https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKy9f1npQm8&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fcogenerate.org%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ → To use this video to start a conversation, try these discussion questions. Who Citizen University, a nonprofit based in Seattle, equips...
Who Ampact is a nonprofit organization that runs evidence-based AmeriCorps programs in three focus areas – education, environment, and healthy futures. They operate in 16 states, training more than 3,700 AmeriCorps members and serving more than 50,000 students each...
Can Younger and Older Pairs Improve Outreach to the Unhoused?
Generations United for Service, a program of the Northern Santa Barbara County United Way, is an age-diverse volunteer network that engages AmeriCorps members to serve homeless families.
Ampact is a nonprofit organization that runs evidence-based AmeriCorps programs in three focus areas – education, environment, and healthy futures. They operate in 16 states, training more than 3,700 AmeriCorps members and serving more than 50,000 students each year.
With support from CoGenerate’s Generations Serving Together program, Ampact placed cogenerational pairs of AmeriCorps members in elementary schools in 2023. The older and younger adults worked side by side to improve students’ reading and math skills.
Intergenerational service had big benefits both for the quality of tutoring and for the prospect of building bridges across generational divides.
Ampact invited 515 tutors to complete a survey on their experience; 355 did, a 68% response rate. Here are the results:
When interactions took place over longer periods of time, the quality of tutoring improved, and the relationships between older and younger tutors deepened.
Tutoring pairs who engaged in lots of interactions over longer periods of time (6 months) were even more positive, providing about a 10 percent bump in positive responses to the questions above.
“I’m so excited about the value of intergenerational service that this research reveals. Society tends to kind of silo us and put us in contact with those who are at a similar stage of life or background, and it’s neat to see that service alone is offering exposure and opportunities to engage across generational lines.”
— David Parker, Ph.D., vice president of research and development at ServeMinnesota and the researcher behind the study
Penny Conner, 24, is in her second year as a math tutor at an elementary school in Minnesota. She was paired with Cherryl Torkkola, 56, a reading tutor working with K-3 students at the same school. A former educator, Torkkola says Conner was instrumental in helping her get up to speed during her first few weeks.
“Penny was my go-to person during that time,” she says, “especially when it came to using the technology.” She continues, “But because of my background in education, I was able to help Penny and some of the other younger Reading Corps members in the classroom.”
Because she’s closer in age to the students, Conner says that she naturally shares a lot of their interests. “I’m big into Pokemon and anime and can connect with them on that level,” she says. “But Cherryl is more professional and I really admire that. Like, when we have half-days once a month, she proactively goes around to all the teachers and figures out how we can still find time to pull the students in for tutoring.”
The two have also been able to connect on a more personal level, with Torkkola consulting with Conner about topics she’s considering discussing with her adult children and getting valuable feedback. “I have adult children the same age as Penny and she has helped me relate to my own children better, which I’m eternally grateful for,” she says.
Conner appreciates these interactions, too, reflecting that it feels particularly good to help Torkkola improve her relationship with her children because she is estranged from her own parents. “I still get that interaction with a motherly age group in Cherryl,” Conner adds, “and that’s so special.”
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