| Intergenerational Bridges |
Program History
In 2008, Intergenerational Bridges mentoring program is celebrating its 18th year of working with newly arrived immigrant students in Montgomery County, Maryland. Bridges was proposed in 1990 as a response to the needs of an expanding number of impoverished immigrant families in public schools. Interages trained a small group of senior adults to mentor ESOL students in a middle school impacted by this immigration..) The first mentors served children from Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Jamaica. Bridges expanded the next year to an elementary school that also faced an influx of foreign-born children with multiple risk factors for education. Over the years since then, scores of mentors have met at many school sites serving hundreds of students in the county.
The number of volunteers trained by the program continues to grow, but is never enough. A few mentors have recorded over ten years with Bridges. Given the high mobility of some students' families, however, most students stay a year in the program. Some students do remain for several years with the same mentor, who often move with them from elementary to middle school to ease this transition. A few mentors continue to have occasional contact with their students even years after they first met in Bridges-just to talk, teach them to drive, or even go to the airport to greet a child's mother arriving for the first time after years of separation.
Interages' senior volunteers are as anxious to help these children adjust here, as they are interested and respectful of them and their cultures. Former Bridges' students that return to visit with their younger peers are now in high school and college, working, studying and planning teaching careers.
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| Bridges Field Trip to College Park Aviation Museum |
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Project Focus
Intergenerational Bridges is an after-school mentoring program that pairs senior adults (age 50 and older) and at risk immigrant children (ages 8 through 14) in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages program) to build a relationship that spans their age and cultural differences. Meeting once per week for 60-90 minutes in a supervised setting in both elementary and middle-schools, the program's purpose is to pair a child with a supportive senior adult who meets with them regularly over the year to provide a safe haven for a mentoring relationship that builds trust, caring, and learning.
Objectives
The main objectives for the students are the following:
- support the students' transition to a new school and life in the United States through celebration of cultural and holiday traditions
- enhance English language communication ability through conversation, reading, writing, and play
- boost students' self-esteem by fostering mutual responsibility and respect
Popular Program Activities
- Reading and talking about current events or life in the United States and their home countries
- Playing language-enhancing games such as Scrabble or Guess Who?
- Making craft projects
- Taking field trips to explore US culture
- Playing an occasional group game, indoors or outside
Bridges also has an extension of their program at an Arcola Towers apartment complex visited by Northwood High school. This program is a viable model for intergenerational language enhancement and service learning. This site offers high school ESOL students the opportunity to visit older adults in their apartment building, and earn service-learning credits for their participation. Approximately, 40 student/mentor pairs meet weekly to support ESOL students' academic and personal development, tailored to their interests and needs. After talking with their mentors over several weeks, students complete an identity project: a poster collage of their favorite things, values, influences, and future hopes. Each session involves academic and recreational activities that get students and adults communicating and enjoying each other's company in mentor and mentee pairs and group activities. Students read articles and/or complete worksheets on prevention and consequences of alcohol, tobacco, drug abuse and fighting. Each week, the student and mentor read for at least 10-15 minutes to improve pronunciation, comprehension and confidence. They also complete grammar, culture and history worksheets. Many students receive homework help that is typically unavailable to ESOL students at home. Students' attendance at Bridges' sessions is consistently high. Mentors receive training in active listening and multicultural communication.
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Bridges: Sites for FY 08:
Eastern Middle School
Rolling Terrace Elementary School
Sligo Creek Elementary School
Northwood High School
Arcola Towers
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