The Old-New Program

In many long-standing communities across the United States, there is a social gap between the youth and the elderly. The two groups will tend to have different views on issues due to their differing experiences. This can cause local decisions, such as voting on a town budget or a new public service, to become complicated.

One way to potentially solve this issue would be to start an extra-curricular program which connects students with local elderly groups. This program would have students visit senior citizens to provide care or campaign public school events. The seniors' experience can provide a learning opportunity for the youth.

This issue has been seen nationally with the contrasting new left and new right movements of the 1960s and 1980s respectively. If several schools adapted this solution, it could cause a movement within each of those schools' communities to connect the youth with their predecessors.

A large problem can arise as a result of the age gap that is often present within communities that have been around for an extensive period of time. The rapidly changing views of today, along with the migration of young families toward school districts, cause many of the younger citizens to have contrasting views from the more elderly citizens. For example, in my community of Dighton and Rehoboth, MA there has been nearly a 40 percent  population increase over the past 30 years. A population increase such as this can cause an age gap in views for how the community should be run. This age gap can make it difficult to reach a general consensus on many community-based issues such as deciding on a town budget increase, choosing whether or not to build a new sidewalk, or anything of the sort which requires the town to agree upon a change. As a result of this, one group will tend to dominate the other, or the groups will trade off control over community decisions every other year. Such an unbalanced system can cause a community to become dysfunctional, unproductive, and unhappy, making it very difficult to achieve a shared prosperity.

This solution will serve the education receiving youth and their families as well as the senior citizens within all communities facing this problem. I plan on working with my local school system as well as visiting the local senior centers to begin the promotion of this solution as a way to get both groups involved in the solution process. After this solution has been tested in my own community, I intend to expand the program to other communities. This solution will help address the needs of the students by providing them with a learning experience, community service time, and an understanding of the views of their predecessors. It will also address the needs of the elderly by providing them with the care or technology assistance they need, a way to get more involved in the education of the youth, and an understanding of the views of their successors.

My solution would entail the foundation of a new extra-curricular program which would have students travel to local senior centers to care for the elderly, provide assistance with their knowledge of modern technology, and promote upcoming school events such as sports games or fundraisers. This would give the senior community a newfound interest in the prosperity of the younger community, therefore getting them more involved in the lives of the future leaders of our nation. In turn, the senior citizens would be able to share their experience with the students to give them a learning experience. This could give the youth newfound respect for the views of their predecessors, and help get them more involved in community service. Both the youth and the elderly would get a new view on community issues which can help the community share a common goal and achieve a shared prosperity.

This solution would be innovative because it follows a unique approach to solving political, social and economic disputes within a community. Many programs or movements within a community would normally seek to rally the support of one of the two differing groups in a society in order to gain influence within the community and drown out the views of the alternate crowd. This new solution, however, would gain support from both the elderly and the youth to create an understanding and a common goal between the two, rather than just satisfying the needs of one or the other. Furthermore this program would be innovative because of its ability to get the population more involved in their town politics allowing innovation to flourish even more so throughout the community.

This program would most prominently rely on social networks for it to succeed. Since this program relies so heavily on community participation, it is crucial that information regarding this program is spread via social networks.

This program has the potential to solve the problem at hand because it appeals to the best interests of both the youth and the elderly. The youth get a greater level of education and support from the seniors, and the seniors receive care and support from the youth. Because of this, it has the ability to gain support from both sides of the conflict to bring them together to enjoy a shared prosperity.

This solution is still in the concept stage and therefore does not currently serve anyone. Over the next year, however, I plan on introducing this program into my own community as a prototype. Doing so will serve the population in Rehoboth, MA of about 12,188 as well as the population in Dighton, MA of about 7,715 since we are a combined school district. In the next five years, I hope to expand this program to serve the population of several other similar school districts and communities across the United States.

In the next year I hope to have this program established within my school district with visits to senior homes occurring regularly. In the next five years, I hope to have publicized the program to multiple communities outside of my own and to have established the program in many of those communities.

The most significant barrier that exists for this program is a cultural barrier. Currently in my community, there is a large social gap between the elderly and the youth as previously mentioned. To even convince the youth to meet up with the elderly could be an issue on its own because of the unwillingness of many people in my community to accept new views or ways to resolve conflicts.

Another significant barrier which exists is in the publicizing of the program. Being from a rural town means that I may have some difficulty in being able to reach out or gather the support of the majority of the community to introduce this solution.

To overcome both of these barriers at once I plan on first contacting many of my classmates and friends to gain an initial group of people who may be interested in participating should the program be established. Then I can use the leverage of having an already supportive following to convince my school to start the program as a club to begin with. Using my school as a way to initially publicize the program could help it get off the ground. Once we have gained enough momentum within our own community, we could begin visiting other communities and spreading the word to other schools about this program to expand across multiple communities.

My solution team is currently only consists of myself, since I contrived this idea on my own, however I do plan on gaining the support of my classmates and teachers to assist me once this program has risen beyond the concept stage

I have seen the effects of a disjointed youth and elder population first-hand within my own community. It has taken a toll on the town budget on multiple occasions, and has caused countless disputes regarding all aspects of our community. This first-hand view along with my great interest in the well-being of my community is what led me to the creation of this solution, and therefore I believe that my future team and I are best-placed to found this program.

I am not currently working with and organizations, but I plan on working with Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School in order to first establish the solution as an extra-curricular program. Then I plan on contacting a local organization named Save Our Schools in order to spread support across the community, as well as establishing contact with the local school committee to approve the program.