I love what a student and a resident can accomplish together

By Pam McDonald

As producer and co-host of Senior Housing Forum – the Podcast, I had the privilege recently of interviewing Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, and Julia Agee, Recreation Director, for Pacifica Senior Living Healdsburg in California. They told me how their intergenerational “Comm-University” program is enriching the lives of all involved – school-age children, residents, residents’ families, staff, and local citizens.

The Healdsburg community campus becomes the classroom where students are paired with residents for teaching-learning projects based on the school’s curriculum. Not only does this connection keep the community full, but it also enhances residents’ sense of purpose and joy, links children in meaningful ways with elders, builds trust with residents’ families, is a source of pride for staff, and contributes to the well being of the surrounding area. 

You can listen to the full podcast here, and below are some of the significant takeaways.

 

. . . [I]t’s really important that we look at the community as a whole. A lot of times senior living properties can become kind of that island in the community. And we want a symbiotic relationship with the community.

                    Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

 

We’re not creating a new program that schools are trying to adopt. We’re actually just aligning with the curriculum that’s in place and we don’t really have to have a module . . . the kids are in class here with the residents.

                    Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

 

So, what a great way for residents and students to be engaged . . . in class together, learning together, teaching together, and playing together . . . We have 12 schools we’re working with and many of the schools, we have multiple grades coming as well.

                    Julia Agee, Recreation Director, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

And I love what a student and a resident can accomplish together . . . The student becomes the eyes, the dexterity, the cognition . . . the hearing . . . the mobility . . . and I think the resident becomes whole again as they worked together to create something . . . that’s something beautiful to give to someone that has a hard time piecing their day together.

Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

. . . [T]here’s a few of us and we have 115 people. So, you do the math . . . How are these residents going to get that one-on-one time every day? . . . So, to be able to have a student sit with them one-on-one for sometimes even an hour . . . asking them questions about their lives and sharing stories, it’s invaluable. I know the residents treasure those visits for sure.

Julia Agee, Recreation Director, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

. . . As families come in and look for information, I can tell what our products and services are . . . [that] we can provide care and food and activities and things, but I have an expectation when somebody is moving in that their loved one has something to bring; even a person with advanced dementia . . . still, at a minimum, at a very, very minimum, they will teach young people empathy. And that’s a powerful thing to give to a young person . . .

Our youth are disconnected from our elders. So why not take the system of elder care that’s in place and the system of education and reintroduce, in a massive way, our young people to our elders . . . It’s a perfect marriage.

Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

 

. . . I want them, and Julia wants them [students] to see their worth in their contribution to the community, . . . we want them to value themselves . . . And, that’s the same thing we want for our residents. It’s a perfect marriage. It’s not about race, it’s not about religion, it’s not about politics. It’s about goodness and humanity and human connection in a world that’s creating disconnect through devices. So, I think, wow, we have an opportunity to shift in the other direction of where humanity is going; to say, “Let’s reconnect.”

                    Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg

We stay full with a waitlist here and we don’t do conventional marketing . . . I would rather have people coming into our community attending our events. We have . . . three to 500 people attend our events. We have four or five events a year, plus all the kids come in. You know, we’ll have several thousand people . . . I want people to have an experience here. I want them to tell people . . . I think it validates our residents when the community comes by the hundreds into their home.

And we’re raising money. We’ve raised over $150,000 for local nonprofits: Alzheimer’s Association, Meals on Wheels, food pantries, museums, Green Dog Rescue . . . [R]esidents feel . . . we’re actually making a difference in the community . . . and I think that’s so important as we age . . . So, everyone that comes in is going to be contributing. That’s just our expectations.

Tony Fisher, Sales and Marketing, Pacifica Senior Living, Healdsburg