When the Young meets the Old 

Tom and I met together at the Park Slope Center for Successful Aging to socialize with seniors during lunch time, and also deliver food and talk with seniors from the comfort of their own home. We worked alongside another group of volunteers but individually spoke with and delivered food outside of the Church.

It is a powerful feeling knowing you’re helping others. By speaking with a small group of elder ladies, Tina and Margaret, they spoke of the importance of volunteers to them. The act of merely speaking with them about their day made them speak so highly of the time spent with volunteers like ourselves. In addition, the delivery for lunch was around a 20 minute walk from the center - once we met with the recipient of the lovely lunch - he again told us of how appreciative he is of volunteers providing this help for him.

Although the volunteer session wasn’t long - there was most definitely a connection felt. The members of the center we spoke to spoke heavily of how they survive mainly from volunteer help. For seniors, it is clear that social connection is vital for their mental, emotional and physical health.

Relating back to our studies within our Global Communications class, we can draw similarities with Stegers ideas on the role of media, “Saturating global cultural reality with formulaic TV shows and mindless advertisements, these corporations increasingly shape people's identities, and the structure of desires around the world”. This suggests that the media plays a big role in raising awareness of how individuals perceive aid thus highlights the importance of media in spreading awareness of issues on a global, national and local level.

Additionally, within our studies, Steger makes an important point regarding the global food crisis, “some of the effects over consumption and population growth are painfully obvious in the recurrent food crisis plaguing vast regions of our planet” this directly correlates with the volunteer work ourselves and other students have done in this class. Through New York cares, we witnessed one element of this food crisis that has come from rapid population growth. Thus showing the importance of helping locally, despite issues being global.

Thea  

For me, I was able to take away a lot from the experience - firstly, speaking with the senior citizens was the way Tina spoke about her life. When speaking within the small groups it is clear that everyone in life has had their struggles in life. It is evident that students our age have similar struggles - we struggle to pay rent and are unsure of our inability to secure a high-paying job. But when you listen to what older generations had to endure, you realize life is a struggle for everyone. But there is a powerful message within their struggles from threats of nuclear apocalypse and economic depression - despite all this they have successfully raised a family and had successful careers. From this I took away to simply enjoy life more - seniors know better than most what’s important in life and I don’t want to take that for granted.

There are numerous ways in which senior citizens can be empowered and given a bigger voice to the people I have worked with by continuing to give help, listening and understanding their needs. It was clear from our visit that connection is key - loneliness is high amongst elderly people. As they lose their mobility and their support network when peers pass away. To feel socially connected and maintain a sense of wellbeing, it’s crucial that older people have community and support.

On a societal level, I believe that connection needs to be improved upon. That feeling of connection to other people and to a community contributes to the health and well-being of older adults. In addition, possible improvement of volunteering or participating in social activities appears to be the key to address the needs for proximity, meaningful relationships and reciprocity. Community hubs like public libraries offer the opportunity for older adults to be socially active, and to develop or build meaningful relationships with people nearby.

Tom

So what outcomes did I get out of this learning project? Firstly, I learned that not everyone is as fortune as others in the same society and I think coming from England and a middle-class background the conditions that the elderly lived in initially shocked me and urged me to ponder how I can make a change as I hate the idea of my loved ones to be living alone in a similar environment struggling for food. I also put into practise project management skills in carrying out this program as you have to apply via New York Cares. I think a key takeaway I got from the Service learning is how we got to gather a greater understanding of the community in which I  live/ study in and how I experienced a different perspective of life and their idea of living.

I think the main challenges we encountered was initially trying to navigate from the church in Park slope to the recipient's house near Grand Army Plaza. Additionally, it was challenging to see the living conditions of the seniors' home but my feelings were relieved by how I made a difference to their day in a positive manner. Whether that was talking for 15 minutes after dropping off the food and asking about their day and how they live and maybe reliving their loneliness for a little while. Listening to their daily challenges that they have to live with was quite somber but offering my help made me feel more enlightened.

I think this is as ironic as trying to ‘give a voice to the voiceless’ so I think there are many routes in which we can raise awareness for change to occur. One way is to get a news article either in the Newspaper or local news network of an interviewer going to the Park Slope Center for Successful Aging and going about it that way as it can draw attention and maybe in doing so be shared via social media. I think the key element here is Advocacy and using your voice or platform for a positive cause. If one doesn't have a great following then maybe reaching out to someone so they can advocate this on theirs such as a social media influencer or an affluent member of society.

I think a greater public need for social responsibility within the community and how people can give more back to people who can't help themselves. I think the greater use of awareness campaigns would be a good idea. One idea I can think of is, campaigns being posted on the subway or highly interesting areas of NYC as hundreds of thousands are around them every single day so it would gather mass attraction. I also believe if more people could see the struggle, and how much the elderly need their help especially at winter time, then i think the community would give back more. After discussing this point with one of the older citizens over lunch, we gathered that a possible answer to this issue is potentially the unavailability of time with jobs etc is the factor in why people don't give back to the wider community.

References:

Steger, M. B. (2013). Globalization: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.

Steger. (n.d.). Manfred B. Steger political ideologies and social imaginaries in the ... Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.theglobaljusticenetwork.org/index.php/gjn/article/download/13/16