The GrandPals Program is calling on older adult volunteers to share their stories with school-aged kids in Barrie over an eight-week period in the new year.
“I was looking for programs that would value older adults and give meaning-making experiences,” said Jenna Wickens, co-ordinator of the Mature Minds program with Catholic Family Services of Simcoe County (CFSSC), which delivers the GrandPals Program in this region.
Involved with the program since 2021, first virtually and then in-person, Wickens says she has heard incredible stories from the GrandPals’ volunteers.
“There was a woman who was a nurse for a gentleman whose (relative) served under Napoleon Bonaparte in Russia,” she told BarrieToday.
Wickens said that "real relationships" have been made through the program, in which students and GrandPals develop a mutual respect and become friends through storytelling.
“The benefit for students is that they have interaction with older adults. Some of them have grandparents, but some of them don't," she added.
For older adults, Wickens says that age is an opportunity, not a liability, in this program.
“What we love about it is because we want people to continue to have opportunities and be valuable members of society as they get older," she said.
Wickens noted another benefit of the program is that it reduces ageism. She remembered Marc Mailhot, founder of the GrandPals program, once told her a story of a student who called out a comedian for a joke offensive to older people in a classroom visit.
Wickens explained that the GrandPals’ volunteers will meet and build relationships with the same two to four students over the eight-week duration of the program.
“The students capture written stories of what the older adults are saying and create art projects that represent what the older adults talk about,” she noted. “The program becomes part of the student's curriculum.”
Wickens says the teachers sign up for the program and select how the students get matched up.
“Sometimes we'll match them up by interest, and sometimes teachers will just put a random group of two or four students with one older adult and then they work together," she said.
Wickens says she has seen that even students who don't love school tend to love this program.
“They can’t wait to meet with their older adult friend and once they get involved, they are thrilled," she said.
Wickens noted the meetings are never unsupervised and police background checks are done.
In the last school year, the GrandPals program was hosted by True North Christian Academy in Stayner.
“There was an older adult who was a fireman and a student created an art project out of yarn,” she said. "Another student recreated a picture of a home with Popsicle sticks.”
Wickens revealed the program has already one classroom in a school in Barrie and two classrooms in a school in Innisfil set to go next year.
Before starting the eight-week period in the classroom, the GrandPals volunteers receive a five weeks of training to practise storytelling, starting in February.
“Our goal is to be in the classrooms after March break," Wickens added.
The program is specifically targeting people who are 55-plus, but Wickens says exceptions are made to that.
“If someone has a story, even if they don't think they have, and they love kids, they can get involved in this," she said.
For more information about the GrandPals program, contact Jenna Wickens, MatureMinds co-ordinator, at [email protected] or 705-627-1716.
