83.9 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Generation Gaps Don’t Exist at Local Non-Profit

Generation Gaps Don’t Exist at Local Non-Profit Non-Profits Best All Around: ONEgeneration By SLAV KANDYBA Staff Reporter Children and the elderly are separated by decades of life and experiences, and seemingly have nothing in common. But the staff at ONEgeneration, a daycare center with two San Fernando Valley locations, believes otherwise. The people running the 501(c)3 nonprofit figured that both children and the elderly have many of the same needs , and one group can help the other fill them. ONEgeneration is believed to be the first social service organization of its kind, a model of innovation that serves as training ground for students from local universities. “It’s far more self-sufficient and you’re able to provide more kinds of services because you’re mixing generations,” said Donna Deutchman, ONEgeneration president and CEO. The organization offers three kinds of services: daycare, when children and the elderly interact with one another in a “shared experience,” community-based programs, when young adults from ONEgeneration partner with Tierra del Sol to help seniors who “may not be able to get to a store or to a needed appointment”; and last, a center for healthy active seniors, Deutchman said. With ONEgeneration, statistics speak for success. More than 28,000 children and elderly are served by ONEgeneration programs, and 130 seniors and 92 children attend the “share experience” daycare. Seven hundred and fifty clients are homebound seniors, there are 60 interns and graduate students. ONEgeneration has a staff of 114 full-time employees – and more than 1,000 volunteers. At a recent party for volunteers, Deutchman said, 370 volunteers were recognized for serving more than 100 hours each in the past year, a whopping total of 37,000 volunteer hours, Deutchman said. Irene Pete is 79 (“almost 80”), and has attended ONEgeneration Intergenerational Care for 16 months, said her daughter, Pamela Antwine. Antwine said it was her decision to enroll Pete their because Pete “was living in San Diego and we had no one to take care of her,” being that Antwine lives in the Valley with her four daughters. Antwine took her mother into her home and became a full-time care giver, but she soon decided that ONEgeneration was a quality daycare – which her mother would enjoy. “With the children at the ONEgeneration, she gets to experience that personal fulfillment,” Antwine said. “For me, I found it met a lot of my needs and interest that my mother had in terms of the socialization, with age peers … she was very children-oriented.” Antwine said she believes that combining children and the elderly keeps the latter “alive and their sense of dignity.” Programming applauded Another aspect she likes is staff attitude and cultural sensitivity on their part – as well as the entertainment and other programming that is offered. ONEgeneration celebrates most religious and cultural holidays, including Yom Kippur and Kwanzaa. “They covered everything that I was looking for and more,” Antwine said. And her mother seems to be happy as well. “She sleeps all night now and she gets up in the morning ready to go again,” Antwine said. “I would highly recommend (ONEgeneration) to anyone.” ONEgeneration didn’t begin with a single person, it was a collaborative effort that began more than quarter century ago. “The foundation was laid many years ago by (former) City Councilwoman Joy Picus and Laura Chick. It was Chick who “really championed” ONEGeneration “to get the building we’re currently in,” Deutchman said. Back then the concept for ONEgeneration was to be a senior peer counseling program that was to partner with an adjacent pre-school. At some point, staff realized that seniors and children “shared reciprocal needs.” They considered that “a child needs to be applauded, a senior needs something to give to something else.” And out of that, ONEgeneration developed into what it is today: a “the first of its kind model in the country … that is really 25 years in the making,” Deutchman said, adding “there’s no one person who said ‘this is how it works.” Deutchman credited her staff, thanking them for evaluating the fact that they’re creating a new field that hasn’t been done before. “Some of the volunteers have been there since the founding,” Deutchman said. But ONEgeneration isn’t alone with volunteers. It has established meaningful partnerships at Cal State Northridge, Los Angeles Unified School District and others, that supply it with a volunteer work force. ONEgeneration presents a learning experience to qualified students from CSUN and UCLA. Students of CSUN gerontology professor Debra Sheets go the senior center and help deliver meals. Sheets has done some research with the organization, and believes it “has a commitment to helping our students learn.” “I think one of the ways that makes them unique is they are always assessing the effectiveness of their programs,” Sheets said.

Featured Articles

Related Articles