center the preschool and K-4
students make weekly visits to the Barb City Manor, a nursing
home in DeKalb. They interact for brief periods and get to know
each other. On a monthly basis one or more of the groups will
enjoy a sing-along, show-and-tell, the player piano, story
time,
or puzzle group. The unplanned interactions seem to hold the
greatest benefit for all ages.
Brenda Nardi from Mulberry School in Bloomington takes the
preschool and K-2 children to a local nursing home. The Circle
of Helping is demonstrated according Ms. Nardi: ³The program
allows our students the opportunity to bring a little joy into
the lives of seniors living in nursing homes. The seniors provide
a kind of knowledge no one else can generate.²
Peer Power is a school-age pregnancy prevention project of
the Chicago Public Schools, funded by the Parents Too Soon Initiative
through the Ounce of Prevention Fund and the Harris Foundation.
The goals of the project are to assist youths in becoming knowledgeable
about and taking responsibility for their emerging sexuality,
to assist youths in making decisions and establishing habits
that will enable them to participate in positive life, work,
and learning options that will benefit themselves, their families,
and the society at large. Older volunteers from senior centers
or the community participate in the skills enrichment and career
guidance aspects of the program. ³Their involvement in
the program has been rewarding and gratifying. The girls and
the seniors have developed wonderful and useful relationships.
They have the time, experience, patience, and knowledge to relate
to young people in many ways,² commented Doris Williams,
former coordinator.
