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Intergenerational Mentoring
Two-Way Street
Mentoring once meant the old helping the young. But these days, it's a two-way street — with teens helping elders all over Florida.
Other Intergenerational Programs
Jacksonville: All Saints Early Learning and Community Care Center
Seniors and preschoolers eat, conduct science experiments, dance, sing and do puzzles together. Sponsored by All Saints Episcopal Church and the United Way of Northeast Florida, the center has the first intergenerational day-care program established in the Southeastern U.S. and is the only such program in northeast Florida.
Jackson County: Project F.A.S.T. Service
Organized by the Hope School, the program puts 18 students with physical and cognitive disabilities to work in the lobbies and other public areas of nursing homes so students can test the skills they've learned in vocational classes. The eighth- through 12thgraders clean residents' apartments, maintain plants on the apartment grounds and sew pillows, place mats, tablecloths and napkins for residents.
West Palm Beach: Intergenerational Bonding
At the Gold Coast School, students in the culinary arts and sciences program help a local soup kitchen prepare meals and work in a community garden, using the food and donations to create and deliver meals to elderly and shut-ins. Students also help residents in a 250-unit assisted living community with their daily chores.
Miami: Youth and Elderly Against Crime
Students perform skits at retirement villages, churches and other locations to inform seniors about scams and frauds that target the elderly. On the flip side, the seniors have helped generate an anti-bullying initiative aimed at reducing violence in schools by focusing on conflict resolution techniques, including peer mediation and parent training. Five Miami schools participate in conjunction with local law enforcement officials and the Miami-Dade County Consumer Services Division.
Miami: Oral Histories
Students learn interviewing methods and camera techniques while interviewing local citizens who might have served in World War II, lived through the Civil Rights era or witnessed the Miami Beach jazz scene. Oral histories are added to local archives. The school district partners with the University of Miami Institute for Public History and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida International University.
Miami: Team Palmetto
To help bridge the "digital divide," tech-savvy Palmetto Senior High School students provide computer training for elderly citizens.
