Community Living Campaign

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Judy Goddess

Inner Sunset Community Connectors Reflect on a Successful Year

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group photo of Inner Sunset participants

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Neighbors and Always Active Instructors celebrate one year of Inner Sunset Community Connectors

Before we opened the doors last October 22nd at St. Anne of the Sunset, we had hoped 15 people might attend our our Monday and Thursday afternoon exercise/community building program.  Instead 35 appeared, ready to enjoy the Always Active exercise program. Though most of us lived in the neighborhood, few of us knew one another. The number of participants, and our friendships have only grown from those early days. 

 
One day last summer, when 53 people tried to fit into our summer space at St. John of God, we were in the awkward position of turning away people at the same time we were committed to building community. After several weeks of this, the Community Living Campaign convinced the SF Department of Aging and Adult Services (the city agency that provides the primary funding for this program), to send a second Always Active instructor, allowing us to serve up to 60 people a session.   More recently, CLC convinced DAAS to earmark extra funding for a third day of classes.  On Tuesdays, beginning November 5, we will offer chair yoga and creative dance on alternative weeks.
 
Note from a participant

MAKING FRIENDS: “I feel healthier which is great but I feel most excited about meeting my neighbors. I don’t feel like a stranger out here anymore.” (Note from a participant)

But we don’t only exercise when we come together. About a month into the program, Marina Lazarra, the community connector from the Community Living Campaign, began offering after-exercises activities. The first classes were on gardening and healthy herbs – Marina’s interests – an ongoing memoir writing class, classes on “finding your style,” earthquake safety, how to get most out of your cell phone, a three-session series on Stroke Awareness, and an evening meeting on Loneliness and Social Isolation engaged participants and brought in new members. More than 10 of us participated in a letter exchange with the fifth graders at the SF Friends School, and were thrilled to attend the children’s dramatization of our life stories.

 
It’s all coming together, the way we had hoped. The Always Active exercise program and the after-class workshops have led to the development of new friendships. People arrive before class and stay after to exchange gossip. The more able-bodied members look out for those of us who move slower or are less steady on our feet. We are no longer strangers working out, we’re becoming friends. Thanks to this program, retirement and aging are taking on new meaning in the Inner Sunset.  
 
Want to help? Right now, we have a matching gift of up to $10,000. Please donate now to double your impact!
 
(Enjoy a few pictures from the November 4th Anniversary Celebration and Thank You Event)
 
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Breast Cancer Support Pink Luncheon 2018

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Breast Cancer Groups Celebrate

On Oct. 11, the Breast Cancer Group of the Lutheran Church of Our Savior, and the Bayview Imani Breast Cancer Support Group held their annual celebration luncheon.

Though African-American and white women are diagnosed with breast cancer at roughly the same rate, African-American women are 42 percent more likely to die from the disease. There seem to be several reasons for this: African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages of the disease, and experience delays in treatment. They are also more likely to be diagnosed with a triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive subtype that is linked to poorer survival.

The OMI breast cancer group meets the third Thursday of the month, from 11 a.m.– noon. The group takes on different projects – murals, paintings and placemats – some of which were on display at the church. Their primary task, explained Barbara Tate, program director at the LCOS, is supporting one another and the newly diagnosed. “When we hear of someone who’s been newly diagnosed, we try to visit and talk with them. We go with them to the doctor if they want us to do that. We listen to their story and tell our own. Whatever the person wants, we’re available.”

October 11, however, was a day to greet old friends, enjoy good food, celebrate and listen to inspirational speeches from Pastor Evered Cohen of the Lutheran Church and the Rev. Dr. Carolyn Ransom-Scott

If you are looking for support or want more information, call Barbara Tate, 415-586-7890.

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First affordable housing project for seniors breaks ground in Mission District

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picture of groundbreaking ceremony

From the Left to Right: Lorena Melgarejo and Ollinda Orellana (community speakers both from Faith in Action), Kevin Kilbane of Raymond James Tax Credit Fund, Rev. Norman Fong of Chinatown CDC, Karoleen Feng of MEDA, Supervisor Hillary Ronen, Fiona Hsu of Silicon Valley Bank, Kate Hartley, Director of MOHCD. Photo: Courtesy of MEDA

Projected design of the new affordable senior housing that will go up at 1296 Shotwell. (Photo courtesy of MEDA)

SENIOR BEAT – Tears and cheers greeted the speakers  at the June 20 groundbreaking ceremony for Casa Adelante–1296 Shotwell, the first, new, 100 percent affordable housing project built in the Mission District in the past decade.

When completed, the nine-story building will provide 94 units of affordable housing, with on-site supportive services: 74 apartments for low-income seniors, 19 for seniors experiencing homelessness, and one for the building manager. The project is a partnership between the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) and the Chinatown Community Development Center (Chinatown CDC).

The building is expected to be completed by 2020. It will also have staff offices, four rooftop terraces, landscaped garden courtyards, a spacious community room with a kitchen, 22 bicycle storage spaces, solar hot-water system, a community laundry room, and an enhanced security system.

“Finally, finally, it’s taken a long time to get here. It doesn’t get much better than this,” said District 9 supervisor Hillary Ronen. “It’s very special that this first project is for seniors who have given so much to the community and who deserve to age in dignity and safety.

More housing to come

“Housing should be a human right and we’re hell bent on making it a human right in San Francisco,” Ronen continued. “My goal is 5,000 units in the next decade.”

Olinda Orellana, a community leader and Faith in Action senior advocate who was honored for her 30 years of organizing for affordable housing, said “We deserve to live out our last days with dignity and security. We’ll continue to struggle and bring people together. This isn’t the last affordable project in our neighborhood.”

Six more affordable housing projects in the Mission are currently being evaluated—for a total of 780 units—according to Amy Beinart, a Ronen aide specializing in housing. “Some for seniors, others for families; 20 percent will be set aside for the formerly homeless,” said Beinart, who is also working with MEDA, Mission Housing Development Corporation and Mission Neighborhood Centers to find more sites.

After a blessing and dance performance by Danza Azteca Xitalli-Xoloti, MEDA Executive Director Luis Granados reminded the crowd of officials and community members gathered for the occasion that more than 8,000 Latinos have been forced from their homes in the Mission District since 2000.

“Being on a fixed, low income should not mean being displaced,” Granados said, adding that the project only came about through “lots and lots of community work. This is how MEDA and the community work, and this is how we will continue to work.”

Money for the project comes from voter-approved Prop A, the city’s Affordable Housing Fund, and the federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program. The nine-story building is also the first to seek a density bonus through the city’s Affordable Housing Bonus Program.

“This development makes the city a better place to live,” said Kate Hartley, director of the Mayor’s Office on Housing and Community Development.

Fifth-graders learn what it’s like be older – by interviewing seniors

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picture of 5th graders and seniors at the Friends School storytelling event

Fifth-graders and seniors at the Friends School storytelling event.

SENIOR BEAT – Once a week, a group of fifth graders visits some of the seniors who live at Valencia Gardens, down the street from their school, for games and conversation.

“People think that seniors are cranky, grumpy and mean. They’re not,” said student Jaxon Howard. “It was special to hear them talk about their lives.”

That’s just the kind of lesson the San Francisco Friends School hopes to impart. Learning in and from the community is an essential component of the curriculum at the Quaker school. Eighth-graders study homelessness and volunteer at St. Boniface Catholic Church. Fifth-graders explore aging: what it feels like to be older – problems with seeing, hearing, pains, and loss of mobility.

“The idea is to develop empathy and connection. Quaker education is all about relationships and developing connection,” said Guybe Slangen, director of community engagement.

So it was that in mid-April, a group of seniors from Valencia Gardens and other community groups sat down to be interviewed by students. In May, each student shared an elder’s story in “performances” in the school auditorium. The senior subjects were given front row seats, while parents, friends and some first-graders fanned out behind.

“I’m surprised that the seniors opened up to tell their stories to people they didn’t know instead of keeping them inside,” said fifth-grader Eliza Kingsland. “Hearing feedback from the seniors who came to our performance was very special.”

A story is a gift

The students dramatized lives filled with pets and friends, siblings and families crowded into one room; school and work, scary adventures and funny events. They told of being Jewish and hiding out during World War II, running from bombs in Europe and Japan, and having to leave your home country; of fires and explosions, not having enough food, and the deaths of friends and family.

“I wanted them to learn to balance the fun and happy moments with the sad moments, and to see how others handled problems,” said Jon Burnett, who has taught drama at the school for the past 16 years. “By fifth grade, they’re still very enthusiastic, very spirited, but they’re also starting to make some advanced choices. They’re going deeper and bigger in their thinking.”

The students had practiced their interviewing and note-taking skills and developed follow-up questions. In the weeks preceding the production. Burnett helped them flush out the stories. Together, they chose sound effects, costumes and props. “Stories make good drama, you remember good stories,” he said.

“It’s all about sharing stories with the people you interviewed,” added Slangen. “When someone gives you a story it’s a gift. It shows respect and gratitude when they give it to you and when you give it back.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed those kids,” said Robin Larsen, a  St. Francis Square resident who attended. “They were smart, polite, curious, good senses of humor, and already a few want to be journalists, which warms my heart.”

Advocates rally for justice for the vulnerable in City budget

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Justice budget rally at city hallSENIOR BEAT – June is budget negotiation time at City Hall. On June 18, after receiving a draft budget from the mayor, the Budget and Finance Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors invited comments from the community.  Activists making up the Budget Justice Coalition rallied on City Hall steps to highlight the need for increased funding for for the poor, the homeless, seniors and people with disabilities. The coalition is a broad based collaboration of more than 30 community-based and labor organizations serving impoverished people working towards a City budget that prioritizes poor  communities in San Francisco.  Inside City Hall, advocates were allowed one minute to plead their case. They  testified on the need for increased funding for homeless services, rental subsidies for seniors and people with disabilities, and food programs. Funds were requested for employment programs for seniors, after-school programs, free summer school at City College, and pedestrian safety. After a representative for the senior community choirs program finished speaking, 30 choir members rose and serenaded the supervisors and audience.  (Photos by Mary Hunt)

Senior Center Takes Steps to Battle Bullying

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picture of dr. patrick abore

Dr. Patrick Arbore, from the Institute on Aging, teaches seniors and staff recognize and handle bullying. (Photos by Judy Goddess)

SENIOR BEAT – If we’re not surprised to hear about bullying in the schoolyard, why then are we shocked to learn that bullying occurs among seniors, too? No room for bullying in our image of the smiling grandma bearing cookies or the gentle grandfather imparting fly fishing tips o his young grandson?

But some seniors do bully. And it starts early.

“Young bullies just become older bullies,” said Dr. Patrick Arbore, founder and director of Elderly Suicide Prevention & Grief Related Services at the Institute on Aging. “Bullying is a learned behavior. Unless someone called a stop to this behavior or the bully is fortunate enough to develop insight into what is considered relational aggression.”

Recognition of  senior-to-senior bullying has been slowly surfacing in retirement homes and senior centers across the country. It was first formally identified as a phenomenon in 2013 by Robin P. Bonifas, an assistant professor in Arizona State University’s School of Social Work.

Identifying troubling behavior

A couple of years ago, staff at San Francisco’s largest multipurpose senior center – more than 300  seniors attend the center each day – began struggling with how to handle behavior they were starting to notice: gossip, seniors refusing to allow those with disabilities to sit at their lunch table; loud remarks about a frail elder’s appearance; unkind comments about a new member’s outfit; nastiness to staff. Often, but not always, the person being picked on was older and frail; sometimes, they were just different or seemed vulnerable.

At the recent American Society on Aging conference in San Francisco, Valorie Villela, director of The 30th Street Senior Center in Noe Valley, described how their center met the challenge. Villela began by asking the more than 70 social workers and geriatric case managers crowded for the forum, “How many of you have experienced bullying in your programs?” A chorus of hands affirmed what is increasing recognized as a problem in programs and facilities serving seniors. Bonifas estimated 10-20% of seniors have experienced senior-to-senior aggression, mostly verbal, in an institutional set­ting.

Staff members ‘at a loss’

“Staff members were at a loss,” Villela admitted. “Staff didn’t expect it, weren’t trained to recognize it and didn’t know what to do about it, so they minimized the bullying. They told victims not to mind it, that it will blow over and things will work themselves out.

And, she admitted, “interventions take up a lot of staff time and interactions with a bully can be difficult.”

Some targets of bullying were so intimidated they stopped attending the center. With ever fewer options to be around other people, they could become more susceptible to loneliness and social isolation. The center’s first response, suspending the bullies, didn’t address the target’s need either.

This was not the caring community, the welcoming environment Villela thought the center presented.

So she invited Arbore to help them develop an awareness and more effective ways to deal with bullying, or at least reduce its negative impact.

A real public health problem
photo of anti-bullying flier

Fliers help get the message across.

“Bullying is a very real social and public health problem that’s been in the shadows for years,” Arbore said. “It affects the victims, their families, the people who care for them – and even the bullies themselves.

“Bullies want power. Unlike bad behavior, such as rudeness, or elder abuse, which is motivated by personal gain, bullying is about domination with intent to harm. Mean young people become mean old people. Personality features become entrenched over time. So, as they age, bullies only get better at it, unless there is some sort of intervention.”

With input from center staff and senior clients, Arbore came up with a two-phase pilot project. First: train staff to understand and recognize bullying, and intervene appropriately. Next: help seniors recognize, respond to, and report bullying. Anti-bullying posters offered behavioral guidelines and response procedures.

“The staff at 30th Street aren’t trained as psychotherapists,” Arbore said, “but they are trained to support, help, and empathize with both the person who bullies and the person who has been bullied. There is no quick fix or magic bullet. However, we do not want to underestimate or devalue the critical importance of boundaries, civility, kindness, and empathy.”

Helping the bully, too

Today, a bully may be referred to appropriate help, e.g., therapy or case management, instead of being suspended. Seniors at the center who have gone through a nine-week course on the problem of bullying are quicker to acknowledge the victim’s pain and offer support.

Katherine Escobar

“The training helped us recognize that pushing to be first in line, name calling, gossip, being mean to staff, not allowing someone with a walker to sit next to you – behavior we’ve all noticed – are signs of bullying,” said Katherine Escobar, who facilitates the course for Spanish-speaking seniors. “It helped us understand the bully and gave us more tools on how to respond.”

The two-year project, which began in September 2016, received funding from the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services. Villela is seeking funds to continue the effort.

“We want to have policies and procedures in place so the seniors will feel welcome at 30th Street. We are committed to hospitality. We want seniors to feel confident they will be treated with respect when they come to our center.”

When Designing Products for Older Adults, Senior Supervision is Advised

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photo of Dr. June Fisher

Dr. June Fisher (Photos by Judy Goddess)

SENIOR BEAT – The walking sticks Dr. June Fisher uses buffer her struggles with severe arthritis.  And they might just give her an inside edge on the usefulness of products for older adults and those with disabilities.

One of those retired but busy people, she spends a lot of time mentoring design students and professionals. And she is determined to imprint her mantra, “Design with us, not for us.”

Too many products miss the mark, she said: shopping carts without brakes for hills, kitchen products and gardening tools that defeat a person with arthritis, monitoring devices that sit in a drawer.

“Products need to reflect the needs of people they’re designed for,” Fisher said. “While I appreciate the technical skills of design students and professionals, I don’t want a 23-year-old telling me what I need. It has to be a mutual relationship where elders set the agenda and participate in the development of those products.”

Designing winners
Photo of Professor Richardo Gomes with design student Seira Yasumatsu.

San Francisco State professor. Richardo Gomes with design student Seira Yasumatsu.

For the past four years, Fisher has mentored teams in the advanced product design course at San Francisco State University taught by professor Ricardo Gomes. In 2016, her team won first prize in The Stanford Center on Longevity International Design Challenge, a global competition that encourages students to develop products and services to improve well-being across the lifespan. This year, her team won third place.

It was a missed chance on cheap heirloom tomatoes that led to the creation of SFSU’s 2016 challenge winner.

“A friend called and said they were selling heirloom tomatoes at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market for two dollars a pound. I got up, got dressed, and then realized that even if they were still available, I couldn’t carry them home. I don’t like to admit it, but I was overcome with despair.”

She shared her dilemma with Gomes, who assigned it as a class project. The results was “City Cart,”  a combination walker and shopping basket with brakes, allowing those with mobility issues to walk, shop and return home without assistance.

Farmer’s market dilemma

“I spent a lot of time with June, going to the farmers’ market, talking with her, walking around with her,” said team Captain Brandon Lopez. “She told me she needed something more robust and stable to carry groceries than one of those pull-behind trolleys, and she needed some place to park her walker when she shopped.”

The team developed “tons and tons of prototypes and shared them all with her,” he said. “Partnering with Fisher was tremendous. Otherwise we would just be designing for ourselves.”

Photo of Dr. June Fisher and Seira Yasumatsu

Dr. Fisher helped San Francisco State design student Seira Yasumatsu fine-tune her entry in this year’s Stanford Center on Longevity International Design Challenge.

This year, Fisher helped another student fine-tune her project after it was named a finalist in the competition. “Grow and Gather” is a movable cart that incorporates support for walking and sitting, with storage for tools and produce. If you want to purchase quality Modafinil at a reasonable cost, ModafinilSmart.com is your choice. The treatment does not harm your overall health state but promotes a drastic impact on the organism. The quality of the medication purchased from ModafinilSmart is approved. Besides, you will benefit from professional assistance, fast delivery, and complete anonymity.

“We – Dr. Gomes, Dr. Fisher, and I – met every Friday at Dr. Fisher’s house to discuss the project,” said student developer Seira Yasumatsu. “Dr. Fisher has a beautiful garden, which she has trouble weeding. I shared all the prototypes I made – maybe 20 or 25 little ones, and then six or seven full-sized ones.  Dr. Fisher’s approach, ‘design with us, not for us’, is part of me now.”

A new career

It was a crisis in the early days of the AIDS epidemic that turned Fisher to product design. As director of occupational health at San Francisco General Hospital, she knew healthcare workers were worried about contagion through needle sticks. She wanted to do something to alleviate their fears.

She didn’t find a specific solution, but found a new career.

She began attending classes in the Product Design program at the Stanford, where she had attended medical school. Eventually, she was appointed to a lectureship there, which lasted 10 years. She has mentored design students at the University of California-Berkeley and the California College of Arts, as well as those at San Francisco State.

She is also involved with Aging2.0, an interdisciplinary and intergenerational, global community driving collaboration around challenges and opportunities around aging. She said she’s their CEO, or Chief Elder Officer, someone who ensures that products are designed in collaboration with the people who would use them.

Fisher hopes to get more seniors involved in product design.

“I don’t want to be the only old person working with these young designers. We need a multi-generational design class with a cadre of elders who have the ability to set the agenda and participate in the development of products.”

Ingleside-Excelsior Senior Spotlight: June 2018

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Widening horizons at Bookman Community Center
picture of Felisia Thibodeaux

Felisia Thibodeaux is the new executive director at the I. T. Bookman Community Center. (Photo by Judy Goddess)

Felisia Thibodeaux, the new executive director of the I. T. Bookman Community Center had been on the job just over four months when we talked, and she had already developed some big plans.

“We need to redirect I. T. Bookman … for the whole community, including people with disabilities,” she said. “We want to offer something for everybody to engage in.”

​Founded in 1985 by I. T. Bookman, a member of the neighboring Pilgrim Community Church, and largely supported by the church and its members, the center provided a multipurpose space for Sunday School classes as well as community events.  The center currently receives most of its support from the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) and the Stonestown YMCA, which operates its after-school program.

In the years since its founding, new families have moved into the Ingleside. Where once the community was primarily African-American, today it is 52 percent Asian. “The neighborhood has changed,” Thibodeaux said, and “we’re not reaching them. Only eight percent of our members are Asian. We need to reach out to that community. We need to add a Chinese-speaking person for outreach and engagement to the Asian community.”

She also plans to bring Asian foods and art into the building in addition to celebrate the African-American culture. While opening the center to a wider population, she intends to make sure longtime clients continue to feel valued. One idea it to put their photos in the lobby.

But more than widening the diversity of participants, the center needs to offer more services.

“Our center is one of the lowest-funded senior programs in the city. We need to add new services, like information and referral, case management and nutritional education,” Thibodeaux said. She also wants to start an onsite lunch program. “Because so  many of our seniors live on hills and can’t get out of their houses, we’ll need a shuttle to bring them to the center.”

Before bringing in new programs, however, she wants the seniors to visit other Department of Aging and Adult Services-funded senior centers to see how they do things. “We’ll look at their food, culture, music and services. Then we’ll talk about what we might want here. We want to get our juices moving.”

Intergenerational programming is also on her agenda. She would like to see seniors stay one afternoon for an hour of conversation and storytelling with children in the after-school program.

Thibodeaux is inviting the community to celebrate the redirection of the center. We’re Growing Up and We’re Growing Old, will be held at I. T. Bookman on June 30, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.; 446 Randolph St., corner of Arch; 415-586-8020.

Litquake for Elders at Cayuga Connectors

Adrenaline ran high at the Litquake Elder Project reading, with the audience of fellow students and friends listening intently and enthusiastically applauding.

Benita McCown-Harper’s mother sat in the front row. Others brought friends or neighbors, even children. It was a celebration and final reading of the first Litquake Elder Project with Cayuga Community Connectors.

The project is focused on making sure each participant is supported and guided to produce work they are proud of and feel safe to share, Project Director Lisa Galloway said. “While framed as a writing workshop, the Elder Project has the equally important effect of building supportive communities for the participants to voice their stories.”

Litquake brings published, professional writers into the community to teach writing to students and adults of all ages. The Elder Project is the first effort to focus exclusively on seniors. Galloway deliberately selected the four teaching artists/instructors for the Cayuga program – Charlie Getter, Marina Lazzara, Julie Rogers, and Kevin Dublin –  as representative of different generations, backgrounds, and writing styles.

litquake pamphletsThe students, too, were diverse. “Some of us had never written before; others brought years of experience. One or two said they took the class to find their voice. People started small and quiet, but they gained confidence over the course of the program. We all had different writing styles, but we all supported each other,” said Grace D’Anca, one of the writers.

Adrenaline ran high at the May 2 reading, with the audience of fellow students and friends listening intently and enthusiastically applauding. “It was amazing to see the students at Cayuga write such powerful and personal poems that they bravely shared with the group and a public audience of over 40 people,” said Galloway. The poems will continue to be shared in the chapbook produced by Litquake.

While the celebration marked the culmination of Cayuga’s daytime program, the Connectors are supporting a new Litquake Elder Project starting May 8. It will meet from 6-7:30 p.m. through July 17 at Excelsior Works!, 5000 Mission St. Call Patti Spaniak for information: 646-409-7775.

Ingleside-Excelsior Senior Spotlight: May 2018

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Cayuga Community Connectors Unveils Four Little Free Libraries

Mel Noguera, surrounded by some of the Eng family, reads from a favorite books at the unveiling of four new “free little libraries” in the Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods. (Photo by Judy Goddess)

You may have passed a little free library in your neighborhood on your way to the bus stop: a small house-shaped box atop a post in someone’s front yard. A sign, “Take a Book; Leave a Book,” invites passers-by to pause and unlatch the clear front door to more closely inspect the books inside.

On Friday, April 20, Cayuga Community Connectors unveiled four new little libraries, bringing the number of free libraries to more than 10.  I’m uncertain about the exact number, since not all “stewards” as the people who own and maintain the libraries are called, choose to register on the website, www.littlefreelibrary.org, and thus become part of the official count.

One library owner said that everyone who walks by smiles when they see the sign. Some take a book; one asked if she could leave a book. The Rev. Glenda Hope talked about the little boy next door who always checks her free library for new children’s books and has taken to replacing the books he takes with one of his own.

event flierA good-sized crowd joined Friday’s ribbon-cutting walk. Each stop occasioned readings – favorite poems, selections from a larger work, an original poem by Dolores Fierro. Four of the Eng children shared pages from their favorite books, with GG, one of the 10 siblings, and Mel Noguera reading a section from one of their favorite books.

By the time we reached the fourth house, two more Cayuga Connectors volunteered to install little libraries in their front yards. After the last red ribbon had been cut, selections read, photos taken, and books exchanged, the crowd gathered in Hope’s house for pizza and laughter.

More libraries are on the way.

The District 7 Youth Council is preparing to establish four more libraries, including at least one in the Ingleside. They’re looking for locations that are well-travelled and far from a public library. “The box kits are in the city waiting to be assembled and the library has promised some start-up books,” said Council member Paige Quaintance, who even plans to donate some of the books from her childhood library. “We’re looking for stewards,” she said. “Some of the council members are juniors and seniors and won’t be around to care for the libraries. We’re hoping to recruit stewards who will be here long term.”

For information on how the San Francisco Public Library can help you install a little free library, contact Naomi Jelks at Naomi.jelks@sfpl.org or 415-557-4411. Contact Patti Spaniak, Cayuga Community Connectors, for information on Cayuga libraries: pspaniak@me.com; 649-409-7775.  If you can help the D7 Youth Council with their little free libraries, contact Jarlene Choy: jarlene.choy@sfgov.org, 415-554-6519.

Book recommendation: Happiness is a Choice You Make

If you’re a senior or the child of a senior, do yourself a favor and read “Happiness is a Choice You Make” by John Leland. A new book, it’s available at the San Francisco Public Library. Although when I looked the other day, the waiting list for the library’s 50 copies held 58 names.

Leland, an award-winning New York Times journalist, followed a group of six diverse New York City elders, 85 and over for one year. At the same time, he was going through a divorce and had been thrust into the caregiver role for his 89 year-old mother, both of which play strongly into the book.

At the start of the assignment, Leland “hoped to show the pains and hardships of old age. … What else, I reasoned, was old age made of.”

What he learned was very different.

“A lesson of old age is that it’s not what you think and the debilities you thought defined people are often just more things you live with. We’d do ourselves a big favor not to be scared of growing old, but to embrace the mixed bag that the years have to offer, however severe the losses.”

Leland relied on his mother and the six seniors to teach him about aging. “They’re the real experts in the field.”

However, because the elders’ lives so closely support “the positivity effect,” identified by Stanford longevity researcher Laura Carstensen, he devotes several pages to this concept of selective attention and memory – ‘vividly recalling the good times and forgetting about the bad.”

For more on the positivity effect, check Carstensen’s TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/laura_carstensen_older_people_are_happier.

Happiness is a Choice You Make is a well-written and inspiring book, I highly recommend it. Read my review.

Health Resource Fair for All Ages

Free Health Resource Fair, Saturday May 19 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., at the YMCA, 4080 Mission Street. Free health screenings, engaging speakers, group exercise demonstrations, healthy snacks, produce giveaway and more! For more information, contact Genny Pinzon at gpinzon@ymcasf.org, or 415-452-7581.

Most Older Adults Want to Contribute to Society, and Many Do, New Study Shows

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SENIOR BEAT – The majority of older adults want to contribute to society. And about a third actively do. That’s according to a collaborative study by researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the San Francisco-based non-profit Encore.org.

Findings and recommendations from the Pathways to Encore Purpose Project were presented at the recent 2018 American Society on Aging conference by  Encore Project Director Jim Emerman.

For the past two decades Encore, an organization dedicated to connecting people in later life with work opportunities that benefit society, has been looking at the role of purpose. In 2005, its predecessor, Civic Ventures, initiated The Purpose Prize for midlife adults whose volunteer commitments were making significant contributions to contemporary life.

The study defines purpose as a “sustained commitment to goals that are meaningful to the self and that also contribute in some way to the common good, to something larger than or beyond the self.” Purposeful living is “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self.”

Study participants were asked to rate 10 life goals in terms of importance, and answer questions about their ongoing commitment to their top three. One of those had to be a beyond-the-self goal, and backed by a strong commitment, defined as involvement at least once a month. “We set the bar high,” Emerman said. “Purposeful activity had to be very much part of their identity.”

Defining life goals

The team surveyed a national sample of 1,200 adults ages 50 to 92 and conducted hour-long phone interviews with 102. The study found that:

  1. The majority of older adults exhibit high levels of pro-social values and behaviors, such as volunteering, helping and caring for others, caring for nature and the environment, endorsing equal treatment for all, and seeking to understand people who are different from themselves.
  2. Nearly a third of older adults (31 percent) actively pursue goals that are both personally meaningful and contribute to the greater good. “Purpose does not decline with age. Thirty-one percent is as high as the Stanford researchers saw in any age group previously studied,” said Emerman.
  3. While the pursuit of purposeful living is significantly higher among people of color than among whites and Asians, it is found across ethnicities, age, income, health status and geography.
  4. Purposeful living does not crowd out other pleasures or personal goals. In fact, a greater percentage of purposeful respondents than non-purposeful respondents saw later adulthood as a time to do self-oriented activities like traveling or taking classes.
  5. People who are purposeful have a positive outlook on life. Purposeful older adults emphasize the joy and satisfaction they experience in their lives, especially in their beyond-the-self engagements.
  6. Freedom is important to purposeful and non-purposeful people in different ways.  About half those with purpose emphasized the freedom to be involved in things beyond the self; the non-purposeful mostly looked at freedom as relief from the burdensome responsibilities of paid work and childrearing.
What does it all mean?

For older people, it means finding something beyond yourself that you’re passionate about and go after it: tutor children, volunteer, clean the neighborhood park, work for world peace. Though not addressed in the Stanford research, it should be noted that the act of volunteering has “a significant, positive effect on the mental and physical health and well-being of volunteers, especially those who are older and/or low-income,” according to the work of Carr, Greenfield & Marks, Kim & Konrath, Moen & Fields, and others cited in the Encore study.

The study also looked at those who did not fit their definition of active engagement in purposeful living. About half of them were not interested in engaging in any “beyond-the-self” activities. About a fifth of those were involved but, for various reasons such as travel, poor health, and family commitments had not pursued any beyond-the-self activity for the past month.

For organizations looking for volunteers, the study advises:

Build on people’s specific expressions of interest to find the right match for engaging them in purposeful pursuits.

  • Provide transitional support for volunteers when a program closes or changes its focus.
  •  Reach out to newcomers in the community, suggesting volunteering as a way they can get to know their new neighborhood and neighbors.
  • Connect retired professionals with opportunities to continue using their skills in satisfying ways.
  • Help occasional volunteers make the transition to more substantial involvement when they are ready, often after retirement or other life events.
  • Expand the use of stipends or other compensation, such as transportation reimbursement or meals, especially for roles that require a sustained commitment.
  • Cast a wider net in seeking volunteers. “By only concentrating on the elites (the highly educated, healthy and wealthy), we’re missing a large chunk of the population,” Emerman said.
Some purposeful people in San Francisco

Over the past two years, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and interview many older adults who lead what can be described as purposeful lives. Some were passionate volunteers.  Others worked for stipends or minimum wage. Their stories, which I’ve abbreviated here, have been published in the Ingleside-Excelsior Light, the San Francisco Bayview, or sfcommunityliving.org.

Saralyn Archie is one of seven volunteers who package and deliver groceries to homebound seniors in the OMI neighborhood of San Francisco. She grew up in the neighborhood and many of the elders on her route are the parents of her friends. “I look forward to seeing everyone on my route.  I’m looking out for them and they’re looking out for me. They’re my seniors. It’s a treat for me to be able to give something to people.”

Kathryn Summers

Kathryn Summers started the Bayview Imani Breast Cancer Support Group when her little sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time there were no such groups for African-American women. Though her sister did not survive, Summers vows to keep active in the group “as long as I have the time and enough energy.”

Mary Lou Bartoletti calls Sheridan Elementary School in Oceanview-Ingleside “a hidden gem. I knew I wanted to contribute, to volunteer with students in math,” she said. “Best of all, they needed me. It’s really rewarding when a student has a breakthrough; I feel I’m doing something worthwhile.”

Done Robblee

Donne Robblee is a classroom volunteer at Monroe Elementary School in the Excelsior District, through the Foster Grandparents program, for which she receives a small stipend. “If kids don’t get a good start, they’ll never catch up. I enjoy helping kids get that chance. It’s neat when you see a child’s face when he gets it, when he starts raising his hand.”

Helen Carter ostensibly teaches computer skills to women attending the computer lab at Senior Disability and Action, a San Francisco nonprofit. What she really does, said her supervisor Alice Chiu, “is create a community. She uses the computer lab to break isolation. They eat lunch together. I hear them laugh. I’ve heard them singing.” Carter, who is paid through the San Francisco ReServe Employment program, is more modest: “I enjoy sharing and helping people learn, especially seniors, and they’re happy learning.”

Daniel Billings returned to his first love, volunteering, when his company closed and he couldn’t find a job. He had been attending a men’s group at Curry Senior Center before he began volunteering in their dining room. When a ReServe position at Curry became available, he was encouraged to apply. “I love Curry and what they do. I feel like I’m blessed.”

Robert Mason

Robert Mason, a longtime volunteer at his church, Temple United Methodist, began helping in the food pantry, the third largest pantry in San Francisco, once he retired. Concerned about the long wait – sometimes up to an hour – for recipients to get their food, he decided they some improvements. It didn’t take long before he designed a system of time slots– the first among the city’s food pantries. Now no one has to wait longer than 15 minutes. Periodically, they rotate which group goes first, so no one feels left behind.

These are stories from only a few of the people I have met. San Francisco, and I imagine every city, has many older people who want to contribute and whose energy, thoughtfulness and love can make the world a better place.

The encore phase of life “is not a swan song, but a variation on a theme: the desire to go on, even in the face of adversity or loss,’’ Dr. Gene Cohen, whom some call the founder of the field of gerontology, wrote in his 2005 book “The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain.” “This need to remain vital can lead to new manifestations of creativity and social engagement that make this period full of surprises. … Released from overly negative illusions about aging, people are often stirred by new energy, direction, or purpose.”