Benefits of engaging older volunteers: A study of intergenerational initiatives in the public schools of the mid -Hudson Valley

There are in fact two ever-growing human resources in the United States today. The first we recognize as a new, living resource that needs to be nurtured, grown and educated. This is our children, our young people-our future. The second we more often discuss as an impending social and health care problem-they are our elderly. As indicated by the 2000 Census, nearly one-third of the citizens in the United States are over age 60. Various surveys and reports indicate that most are retired, healthy, energetic and with a lifetime of experience to offer. Since 1983, senior citizens-those aged 65 or older-have outnumbered American teenagers. Mobilizing this group to support public education seems to represent immense positive potential as a growing community resource. A report by the National Association of Elementary School Principals in the last decade (1994) brought testimony to the positive potential of school-based intergenerational programs and a glance into the reality that many schools have begun to re-define their roles.;This study is concerned with bringing the future and our past together in the present, in a context of education. The central subject of this study, senior volunteerism, is introduced and suggests that senior volunteers are a valuable but under-utilized resource that could fill a critical need in our public school systems. Being asked to do more with less, within local communities increasingly composed of people with no direct ties to the schools themselves, has placed a great burden on public schools, their teachers and administrators. This study (1) explored the senior volunteers as a resource in public schools and the extent to which this resource is utilized, (2) examined a theoretical level in reviewing literature and studies across the United States and, (3) examined its empirical scope which zeroes in on the public schools within the Mid-Hudson Valley area of New York State.;Throughout, the study focuses on the evidence revealing the shift to a new paradigm of thinking about the available resources that has potential to transform current resource problems into solutions, competitors for these resources into partners and gaps into gains. It is guided by the idea of resource utilization and the potential for optimizing the one currently abundant and ever-expanding resource-the older citizen cohort.;In general, the findings of this study reveal that (1) senior volunteers have much to contribute to our school systems and, (2) public schools fail to make full use of the talents, skills and experiences our older citizens have to offer. The potential contribution of senior volunteers to public schools is immense, but it requires strong institutional support and extensive planning from within the schools.;The increasing number of national volunteer networks encouraging senior participation and the expanding literature base, regarding the subject of intergenerational programs and senior volunteerism supporting school initiatives, are indications that schools and the nation at large are shifting their paradigms of thinking about the use of available resources. The ever-increasing senior population is more currently recognized as a valuable community resource instead of primarily an impending social and healthcare problem; however, still under-utilized.