On any given weekday at 240 North Champion Street in the Near East Side neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, elders and preschoolers can be seen mixing bubble solutions and puffing at them together in the activity room, caring for plants outside in the mobile gardening units, reading books aloud to one another in the classroom, or rehearsing a play in the auditorium. These are just a few of the many scenes that play out daily at the Champion Intergenerational Enrichment and Education Center, an Ohio State University (OSU)/community collaboration that engages older adults, college students, children, and the surrounding community in purposeful activities, education, research, and caregiving.
Seven years in the making, Champion opened its doors last November and is, by all accounts, an unqualified success. Each weekday, some 56 children and 50 older adults are in attendance at the center. Approximately six to eight OSU students and 30 staff members also either facilitate activities or take part in them on a daily basis.
Magical and Mindful
Champion encompasses a neighborhood adult day center and preschool. The OSU students are an integral part of the center’s activities as well—as idea generators, students of geriatric social work, medicine, and nursing, and sometimes just as young adults having fun with children and elders.
One of the many things that make the program unique is its ability to foster mindful interaction among three generations of individuals, explains OSU Program Manager Elizabeth Speidel. Describing the atmosphere as “magical,” Speidel gushes about the participants’ ability to have fun and be “completely present and in the moment,” she says. “When comes down to it—it’s when you get into those moments they’re amazing and you can see it with students, kids, and older adults.”
Adding to the exceptional nature of the center is its location. Near downtown Columbus, it sits across the street from a 104-unit affordable-housing apartment building for older adults and is just blocks away from OSU Hospital East. National Church Residences, a non-profit seniors services organization that owns and manages the adult day center at Champion, and OSU staff reached out to the tenants to provide health assessments and solicit volunteer help, while the nearby hospital provides additional opportunities to serve the community, says Speidel.
Timing and Will Power Bring it Together
According to the many stakeholders involved in launching the center, it all came together with uncanny timing, serendipitous space availability, and very willing partners. Although the center is a collaboration of many entities, it really is the brainchild of Linda Mauger, former director of the OSU Office of Geriatrics and Gerontology, who wanted to see the center through to its launch before she retired earlier this year.
“My personal goal was to create a place where everyone could recognize that aging is a lifelong pursuit. So if we have children, and their parents, older adults and their children, and we had OSU students, and we have staff, we’ve covered all the generations in multiple ways so we could really enhance lives and teach our students what it means to be an older adult,” says Mauger. “They are simply children who’ve grown to 80 years old and lived a full life, and I wanted them to appreciate that and understand that, and care for them in multiple ways.”
Mauger notes that the involvement of OSU’s College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and College of Social Work were vital to its genesis. “They jumped in and saw the vision and worked with us, and that was quite a feat for a university.”
Among the other key players in Champion’s launch were the Columbus Early Learning Centers, National Church Residences; Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA); and Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT), a partnership between the City of Columbus, OSU, CMHA, and Near East Side stakeholders.
“We want to be a place where ageism doesn’t exist,” says Dan Fagan, National Church vice president of population health management. To that end, Fagan says they were sure to train the staff well and educate the center’s preschoolers about older adults before the adult day component opened. Fagan explains that National Church staff took steps to expose the kids to some of the accouterments that older adults utilize for mobility, such as walkers, oxygen tanks, and wheelchairs. “They brought the items into the classroom to take the fear out of it for the kids,” he says.
A New Purpose
Fagan also has very personal reason to be proud of Champion—his father attends the adult day center and serves as a reading coach in the preschool classroom. “I would never have thought this would be as beneficial for him as it is,” Fagan says. “It’s his purpose now, and it has changed his relationships with his kids and my mother for the better.”
Neither OSU nor National Church has plans, at this point, to replicate the Champion program, but they are both involved in studying its impact on the participants with an eye toward educating others about its benefits and ensuring that it continues to serve the community in the best way possible.
Dr. Bill Thomas and the Age of Disruption tour will arrive at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on Oct. 18, 2016. He and his comrades will bring a radical new approach—and conversation—to growth and aging to the Columbus area. The tour also brings with it Disrupt Dementia, a community-based workshop, and Dr. Thomas’ signature “non-fiction theater” performance, Life’s Most Dangerous Game, featuring the unconventional pairing of a physician (Dr. Thomas) and a musician, Nate Silas Richardson.
Hi Meg
I like the concept of mixing child care with aged care. This is the best way to create a strong bond between the youth and seniors. Surely Implement this ideas in my home also.
Thanks
Aged Care Support
the idea of putting elders together with young children is not new. i know that one of my fellow students at the putney graduate school wrote a paper with this idea in1964. it is such a waste not to do that really! i would love to work with preschoolers as i did before i retired and i don’t think the advantages go one way. i live out in the country by myself, don’t drive and have no way to volunteer anywhere. a good friend of mine who is much younger works at a montessori school and on 2 occasions i talked with her children at group time…i know i enjoyed it and thought that one could organize a way to communicate with children and elders through skyping in a variety of ways, talking, reading as one would irl. not the same as being there, but there are people who don’t have the mobility to get around for whatever reason…good heavens, i am starved for conversation especially with children!
i read about a nursing home where cats were brought to help them socialize with humans and of course both sides benefited…cat purring is really therapeutic too!
there might be some legal problems to work out…i heard about a minister who wanted to give some of the residents something useful and familiar to do and thought it might be a good idea to let them do things most of them were familiar with like shelling beans or husking corn, but the nursing home thought they couldn’t do that because they weren’t paid to do it!
I am an AGING 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and this blog post resonates me. Mixing people of different generations sounds like such an amazing thing to do to learn about age.Humans are, and have always been, an intergenerational species. I love how it is said that older generation adults are just children who lived a fuller life. Programs like this seen like they were designed to counterbalance the loneliness and boredom that so often characterize life in a nursing facility and also educate younger generations of what other generations have gone through. Numerous studies have linked social interaction with decreased loneliness, delayed mental decline, lower blood pressure, and reduced risk of death and disease in elders. These intergenerational interactions also enhance children’s social and personal development. It is also a learning experience for the kids. Socializing across generations increases the amount of smiling and conversation among older adults.
Congratulations Meg! What you are doing is wonderful! I find this coalition between child care and elder care to be just what this society needs. With this many elders will find the purpose that so many have lost. I just recently saw a news story where an old man fell into great depression after his wife passed, and he said that he had felt like he no longer had a purpose in life, until one day a small girl grabbed his attention by stating, “Hey old person. It’s my birthday today”, and demanding a hug. Since then this old man says that that new found friend of his is his new purpose in life. The mother of the young girl takes her over to his home for weekly visits. I feel that many wonderful relationships will come from this program, and that both the children as well as the elders will learn lots from eachother.
I am an AGNG 320 student at the Erikson School of Aging. I loved reading this article. Bringing the young and old together is such an important thing and this is a great and beautiful way to do it! I loved hearing about the magical atmosphere where everyone is “completely present and in the moment”. Something we learned in class is that there is a gap between the generations, and both generations are missing out because of it. The two generations learn from each other and teach each other very valuable things and lessons. Ageism is a real problem, and programs like this are an incredible way to start solving it. If children can learn at a young age that aging is just growing old and living a full life, not at all a bad thing, they will learn it is not something to be scared of, and it will change the way they themselves age, and teach their children and grandchildren about aging. I hope many other programs are made along this line – it is such a wonderful concept, and it is improving the lives of both the youngest generation and the oldest.
I am an AGING 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. This blog is of great interest to me because inter generational care and interaction between adult and children break the communication barriers and also enhance socialization opportunities and engagement between the young and older generation. Adults who are able to interact with children have better emotional, mental and strong physical health because as they serve as mentors for the children they gain a sense of purpose, are valued and feel needed in society. Young children also benefit greatly from their interaction with older adults, they gain a sense of positive attitude towards the elderly and better understanding of the aging process. Active engagement between the two generations create more opportunities to find and share common interests during the time older adults and children spent together. Also both generations have much to give and learn from each other through interactions, because children have the will to learn new things while older adults have the the lifetime of experience to give to younger generations.
Hello Meg. I am an Aging 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. This topic caught my attention because today the generation gap between older adults and children is increasing at a fast pace. Communication and interaction are the key to minimize that gap. Blending child and elder care to me is an excellent idea. Seniors by interacting with children can share their life experience, help them with homework and benefit from their presence. Social interaction reduce older adults risk of depression. Likewise children benefit from this relationship by getting guidance and mentorship. More often seniors are perceived negatively by the younger generation. Seniors are seen as weak, deaf, fragile or mean. Having a center with three generations will in fact teach and show the youth that those stereotyped ideas are definitely wrong. I am hoping to see more programs like this booming all over the world.
Hello Meg! I’m an AGNG320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. It looks like you’ve gotten quite a few responses from students like me, but I understand why. This post made me smile, it’s so sweet to see this bridge between generations and an ease about the interactions of the two. I especially loved the photos included. It sounds like it’s in a perfect location and I’m jealous of OSU students taking part in the program, it sounds like a lot of fun to come up with activity ideas for the children and elders. In class we’ve been discussing the importance of keeping the mind nimble as we age with activities and social interactions, as well as staying positive and doing things that make you happy in old age. When I was younger, my aunt would take me to a local senior home down the street, to interact with the residents and it was amazing how their faces lit up just seeing new people. Some can be grumpy, but once they adjust, telling stories, playing games and singing come easily to them. In turn, it taught me to respect my elders and value the lives they’ve lived and all they have to offer. I’m sure it does the same for many of these children too. I hope that the program is able to branch out of Ohio, there are so many people that need a program like this one.
I am an AGING 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. I really enjoyed reading your post, it is very informative. Elderly people exhilarate when a young child is in the room. They watch and smile as if remembering a lifetime long ago. For example; elderly people may enjoy holiday celebrations, when kids and old-timers become the life of the party. I believe the affectionate memories of the elderly are of when they were children and the fondest memories for many children are moments shared with their grandparents. So, mixing up different generation was a great/fun idea of learning about aging.Older adults and very young children compliment each other. Not in words only, but with actions. When elderly are in the presence of a young child it could sparks memories. This could be both physically and emotionally excellent therapy. For the child it could give comfort as kids seem drawn to the very old. Kids trust the elderly, as they have been taught to respect their elders. There is a warmth of trust shared only by those two generations.
http://www.leadertelegram.com/Features/Lifestyles/2016/08/14/Mixing-up-the-ages.html
https://www.binghamton.edu/public-administration/faculty-staff/Warner%20Homsy%20Greenhouse.pdf
I am an AGING 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and this blog post resonates me. Mixing people of different generations sounds like such an amazing thing to do to learn about age.Humans are, and have always been, an intergenerational species. I love how it is said that older generation adults are just children who lived a fuller life. Programs like this seen like they were designed to counterbalance the loneliness and boredom that so often characterize life in a nursing facility and also educate younger generations of what other generations have gone through. Numerous studies have linked social interaction with decreased loneliness, delayed mental decline, lower blood pressure, and reduced risk of death and disease in elders.These intergenerational interactions also enhance children’s social and personal developmentIt is also a learning experience for the kids. Socializing across generations increases the amount of smiling and conversation among older adults.
I am an AGING 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and this blog post resonates with me. the idea of mixing people of different generations to help what it is to age was interesting. Also by aging, it does not mean you change who you are. There’s a “idea” which is out there for older people must do what is “appropriate” is weakening our society and messing with our mindset. There’s discrimination against a person’s age towards every generation. The term for this is called ageism. Programs like these help break down the social norms. For example, children can be exposed to a sort wisdom which helps them learn understanding and compassion. On the other hand, older generations have a sense of purpose that they might feel lost as they tend to get older, close to retirement age. This can keep the mind active hence to slow down the process of cognitive problems, mostly in older age.
I am an AGNG 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and this blog post resonates with me. I love the idea of mixing people of different generations to help each other understand what it is to age and how aging does not mean you change who you are. Although the idea that older people must do what is age “appropriate” is weakening in our society, the mindset is still with us. There is ageism towards every generation. Programs like this help break down those social norms. Children, or just people of younger generations, can be exposed to a sort of wisdom which can help them learn compassion and understanding. Older generations, particularly the elderly, can have a sense of purpose that might be lost as they get older because of events like retirement. It can also keep the mind active to help slow cognitive problems typically in older age. Programs like this can help all and I hope more can my created in the future.
St. Ann’s Intergenerational Center, a corporate ministry of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, implemented this type of care in 1983. With 2 facilities in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they are filling a need in a loving way. http://stanncenter.org/
This is the way of the future. It is so obvious! I am impressed.
Congratulations, Meg!!1 I am so for intergenerational facilities, housing, programs, etc.