August Members of the Month: Senior Chores Programs Exemplify Unique Networking Opportunities

We have all heard about Minnesota’s rising senior population. Minnesotans are getting older and the workforce is retiring. While this may have profound implications for our personal lives, there is a risk that youth workers might not see this as being “our problem.”

Three YIPA members illustrate beautifully why this aging population is deeply connected to youth intervention. Indeed, it may not be “our problem,” but it is certainly part of our solution! These three programs have found a way to provide needed help for seniors in their communities, give supervised community service hours to court-ordered youth, train and employ young people and create intergenerational bonds even where there was once distrust and skepticism.

For those of you who are familiar with DARTS, it may seem odd that one of the oldest and most prominent senior services organizations in the metro area is a member of YIPA. Meeting Mary Richardson makes this connection clear. She is the driving force behind DARTS’ current senior chores program. While the over 30-year long program was around long before Mary came to DARTS, she has put her own stamp on senior chores – often working side by side with her young volunteers!

White Bear Lake Area Community Counseling Center is just getting started with their senior chores program. This fledgling program is up and running thanks in large part to the help its coordinator Sally Cain received from DARTS and from Northwest Youth and Family Services (another YIPA member program). Hearing about successful senior chores projects at YIPA quarterly membership meetings, White Bear staff got inspired to start one of their own. Sally went with Mary Richardson to five DARTS chore sites and saw what a great program looks like. She also went and visited the 30-year NYFS senior chores program and its coordinator, Debbie Peterson. Sally took ideas back with her to White Bear, but also made the program her own in order to fit her community’s needs.

Sitting down over coffee these three inspiring women jumped immediately into conversation with each other. How is your summer going? Did you figure out how to do that form? I’m going to be full-time now! Yay! and so on. They shared stories of surprising successes and things they have learned along the way.

One story that stuck out was about a group of young men who had been court ordered to do community service with their probation officer. On the way over the boys complained, “I don’t want to do anything with old people!” But after a few hours helping an elderly man maintain his home (something he surely could not have done alone), the boys changed their tune. “That was so cool!” they exclaimed on the van ride home.

Thinking of starting a senior chores project at your organization? These three women have the collective knowledge and experience to set you on the right path. From grant writing to the minimum age for lawn mowers, from working with probation officers to interviewing seniors – they are an amazing resource for any question you might have.

Here are just a few things that we have learned after sharing a cup of coffee with Mary, Debbie and Sally:
1. Take a picture of the senior’s yard and put it in their file. That way if they call back for more help you know what kind of garden they have, how big their yard is, etc. Also, it makes them feel like you remember them!
2. Make sure to take the time (even just a few minutes) to have the young people talk to the seniors they are helping. These connections can have lasting effects.
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Looking at forms and procedures from other senior chores programs helped save time and effort so that new programs could get off the ground faster.
4. Programs like these make seniors feel safer, because they see the positive side of youth. It helps young people show their community that they are not “problems,” but real assets.
5. Look for connections in unlikely places. These programs connect with senior services, diversion programs, church groups and police departments. It is within these seemingly separate spheres that senior chores programs flourish.

We believe that one of greatest benefits to YIPA membership is the opportunity to connect with other service providers. Sometimes those other providers may seem like they are approaching their work in early intervention in a way completely different from your own. But more often than not, our members are able to learn from each other, improve their services because of the skills they have learned from other – and often save themselves much time and energy when they discover they do not have to “reinvent the wheel,” as is shown here with the seniors’ chores programs within YIPA membership.