Our Folks
Our Folks is a program that Groundwork launched in the fall of 2008 to get youth involved in efforts to help older adults in their community age in place. To do this, the team, comprised of students from Riverside High School, interviewed a number of older adults to find people who still live in their homes and need help maintaining them.
Groundwork staff and local professionals taught the students landscaping and home repair skills like tree-pruning, painting, weeding, planting, lawn-mowing, etc. enabling them to work with the home-owners to make needed repairs.
The second goal of this program is to bridge the generation gap by bringing people together over shared projects and shared lunches! The students and homeowners prepare meals together and spend time getting to know each other over lunch. Our first year with this project proved that very meaningful relationships can come out of this interaction, and that there is much to be learned on both sides.
For photos of the Our Folks program, click here.