Mentors for Youth in the Community
When you were a kid, and things were rough either in school or at home or both, was there an elder in your family or in the community who helped you, somebody who treated you as special and appreciated you for who you were, someone who you felt comfortable being around, who you looked forward to being with, a person you could trust, who liked you, who listened to you, who was patient, kind, understanding….?
That’s the role of a grandparent--in this case, a Foster Grandparent Volunteer in the AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program. Foster Grandparents work in schools, after school programs, Head Start programs, preschool programs mentoring youth in these settings.
The program was started in 1965 by President Lyndon B Johnson as part of his “War on Poverty” initiatives, and is funded by AmeriCorps. Multnomah County, Aging, Disability & Veterans Services, the Area Agency on Aging, is the local sponsor for this tri-county program, with school sites across Multnomah county and in development with Washington, and Clackamas sites.
The Foster Grandparent Program allows people 55 and older living on a limited income to volunteer without cost to themselves, and offers a small stipend for hours volunteered, plus meals and transportation. Efforts are made to place folks in the community not too far from their homes.
The volunteers work alongside teachers in classrooms and other settings to give one-on-one instruction to students who would otherwise be lost in the shuffle, students with barriers to learning such as language barriers, low self-esteem, different learning styles, fear of failure, physical impairments, attention difficulties.
Volunteers give extra help and encouragement, and spend time getting to know the kids. The goal is to help children achieve small successes to build confidence and curiosity.
The people in the program are pretty special. All of them enjoy being with children, and are enriched by new generations. For many Foster Grandparents, volunteering is an antidote to isolation and depression. Volunteering keeps the brain active, which may help lower the risk of dementia and other health problems.
Folks report a great deal of satisfaction, a new sense of engagement with life, more energy, relearning how to play, and, above all, how to laugh more.
Both children and grandparents appreciate one another. Beryl McNair, a local volunteer, related a happy experience, “One time I’d been gone a while from the program, and when I came back to the classroom, all the kids surrounded me and welcomed me back, not just the ones I’d been working with. I tell you, I could have melted, that’s how warm it was!” The Foster Grandparent Program is a win for the community, for youth and for the Volunteers!
The program is a currently recruiting new volunteers in the area. Call (503) 545-6441 or visit
https://multco.us/info/foster-grandparent-program to learn more about volunteering or hosting a FGP volunteer at your school or program.