Temple U’s innovative “wisdom of elders” program to expand

For several years, a local initiative based at Temple University hascaptured the energy and expertise of many of the area’s elders byconnecting them to nonprofits.  Now, a $1.8 million grant over three years will allow Coming of Age totake its model on the road and replicate it around the country.  “There’s a recognition that people age 50-plus are a tremendousresource for our nation, our communities,” Dick Goldberg, director ofthe initiative, said yesterday as he announced the grant. It is fromthe Atlantic Philanthropies, an international foundation based inBermuda that billionaire American philanthropist Charles Feeney began.  The grant will allow Coming of Age to bring programs to eightcommunities (still to be chosen) around the country – programs such asBoomervision!, a series of community dialogues held at PBS stationWHYY’s studios since 2005, and Learning Lab, which has broughtnonprofits together to share strategies to tap retirees.  The money also will help broaden the initiative’s reach into Asian and Hispanic communities in this area.  Coming of Age has boosted the number of those 50-plus who contributetime, either unpaid or paid, to community organizations, and it hasexpanded the types of opportunities available to older baby boomers andothers, Stacey Easterling, program executive for the U.S. Aging Team ofthe philanthropy, said from New York

Source/more:  Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20080123_A_growing_search_for_wisdom_of_the_elders.html