Program Manager, Catholic Charities Foster Grandparent Program
By: Deb Sirek, MSW
The adage, “When a door closes, a window opens” has proven true for a special program within Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet. The Foster Grandparent Program at Catholic Charities is federally funded by AmeriCorps Seniors and sponsored by Catholic Charities. This program enlists volunteers 55 and older to tutor and mentor students in area schools throughout Will County. Each volunteer devotes at least 15 to 20 hours per week to their school site where they are assigned several students who could benefit from extra help with tutoring or mentoring. The volunteers who are income eligible receive a small stipend to aid in any costs incurred while volunteering. This program was developed in 1965 by the Kennedy Administration to help older adults to connect in the community and assist in increasing quality of life. A longitudinal study was done in 2015 which disclosed that participants reported higher life satisfaction and less social isolation/loneliness or symptoms of depression after one year of service.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic left the volunteers isolated once again as the schools resorted to remote learning in March 2020. Schools that were still in session physically, put limits to staff and students only in the buildings. The volunteers were saddened to find that they could not work with the students they had been assisting for the past year. Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet Aging and Disability Department was approached by Laura Wilmarth Tyna, Director of Community Engaged Learning at Lewis University last fall. Laura introduced Dr. Gretchen Hoge and Dr. Emily Shayman from the Social Work Department who were interested in having the volunteers mentor students in their Introduction to Social Work classes. Dr. Hoge stated, “My hope is that your volunteers would see themselves as co-educators and mentors for students, and that students will focus on building authentic relationships with and learning from the volunteers.” Dr. Hoge’s idea became an actuality and hope for the volunteers.
Matches were made with interested students and the volunteers and the mentoring began via phone calls, facetime and emails for several hours each week. It’s still unclear who was helping who, but by the end of the semester many of the volunteers and students wanted to continue their relationships. Many of the volunteers expressed that the phone calls from the students were the highlight of their week. The students were kind and compassionate as well as engaged in the conversations. The collaboration has continued into the spring semester with similar feedback from the volunteers and students. What a wonderful way for the volunteers to share their life experiences and for the students to gain from their wisdom. Dr. Hoge’s vision is a reality and the students and volunteers have built authentic relationships providing a much-needed companionship during a very trying time in our world today for both young and old.