[SeniorTaskForce-News] FW: Sage Update

Fri Oct 2 08:05:39 PDT 2020

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Please see below and attached to learn about a UIUC student project called Sage and become involved in their efforts to reduce social isolation, debunk ageist ideas, and foster mutually beneficial intergenerational communication. Though the project began as a friendly visitor program at a local assisted living facility, COVID has caused a shift to letter writing. They are currently looking for community partners to help connect student writers to interested elders. Feel free to reach out to them for more information.

Have a great weekend and stay safe,

Julie

From: Sage Enactus <sage at illinoisenactus.com>

Hello,

I hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy! My name is Katherine Carney and I am currently working as the Project Manager for SAGE. I have included some more information about who we are and our mission below. Please feel free to reach out if you are interested or have any questions!

What is Sage?
Sage is an Illinois Enactus<https://www.illinoisenactus.com> project at the University of Illinois that works to address senior isolation and loneliness by creating inter-generational cohesion through the written word.

How do we hope to tackle this?
We plan to connect older adults in the community with students at UIUC through letter writing. In doing this, our hope for the older participant is to feel as if their story is being told, feel a greater connection with youth culture, and boosted morale in a time of extreme isolation. As for the student, we hope that they will take away an increased sense of appreciation for their elders while also gaining valuable insight into adulthood.

If you are interested in learning more or getting involved, please email sage at illinoisenactus.com<mailto:sage at illinoisenactus.com>

Thanks!
- - -

Thank you for all your help, Julie!

Best,
Katherine Carney

On Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 10:05 AM Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>> wrote:
Oh duh! You sure did. Okay I’ll be right no

From: Sage Enactus <sage at illinoisenactus.com<mailto:sage at illinoisenactus.com>>
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2020 10:05 AM
To: Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>>
Subject: Re: Sage Update

Hi Julie - yes sorry about that I attached it the google calendar invite but I’ll send it here too!

https://illinois.zoom.us/j/94622795591?pwd=ZFBzVlZqc0RRWFFlMEtnUldCMjBVQT09

See you soon!

On Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 10:03 AM Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>> wrote:

Hey,

Just checking to see if we are still on for our meeting? I didn’t see a Zoom link, but I might have missed it.

From: Julie Schubach

Sent: Friday, September 18, 2020 4:05 PM

To: Sage Enactus <sage at illinoisenactus.com<mailto:sage at illinoisenactus.com>>

Subject: RE: Sage Update

Perfect, thanks!

From: Sage Enactus <sage at illinoisenactus.com<mailto:sage at illinoisenactus.com>>

Sent: Friday, September 18, 2020 4:07 PM

To: Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>>

Subject: Re: Sage Update

Sounds great! I can send out an invite and create a Zoom link!

On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 4:02 PM Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>> wrote:

Cool! Shall we say 10am on Friday, 9/25? Are you able to set up a Zoom? Otherwise I can set up a Gotomeeting.

From: Sage Enactus <sage at illinoisenactus.com<mailto:sage at illinoisenactus.com>>

Sent: Friday, September 18, 2020 3:09 PM

To: Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>>

Subject: Re: Sage Update

Hi again!

Thanks for the timely response. Those ideas sound really great and definitely down Sage's alley! We are able to meet on Friday morning if that still works for you? What time works

best for you?

Looking forward to it,

Katherine

On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:00 PM Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>> wrote:

Hi Katherine!

Thank you for the update on Sage. I am so pleased to hear that you are continuing the program. I just got off of a Zoom call with a staff member at United

Way and we were talking about creative and innovative ideas for senior services. Intergenerational programs is one major idea that we discussed. For instance, this summer I really wanted to get together a program where kids (and college students too if they

were interested) would decorate senior’s driveways or front walks with sidewalk chalk. That would be a no contact way to see people (they could watch from the window) and would bring some color and joy to their life. We also thought about having seniors talk

to young people about hard national or global things they have lived through (i.e. world wars, flu pandemic) in order to help young people process the current pandemic. RSVP has a small pen pal program where a classroom of kids connects to seniors and at the

end of it they usually have a party in the classroom that the seniors come to. Ideas like this often occur to us, but are sometimes too difficult to get going. It would be great if there was a stable student group interested in providing intergenerational

communication that I could connect to when these ideas occur to us. Maybe we could get some of them off the ground- at least the ones that would appeal to young adults and not necessarily kids. I don’t know that this would be Sage’s role, but just an idea

I had.

As for Sage- I would love to talk to you more about this idea. I think a library would be a great partner for something like this. Do you have time  tomorrow,

9/18? I am fairly free tomorrow. Otherwise Wednesday morning, 9/23 or Friday morning, 9/25?

Looking forward to talking further,

Julie

From: Sage Enactus <sage at illinoisenactus.com<mailto:sage at illinoisenactus.com>>

Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2020 10:37 AM

To: Julie Schubach <jschubach at familyservicecc.org<mailto:jschubach at familyservicecc.org>>

Subject: Sage Update

Hi Julie,

I hope this email finds you well! I was, unfortunately, unable to attend the Senior Task Force meeting yesterday, although I wanted to share some updates from the team!

In a nutshell, we are revamping the model of Sage to accommodate for COVID-19 constraints. We wanted to come up with a project that would still follow Sage's mission of addressing

senior loneliness (especially in times like this) while also allowing the seniors to connect with the younger generation and their families that they are isolated from right now.

What we came up with is a Pen Pal program that connects residents of assisted living facilities and seniors within the community to students at the University through letters. The

hope is then to feature these letters in a newsletter or magazine format where we can share these stories with the community at large. We are thinking that this would be beneficial to the families of the seniors as they can feel closer to their older family

members while also perserving a tangible copy of their lived experiences. Additionally, this will provide a unique activity for the older adults/residents that shows them that their voices and stories are meaningful and being heard.

I would love to either set up a time to talk or just hear your thoughts on the idea! Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,

Katherine Carney

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