The Hebrew Home at Riverdale Wins Statewide Award

ALBANY, NY (06/05/2009)(readMedia)-- Each summer, The Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale offers two four-week paid internship programs for teens that create life-changing intergenerational relationships. Generation2Generation, known to the teens as G2G, gives 30 students the opportunity to work directly with residents, learn about attitudes on aging and attend seminars on culture and history. The program has been so successful that it has garnered the "Innovation of the Year Award" from the Albany-based New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging.

Students have the chance to give of themselves in community service by engaging an elderly population segregated by age from a day-to-day social world that includes young people. Similarly, the students spend their days with their peers, in traditional school settings, segregated from the older generation. The teens develop unique relationships with their elderly partners as they work together on horticulture and art projects, take nature walks and spend quality time together.

G2G promotes understanding among disparate generations and forms bonds between young and old. At a time in their lives when residents are the recipients, not givers, of care, the G2G program gives them the opportunity to affect the lives of teens.

The program was designed to attract teens of all backgrounds from both private and public schools and offers them the chance to make an important difference in the lives of the elderly, as well as to explore career opportunities in the field.

In addition to time spent on The Hebrew Home campus, the teens participate in special off-site programs throughout the summer. A guided walking tour of the Lower East Side lets students see where many of the residents lived when they first came to this country. Another trip partners with an organization that provides an orientation session about homebound seniors. After that, the teens visit seniors in Manhattan who still live in their own homes.

The program has been profoundly successful, enhancing the residents' quality of life, respecting their dignity, their contributions and their memories. The teens have the chance to grow spiritually and psychologically while both learning from and helping the elderly.

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Founded in 1961, the New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging (NYAHSA) represents nearly 600 not-for-profit and public continuing care providers, including nursing homes, senior housing, adult care facilities, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living and community service providers.