The Next Chapter

Courtesy of Jewish Family and Children's
Services

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

This week’s cool idea is The Next Chapter, which enables high school youth to connect with and learn from Holocaust survivors.

(Check our archives for parts 1-44.)

The Next Chapter is a program of Jewish Family and Children's Services, one of the oldest and largest family service institutions in the United States, founded in 1850 by immigrant pioneers who arrived in California during the Gold Rush and created an extended family to care for each other.

Today, they continue to be that extended family, serving 78,000 people annually with the highest quality, research-based social services designed to strengthen individuals, strengthen families, and strengthen community.

As the problem-solving center for residents of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties, the Jewish Family and Children’s Services is a lifeline for children, families, and older adults facing life transitions and personal crises.

By participating in The Next Chapter, students are awarded 40 hours of community service and create a special relationship with a local survivor.

At monthly meetings, students will learn how to:

1) Interview Holocaust survivors and document their oral histories in a written essay.

2) Study the history of the Holocaust and explore the current Jewish cultural renaissance in Poland.

3) Time commitment: Students will meet in one seminar a month from December through April, and connect with the survivor they have been matched with three times throughout the semester.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group. We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter! Share the inspiration.

Beresford Park Community Gardens

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

In the latest of series, we feature Beresford Park Community Gardens, based in San Mateo, California.

(Check our archives for parts 1-26.)

Our concept presently involves bringing together seniors and kids for planting and maintaining a fresh vegetable garden on site (across the street from the Senior Center at the city's Beresford Park Community Gardens).

Under the instructional guidance of a local chef and his staff, the seniors and children jointly engage in the journey of taking the foods from soil to table by utilizing the institutionally-equipped kitchen and dining facilities at the lovely San Mateo Senior Center.

Seniors and children engage in planting, maintaining and picking food from the garden.

Under the instruction and guidance of our lead chef and his team, participants learn about the foods' nutritional value, prepare recipes, take cooking classes, prepare and share meals together.

We plan 4 different 6-week courses, each involving a different cuisine representative of ethnic communities within our very diverse city.

The program gives participants a chance to experience and understand the full cycle of proper nutrition and healthy choices, and allows them to experience cultures and cuisines beyond their own.

This program also encourages the practices of environmental and social sustainability, as well as the sharing of intergenerational and multicultural knowledge, values and customs.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group or just text us through the Facebook Messenger app (friend me to join our Cool Intergenerational Ideas group discussion). We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter! Share the inspiration.