Experience Corps Program presented at TEDxBoston Event in July 2010.

GenerationsI N C O R P O R AT E D

Bringing Experience Corps to Greater Boston

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GenerationsI N C O R P O R AT E D

Bringing Experience Corpss

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I N C O R P O R AT E D

GenerationsI N C O R P O R AT E D

IN THE NEWS

Annie E. Casey Foundation Report, “Early Warning! Why Reading by the end of the Third Grade Matters”, cites Experience Corps as a resource and an intervention that works.

The US Dept of Education “What Works Clearinghouse “cites the Washington University study, and states that Experience Corps works.

Time Magazine (Sept 20, 2010) cites Experience Corps as a literacy intervention for grades k-3.

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Experience Corps is an award-winning national

program that engages people over 55 in meeting their communities’ greatest

challenges.

FOR STUDENTS

University of Virginia researchers find that first graders at-risk for reading difficulties scored “significantly higher” after receiving intensive tutoring from Experience Corps members.

Washington University finds students with Experience Corps tutors make 60% more progress in critical reading skills than students without tutors.

Third graders working with Experience Corps members scored significantly higher on a reading test than children in the control schools.

FOR SCHOOLS and TEACHERS

Experience Corps brings a combination model of literacy intervention:

Survey finds that 97 percent of teachers agree or strongly agree that the Experience Corps members improve the learningenvironment.

As an intervention, Experience Corpscompares to smaller class sizes.

One to one tutoring twice per week forstudents in grade 1-3.Classroom based literacy support in K-3classrooms for up to 10 hours per week.

Schools with Experience Corps Programs see a reduction in suspension rates and principal referrals.

75% of teachers in survey report that students made significant academicprogress as a result of Experience Corpsprogram.

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CHANGE IN READING SCORES OVER THE ACADEMIC YEARResearch Conducted by Washington University in St. Louis

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EC group

Control group

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Passage Comprehension

PPVT

Grade-Specific Reading Skill

CHANGE IN READING SCORES OVER THE ACADEMIC YEARResearch Conducted by Washington University in St. Louis

Why We are DifferentWe are the sole non-profit in Greater Boston that can scientifically demonstrate our positive literacy impact on elementary school students.

We are the only organization to exclusively recruit, train, and manage older adult volunteers, bringing the national award-winning Experience Corps program to Massachusetts.

We create strong, mutually beneficial relationships between active older adults and children. Our programs promote children’s literacy by inspiring intergenerational relationships which improve reading skills. But we are about more than just reading - we build strong mentoring relationships and produce significant results. Through our partnership with the highly acclaimed national service program, Experience Corps, we engage caring adults (55 and older) in 16 Elementary Schools and After-school programs in Greater Boston.

Research findings by Washington University from a control-group study of our Reading Coaches program show that the program has statistically significant and educationally important effects on young students’ literacy skills.

Our programs have significant impact on both the students we serve and the older adults who are engaged as their mentors.Our Impact

A study by Wellesley College and the Boston Public Schools on kindergarten shows that our Classroom Literacy program serves the district’s most challenging classrooms and that the program has statistically significant effects on vocabulary scores for one of the most vulnerable subgroups - special needs students.

Survey results from teachers and volunteers show that students benefit from increased literacy skills, as well as improved academic attitude and behavior and social skills.

Older adults benefit from expanded social networks, a renewed sense of purpose and belonging, and, according to a recent study by Johns Hopkins, they realize meaningful improvements in their own mental and physical health.

“The Boston [Experience Corps] program is effective...Students made more improvement than control students on the passage comprehension measure and on the teaching rating of reading skills...Teachers consider the program to be very beneficial to students... Also, tutors perceive that their work with students leads to positive change not only in reading but in self-confidence and behavior.”

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Uniting older adults and youth in partnership to strengthen individuals and communities

GenerationsI N C O R P O R AT E D

Bringing Experience Corps to Greater Boston

Photograph by Maria Barletta ©

Photograph by Maria Barletta ©

By Julie HalpertNovember 17, 2010

Second Life

A growing group of organizations is offering new retirees help with figuring out what’s next in life.

When he decided to retire in 2003 after working as an accountant for 35 years, Michel Idiokitas, now 70, wasn’t ready to slow down. So he traded his office for a school, heading into the classroom to tutor underprivileged chil-dren who were struggling to learn how to read. Idiokitas, who’s been teaching for five years now, found his job through Experience Corps, a nonproft that has 2,000 vol-unteers ages 55 or older tutoring and mentoring children to ensure that they’re able to read by the third grade.

The organization is one of a crop of new groups catering to a growing desire among aging boomers: the need to reinvent themselves after they retire. Such targeted firms were essentially nonexistent a decade ago. Today, they number in the dozens and offer services that range from one-on-one coaching to mentoring, workshops, classes, and even job placement. With 78 million Baby Boomers retiring in the next 20 years, the industry’s future looks promising. “It will be a huge business for companies do-ing this,” Nancy Graham, editor of AARP The Magazine, says.

New retirees often feel they’ve “fallen off a cliff,” adds Judy Goggin, vice president of Civic Ventures, a think tank focused on boomers and what are called “encore careers.” Many Boomers won’t even use the word “retire,” because it’s associated with slowing down. They want another professional challenge, but until recently, there weren’t any established institutions to help them.

Experience Corps, the service that helped Idiokitas land his teaching gig, was originally part of Civic Ventures but spun off as its own nonprofit company in 2009. CEO Lester Strong says volunteers from a range of incomes, education levels, and ethnicities are attracted to the work by the belief that there’s no greater predictor for success in life than whether you can read, adding that knowing a

child needs their help is particularly motivating. A study by Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health of 125 Experience Corps members found that the experi-ences related to the members’ new work provided such benefits as better overall health, higher activity levels, and a bigger social network.

Nora Hannah, the chief consortium officer for Experi-ence Matters, a network of nonprofits, corporations, and individuals that provides service opportunities for retir-ees, says many of the older volunteer organizations that focus on retirees operate on an outdated model of civic engagement. They provide low-level tasks for volunteers, rewarding them with a pin for hours of service or volun-teer luncheons, when what many boomers may want is to derive more meaning through significant work, she says: “We’re trying to create a sea change, a psychological shift about how we view community talent.”

Carol Greenfield, founder of Discovering What’s Next, an organization that assists retirees through volunteer-driv-en programs and peer-to-peer information, echoes Han-nah’s philosophy, adding that people at this stage of life don’t have the same support systems that young students have when they head to college and are considering their first careers. That’s where organizations like hers come in.

But not all prospective retirees are looking for the same type of fulfillment. Many are willing to pay someone to help them develop their interests. One fee-based service is Vocation Vacations, which offers two- to three-day mentorship experiences, allowing new retirees to put their passion into practice. The group has 500 expert mentors, from a Grammy-winning composer to a Tony-award-winning director, winemakers, and photographers, who provide mentorship experiences to thousands of people a year, says Brian Kurth. “People realize this is an

investment, [and] you can’t get this stuff out of a book.”

Vocation Vacations customers pay an average of $899 for two days of mentoring, plus airfare and lodging. Jerry Shaw, a 62-year-old living in Las Vegas, had mentorships with both a wedding photographer and a commercial photographer. A pharmaceutical sales representative for 27 years, Shaw opted for retirement when faced with a layoff in 2008. He wanted to turn a part-time hobby into a regular career. “If you’re going to get into a business and want to do quality work, you need to learn from the best,” he says. Since then, he’s launched a wedding and portrait photography business.

Another group, Revolutionize Retirement, provides coaching services and “retirement boot camps,” which are essentially weekend retreats that offer positive, creative, and successful aging strategies. The weekend retreats cost $250 (room and board is extra), while a personal coach-ing session with founder Lin Schreiber is $500 for 90 minutes.

While most of these services offer significant attention and guidance, Patricia Grace, founder and CEO of Ag-ing With Grace, a group providing resources for elder care, says boomers should be skeptical about fee-based services. She suggests approaching an organization that specializes in the area you might like to pursue and ask-ing for a case study that provides an example of someone they’ve helped and how they did it. “If they promise to do everything for everybody, then you know you want to stay away from that,” she says.

Of course, not all retirees want or need a professional to chart out a satisfying course. Roger Strube, a 68-year-old former doctor living in Punta Gorda, Fla., now builds boats for disabled sailors. Unlike many retired doctors, whom he says often have no life outside their profession, he always knew sailing would become his avocation. “Some of us have a real good idea of what we want to do,” he says. “Others are clueless.” But he still thinks these organizations have value, particularly for the latter cat-egory: “If you can help a person explore and get in touch with where they’d find joy in their remaining years, it may make sense for a considerable part of the population.”

By Brittany DanielsonGlobe Correspondent

LIVING LONGER, LIVING BETTER | LIFESTYLE

Giving back

Seeing contributions improve the lives of others: ‘There’s no better feeling’

A volunteer with Experience Corps, Bill Wolff, 65, works as a reading coach with second-grader Xavier Weinstein, 7, at Blackstone Elementary

School in Boston. (Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)

When Bill Wolff envisioned his retirement, he never imagined helping inner-city children learn to read. He figured he might take up a new hobby, or maybe a part-time job.

But in 2005, as he began to think about retir-ing, the former marketing executive heard of an opportunity to get involved in his own neighbor-hood through Experience Corps — a national group that trains retirees as reading coaches in urban schools. Five years later, Wolff, 65, spends around 30 hours per week at the Blackstone Elementary School in Boston’s South End, tutor-ing students as well as training and coordinating other volunteers.

“One positive person, giving positive reinforcement,’’ Wolff said. “That by itself makes a huge difference for these kids.’’

Wolff is among a legion of seniors who are using retire-ment to give back to their communities, finding new satisfaction by helping schools, churches, food banks, and other organizations. They are also learning that volun-teering is not simply a matter of picking a worthy cause and showing up when it fits personal schedules.

Finding the right opportunity requires thought and com-mitment, as well as a sense of what volunteers want to get from giving, according to nonprofit executives. For example, said Kelly Stout, director of Boston’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program, or RSVP, some retirees want to continue to use skills learned over long careers; others hope to gain new skills.

“Someone who’s been a nurse for 35 years might come in and say, ‘I don’t ever want to see another thermometer,’ ’’ said Stout. “Some people are looking for something com-pletely different.’’

October 31, 2010

For Wolff, becoming a reading coach was a chance to use communication skills honed over a 40-year career in marketing. Although the audience is vastly differ-ent, Wolff said, the same skills — listening, motivating, persuading — are used to understand and solve literacy problems of the first-, second-, and third-graders he teaches to read.

It’s not always easy. At Blackstone Elementary School, where nearly 80 percent of students speak a language oth-er than English at home, many children are profoundly behind in reading skills. Watching them struggle, become frustrated, and sometimes slip further behind can drain emotions, Wolff said.

But earlier this fall, one of those struggling students ap-proached Wolff and told him his tutoring had made a big difference. The extra lessons and attention, the boy said, helped him advance to the third grade. “There’s no better feeling than that,’’ said Wolff.Wolff learned about Experience Corps and the Black-stone School after receiving a letter about volunteer op-

portunities from AARP, the lobby for older Americans. His transition from a working professional to retired volunteer was pretty straightforward.

But others might have to do more research or experiment to find the right match, said nonprofit executives. Retir-ees should take plenty of time to think about what inter-ests them, what causes they support, and what new skills they’d like to learn in a volunteer position, said Linda Fitzgerald, AARP’s Massachusetts president, a volunteer post.

Fitzgerald said potential volunteers should consider how much time they are willing to commit. Retirees can con-tribute their time year-round, seasonally, or just chip in at one-day events, such as park cleanups or food drives. AARP’s “Create the Good’’ initiative (www.createth-egood.org) provides listings of opportunities that require varying time commitments.

Depending on the program, prospective volunteers canexpect fairly thorough screening and training processes. Wolff and other Experience Corps volunteers, for ex-ample, had to pass literacy and English proficiency tests, submit to reference and criminal background checks, and complete 20 hours of training.

Certainly, there’s no lack of volunteer opportunities. In Boston alone, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, part of national service group Senior Corps, can place volun-teers at more than 50 different local organizations.

And as the first of the Baby Boomers turn 65 next year, more organizations are expected to mine the growing population of retirees. Those seniors who volunteer are likely to benefit, too.

Studies by Washington University in St. Louis, for ex ample, have found that volunteers gain improved physi-cal and emotional health, expanded social networks, and increased self-esteem. That can all add up to longer lives.

Wolff, known simply as “Mr. Bill’’ to students at Black-stone Elementary, often puts in long days helping the children, but said he’s having too much fun to think about stopping any time soon. The work is not just a rea-son to get up in the morning, he said, but an opportunity to make an impact. He’s fortunate, he added, to have the resources — financial, physical, and spiritual — to be able to contribute.

“This is not your grandfather’s retirement, where you sit

on your porch, putter around in the garden, or play golf,’’ Wolff said. “We’re young at heart. We’re healthy. We have plenty to give back.’’

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

Generations Incorporated2011-2012 Experience Corps Sites

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

St. Stephen’S After-School

419 Shawmut Avenue, Boston617.262.9070Liz Steinhauser, Director of Youth Programs

YAwkeY BoYS & GirlS cluB

115 Warren Street, Roxbury617.427.6050Andrea Swain, Executive Director

South BoSton BoYS & GirlS cluB

230 West Sixth Street, South Boston617.268.4301Harry Duvall, Executive Director

Blue hill Ave. BoYS & GirlS cluB

15 Talbot Avenue, Dorchester617.474.1050Scott McLellan, Executive Director

JordAn BoYS & GirlS cluB

30 Willow Street, Chelsea617.884.9435Michelle Perez, Executive Director

REVERE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Whelan elementary School

107 Newhall Street, Revere781.388.7510John J. Macero, Principal

GArfield elementArY School176 Garfield Avenue, Revere781.286.8296Patricia DiGregorio, Principal

mckinleY elementArY School

65 Yemens Street, Revere781.286.8226Elizabeth G. Anton, Principal

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

dever elementArY School

325 Mount Vernon Street, Dorchester617.635.8694Michael Sabin, Principal

kinG k-8 School 77 Lawrence Avenue, Dorchester617.635.8212Jessica Bolt, Principal

kennY elementArY School

19 Oakton Avenue, Dorchester617.635.8789Suzanne Federspeil, Principal

AdAmS elementArY School

165 Webster Street, East Boston617.635.8383Margarita Ruiz, Principal

hollAnd elementArY School 85 Olney Street, Dorchester617.635.8832Jeichael Henderson, Principal

BlAckStone elementArY School

380 Shawmut Avenue, Boston617.635.8471Stephen Zrike, Principal

orchArd GArdenS k-8 School

906 Albany Street, Roxbury617.635.1660Andrew Bott, Principal

trotter elementArY School

135 Humbolt Avenue, Dorchester617.635.8225Mairead Nolan, Principal

Generations Incorporated2011-2012 Board of Directors

ArnAA Alcon, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, Bridgewater State College

libby blAnk

Experience Corps Member

ElizAbEth bloDgEtt Smith

President, Keep On, LLC

michEl iDiokitAS

Experience Corps Member

robErt JohnSon, Ph.D.Consultant, Customer Manufacturing Group

cArol kAmin, Ph.D.Consultant, Carol Kamin Consulting

SAmAnthA lEvinE, PrESiDEnt

Manager, The Bridgespan Group

robErt b lovEtt

Partner, Cooley, LLP

John A. mccullough, trEASurEr

Senior Vice President, HSBC

kArEn v. morton

Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, Liberty Mutual Group

lorrAinE tEgAn

Experience Corps Member

robErt uSEn

Retired Business Executive

bill Wolff, clErk

President, WAW Marketing, Inc.

kAthy flynn WooDlAnD

Senior Field Services Manager, School and Main Institute, Inc.