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They’ll discuss strategies and approaches for getting to work in a way that generates results and trust.
This video is about five minutes.
KIM CELLA:The Emerson Park station is truly a blank slate for our design team.
It is, right now, a sea of concrete.
JACQUE KNIGHT:We are getting feedback on the design concepts for the Emerson Park transit transformation.
So to this point, we’ve engaged the community via two design workshops.
So we took that feedback and we developed two designs.
One is a really colorful, playful option.
The other really plays on the musical history of East St. Louis.
I think they’re going to love it, you know.
I think it really depicts the community in a positive way.
I think that it addresses the things that they thought were challenges.
How cool is that?
Transit stops are generally just a pass-through.
People don’t come there and engage.
They don’t feel connected to the community that they’re passing through.
There’s also a sense of pride for the community where the station is located.
And again, it’s cool.
It’s connecting all the dots, so if it’s community businesses or people just passing through.
Again, when we got here, look at the sky.
That’s all you saw, was gray everywhere gray concrete walls, gray fencing.
And we are so excited to bring you this vibrant change and transformation.
And so we hope to see you in 2022 in the next stop in Illinois.
MIKE WATSON:Wow!
Kudos to everybody involved in that work in St. Louis.
So now it’s time for our next panel discussion.
DANIELLE ARIGONI: Hi, Mike.
Thank you so much for having me here today.
I’m really excited to be here.
I look forward to it every year.
Next, I’m really excited to introduce our fantastic panel focused on just that taking action.
So welcome to all three of you.
I’m excited for our conversation today.
We really need to keep that in mind.
And so, with that in mind, we want to hear from you, audience attendees.
Which of the following are most important when engaging older adults?
So open up your Slido app.
You should see some numbers there, some options to select.
You may select as many as apply.
Which of those do you think makes the biggest difference?
Let me start with our panelists to see if you have any responses as they continue to come in.
Peter, I think we’ll start with you.
Any reflections on that?
PETER HOLTGRAVE:Yes, thanks so much.
It’s a pleasure to be here.
That doesn’t surprise me at all.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:Fantastic.
It looks as if communication is still at the top there, is that surprising in any way?
It’s really important.
The one that I really was surprised about was around combating age-related stereotypes.
So that’s one that I expected to be a little bit higher.
IFEOMA EBO:I was actually quite surprised by the using clear and respectful language wasn’t higher.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:Yeah, fantastic points and great.
Let’s start with you, Atalaya.
Older adults are the backbone of volunteering in America, giving back through service and contributions to charities.
AmeriCorps Seniors matches over 200,000 volunteers, all age 55 and over, with service opportunities every year.
Tell us about the impact that AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers are making.
What are the results and impact of their service?
And what makes older adults unique, for example, in terms of skills, expertise and experience?
And what can organizations do to become more inclusive in their volunteer engagement?
A lot of questions there, but we want to hear about your work.
ATALAYA SERGI:Thank you, thank you so much.
And thanks to AARP for inviting me to participate on the panel today.
In addition, I think about the unique qualities of our older adult volunteers.
And as Danielle stated, they are all over 55 years of age.
They are from various generations, which allows for a really broad perspective.
Let me share a little bit about our three programs.
Our second program that we have in AmeriCorps Seniors is volunteers that participate in our Senior Companion program.
They can live independently.
These services include tax preparation, disaster response and recovery, benefits education and meal preparation and delivery.
So volunteers help those that need homes to come out of homelessness.
And that’s just a few things that they do.
And they found ways to continue to transport elders to their most urgent medical appointments.
They help us to reach those most in need.
Really, also thinking about how we can engage those that may have been served.
So bringing them back and asking them, do they want to participate in the programs as well?
And many times they do.
They want to help others.
They know what other people in the community are going through and they are happy to really be engaged.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
Ifeoma, let’s turn to you.
IFEOMA EBO:Thank you again to a AARP International for inviting me for another really timely conversation.
The program is centered on community empowerment, strengthening community connection and civic engagement as important goals.
They were the women in the community who are retired and therefore had time.
They knew oftentimes who were the troubled children in the community who needed just nurturing and community support.
Their level of commitment to the community and seeing it thrive was abundant.
The second being procedural, that the process our process is fair and just.
Thirdly, that the process and the final public space transformation encouraged improved interactions in the community.
So, the older women were bringing the youth and creating strategies that centered community-collective problem solving.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:Thats great.
Peter, I mean, NACCHO is in the business of providing care, right?
And what impact has the pandemic had on these efforts?
PETER HOLTGRAVE:Yeah, thanks so much for those questions.
Most health departments serve smaller, rural jurisdictions where the median age is much older.
And some of the pair of the lead instructor, you know, pair teachers.
I would also add that many communities have declared racism as a public health crisis.
But it’s great to see these partnerships evolve in response to whats happening during the pandemic.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:Thank you.
This has been such a robust conversation.
IFEOMA EBO:Thats a really great question.
And so you want to do mailings.
You want to do surveys.
I think the process should also have an aspect of knowledge exchange.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:That’s great.
Atalaya, let me turn to you with that same question.
What have we seen as adaptations in COVID-19?
What should we carry into the future?
And what is the one thing you’d asked people to do going forward?
Some of the things that we really saw some changes in was around how we engaged with educational organizations.
So 50 percent of our programs really are built into education.
They did a lot of remote reading and math tutoring.
We saw opportunities for our older adults to reach further and to serve new populations.
We were able to see them reach new populations in that way.
In our independent living services there was another place that we saw a lot of change.
Again, they usually meet with clients face-to-face.
They had to switch to things like telephone, Zoom, Facetime, other technologies.
They did letter writing and card writing as well.
They also met outside on front porches and stoops to stay in contact.
One of our RSVP projects developed what they call the Volunteer Emergency Response Team.
PETER HOLTGRAVE:Let me be brief.
DANIELLE ARIGONI:Thank you, Peter.
Mike, let me turn it back over to you.
MIKE WATSON:Wonderful.
That was such a fantastic discussion.
We have a lot of questions coming in from our viewers.
PETER HOLTGRAVE:Yeah, thanks so much for the question.
I value it tremendously.
I think that community voice in general, especially from older adults, including older adults is critical.
IFEOMA EBO:That was a really great question.
And I think thats in the work that I’ve done I found that that’s not the case.
Ive found that they understand young people differently.
That is valuable, but their skill and knowledge is also really valuable and impactful.
How can we work to make aging infrastructure more accessible to those with mobility issues?
IFEOMA EBO:I think that’s a really great question.
And one area where I think that can be leveraged is around childhood obesity and focusing on walkability.
MIKE WATSON:Thank you so much for joining us, Danielle, Atalaya, Ifeoma and Peter.
What a great way to close out the first day of our workshop.
Visit the workshop’s landing page for more videos from the event.
