[Senate Hearing 107-145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 107-145
OUR GREATEST GENERATION:
CONTINUING A LIFETIME OF SERVICE
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
INDIANAPOLIS, IN
__________
AUGUST 9, 2001
__________
Serial No. 107-12
Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Aging
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
75-462 WASHINGTON : 2001
____________________________________________________________________________
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SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING
JOHN B. BREAUX, Louisiana, Chairman
HARRY REID, Nevada LARRY CRAIG, Idaho, Ranking Member
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CONRAD BURNS, Montana
JAMES M. JEFFORDS, Vermont RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin RICK SANTORUM, Pennsylvania
RON WYDEN, Oregon SUSAN COLLINS, Maine
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, Arkansas MIKE ENZI, Wyoming
EVAN BAYH, Indiana TIM HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware PETER G. FITZGERALD, Illinois
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska
Michelle Easton, Staff Director
Lupe Wissel, Ranking Member Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Opening Statement of Senator Evan Bayh........................... 1
Panel I
Estella Smith, volunteer, Senior Companion Program, Sponsored by
Catholic Charities and Faith-Based Organizations............... 6
Ellen Brown, Project Director, Senior Companion Program.......... 8
Gequetta ``Grandma Jo'' Littrell, Foster Grandparent Program;
accompanied by Caleb........................................... 9
Marilyn Morin, Director, Foster Grandparent Program, Columbus, IN 11
David Knight, volunteer, Retired and Seniors Volunteer Program... 14
Ceil Sperzel, Director, RSVP of South Central Indiana, Interfaith
Community Council, New Albany, IN.............................. 17
Judge Webster Brewer, volunteer, Big Brothers Program............ 21
Panel II
Alan Solomont, member, Board of Directors, Corporation for
National Service; accompanied by Les Lenkowsky and Tess
Scannell, Acting Director, National Senior Service Corps....... 24
Marc Freedman, President, Civic Ventures and Author.............. 27
Kenneth B. Smith, AARP Board of Directors........................ 30
James L. Perry, Associate Dean and Chancellors' Professor of
Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis........................................ 33
(iii)
OUR GREATEST GENERATION: CONTINUING A LIFETIME OF SERVICE
---------- --
THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2001
U.S. Senate,
Special Committee on Aging,
Indianapolis, IN.
The committee met pursuant to notice, at 2:16 p.m., in the
Union Federal Southwest Pavilion, Indiana State Fair Grounds,
Indianapolis, IN. Hon. Evan Bayh presiding.
Present: Senator Bayh.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR EVAN BAYH
Senator Bayh. If I could go ahead and call this special
meeting of the United States Committee on Aging to order and
welcome all of you, I'd like to thank all of you for being here
today. I'd like to think that you're here because of the
importance of the subject matter and your willingness to share
a few thoughts with me. I also realize this is one of the few
air conditioned buildings at the fair, and I'm sure that has
something to do with it as well.
So whatever the cause or the reason, I'm glad you're with
us. This is an important subject.
It's the third time I've been privileged to have hearings
of the Special Committee on Aging here at the state fair on
Senior's Day, and it's a tradition I hope to continue as long
as I am privileged to serve on the committee.
I would like to thank everyone here at the state fair who's
helped to bring us together and make this facility available
starting with Bill Stinson right on down.
Geneva Shedd has been so helpful. She's going to serve as a
moderator a little bit later on when we get to the question and
answer part of the program.
And I've had a good opportunity to see some friends. I saw
Mary Jane Phillippe out there in the audience--there she is--a
little bit earlier when I was here with Susan and the boys.
And by the way, I apologize if I'm looking a little worse
for the wear. I went in and put on a fresh shirt. I was with my
two 6-year-old boys out there on the midway, and made the
mistake of going on some of the rides with them after eating
lunch. So it was, with the heat and everything else, suffice it
to say, quite an experience. They've got more energy these days
than their father it seems. So in any event, it's good to be
back with all of you.
Just one quick note about last year's hearing. We were very
successful. The testimony that we had submitted here at the
hearing was very convincing to the U.S. Senate. And it's not
very often you can see a hearing like this translated into
action, but we were fortunate to get a million dollars
appropriated for fraud prevention efforts to the TRIADS across
the country.
We lose $14 billion annually of fraud perpetrated against
seniors--let me interrupt here. I have the stars of the family
here.
Dear, you want to say hello to everybody?
Susan Bayh. Hi.
Senator Bayh. Beau, you want to say hello?
I can't believe they've still got any energy left.
Say good-bye to everybody, boys.
I can't believe they're still running after the morning we
put in. Ah, to be 6 years old again.
In any event, we were successful in getting a million
dollars appropriated to combat senior fraud. We lose about
almost $15 million annually--particularly some of these
unscrupulous telemarketers who target senior citizens and try
and take the value from people's homes, try and take their life
savings. It's really one of the most horrendous crimes that can
be perpetrated against unsuspecting people who have worked
hard, saved their money, are looking forward to retirement,
then have one of these shysters come along and take it away
from them.
Here in Indiana alone last year we lost $80 million to this
kind of fraud. But because of the testimony last year, we've
started a national clearinghouse. We have money going to the
TRIADS.
And it's not very often--this is actually a copy of the law
that was signed into law by President Clinton, last year after
our hearings. And so you can see that we've actually done some
good. And I hope that the hearing we're having today will lead
to some similar results.
We have Les Lenkowsky with us today. Les, why don't you
just stand and be recognized.
Mr. Lenkowsky has been nominated by President Bush to be
the head of the National Corporation for Public Service.
And while he hasn't been confirmed yet, Les, I want you to
know you can count on at least one vote in the U.S. Senate.
That will be me. I look forward to supporting you.
Why don't we go ahead and get on with the program. We're
highlighting today the importance of public service. And
particularly as this poster over here indicates, ``The greatest
generation continues to serve.''
You know, seniors have contributed so much to our society
already, and have so much to continue to offer. We'd like to
make it as easy as possible in providing as productive ways as
possible for seniors to continue to serve our community as we
possibly can.
It's not only good for the seniors--you get the
satisfaction of helping others--but it's good for the children,
one of whom we have with us here today. It's good for the other
seniors with the long-term care that can be provided. It's good
for all of the services that can be provided to the community.
And ultimately it's also good for the taxpayers.
I'm going to be mentioning in just a few moments the kind
of leverage that we have. For every dollar invested in service
by seniors, we get many, many times that amount of money in
benefits and value back to the community in terms of
educational services, care services, other services. And that's
money that otherwise the taxpayers would be having to put up.
So it's good for everyone, and that's why we're here today.
Senator McCain and I will be offering legislation later
this year, Senator John McCain from Arizona. It's going to be
bipartisan, obviously.
He's focusing in particular in a military service
component. We want to create a track where those who want to
defend our Nation by entering the armed services can do so, and
then when they leave the armed services, if they're so
inclined, can pursue a career and a lifetime of public service.
That's a good idea, yes. Thank you, ma'am. I'll tell
Senator McCain that you're supportive. And I appreciate that,
too.
I'm focusing on the senior service component. And together
I hope that we can build upon the great track record of the
National Corporation for Public Service and expand the efforts,
deepen the efforts, and really make this an integral part of
the fabric of American society.
There are many avenues of service available under the
Corporation for National Service. We have the National Senior
Service Corps, and this includes the Senior Companion Program
to provide long-term care services for other seniors; the
Foster Grandparent Program designed to provide assistance to
at-risk youth, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program
which provides services in many areas including the environment
and others across Indiana and across the country.
Today we have more that 9,500 Hoosier volunteers through
the National Senior Service Corps, and their services
contribute over $29 million to Hoosier communities each and
every year. That's more than 9500 Hoosier seniors
volunteering with a value of almost $30 million each and
every year to the State of Indiana. So you can see it is a
major, major benefit to our State and something that we would
like to see expanded both here and abroad.
For example, seniors are helping to combat the long-term
care crisis by providing relief services for care givers, some
respite care, and assistance with daily activities.
Last year, nationally, over a total of four million hours
were provided to frail adults so they could remain independent
in their homes by the senior companion volunteers. The value of
services provided by the Senior Companion Program is estimated
at $185 million, and that's a rate of return on the taxpayers'
investment of 5 to 1. I can think of very few investments we
make as a country that generate that kind of return of 5 to 1
return.
In Indiana our two senior companion programs, we have 187
volunteers providing services valued at $2.5 million, a rate of
return of three times the Federal investment. So it's good for
the Federal Government; it's good for the State; it's good for
seniors; it's good for all of us.
I am going to skip over most of my prepared remarks. I have
got a lot of facts and figures here. For those who are
interested, I would be happy to get into it.
And at the end of this, we are going to have as much time
as we can for questions and answers. For those of you if we
don't have time to get to your questions, please give us on the
forms--I think they're passing out, Sohini--please give us your
address, your phone number. We will get back to you. If we
can't answer your question here orally today, we will get back
to you with an answer to your question in writing, Geneva, so I
want to make sure that if you can on the materials, please give
us your address so that we can respond.
There are several barriers or challenges that remain. Part
of what our proposal will help to accomplish is to make clear
that all seniors 55 and older are welcome and encouraged to
volunteer. Currently, the age limit is occasionally somewhat
more restrictive than that.
We'd like to provide seniors with more incentives to
volunteer such as increasing the availability of stipends to
low income seniors to 200 percent of the poverty level, and
making volunteer hours more flexible. And we'd like to provide
seniors with additional training in areas such as physical and
mental health, nutrition, child psychology, looking for signs
of child abuse, and the provision of long-term care, and other
educational services that will be good for the community and
that seniors would be readily able to contribute.
We would like to create a demonstration project to fund
innovative projects that do not traditionally recruit seniors
but respond to an unmet social need. And I think we are going
to hear a little bit later this afternoon about the Big
Brothers Program, Sohini, which has done great, great work in
that area and would qualify for this type of demonstration
grant.
Finally we would like the legislation to reauthorize the
programs for funding levels that are considered to be
necessary, which from my point of view would consider a
significant increase. We don't have a particular appropriation
number today, but I'd frankly like to see us do substantially
better than we have done to date.
I believe there is a chart below me just over here. I can't
see it, but on there is a 1-800 number. And I hope our friends
from the press who are with us today will focus on that 1-800
number.
For those of you in the audience who are interested in
volunteering, this is a national number; it is a clearing
house. If you feel that you have some talent and some
time that you would like to dedicate, you can please call
this number 1-800-424-8867, or visit the National Senior
Service Corps web address at www.seniorcorps that's C-O-R-P-S
www.seniorcorps.org.
Either way we'd be delighted to get you involved with our
volunteer efforts. And again, I want to thank you for your
presence today.
Having said all of that, let's get right to our panels. And
I want to thank our panelists for taking their time to share
with us their experiences today. You know, I get to get up here
and give--I suppose it would qualify as a small speech, but
these are the folks who are really providing the services and
making a difference in our communities each and every day. And
I hope it can serve as a source of inspiration to all of us
here to get out and do likewise.
First we're going to hear from the Senior Companion
Program, the program designed to help with long-term care
needs.
Estella? Where is Estella? Estella, thank you for joining
us today. I didn't get down there to shake your hand before we
started, but I want to thank you.
Estella is our volunteer for the program and has been
helping two women at least twice a week, Rose, who is here with
her today, and another woman who has Alzheimer's.
Where is Rose, Estella? Rose, thank you for coming today.
Estella is 80 years old and takes care of Rose who is going
to be 90 in September.
The Senior Companion Program is sponsored by Catholic
charities and faith-based organizations that have actually
sponsored several of the volunteer programs funded through the
Corporation for National Service.
So, Estella, I am going to look forward to hearing from
you. I will start with you first after I have introduced the
other three panelists on our first panel.
We will then hear from the Foster Grandparent Program
represented by--and I'm going to refer to her as Grandma Jo
Littrell. Is Grandma Jo--is that OK if I call you Grandma Jo?
Ms. Littrell. That's fine.
Senator Bayh. OK. Thank you.
She serves as a grandmother for Caleb who is 8 years old.
Caleb is with us here today. She tutors Caleb in reading, and
as a result of their relationship and time together, Caleb's
reading has improved dramatically.
So thank you, Grandma.
Caleb, congratulations to you. I spend a lot of time
reading with my boys, and I hope you enjoy it as much as they
do.
Next we are going to hear from David Knight. He is a
volunteer from the Retired and Seniors Volunteer Program. And
David is going to share with us his work about the computer and
technology training he was provided with so he could maintain
contact with his family and continue earning money with his at-
home business.
So where is David? David, thank you for being here. We are
looking forward to hearing from you third.
And then finally in our first panel from the Big Brothers
Program, we have Judge Web Brewer, someone I have known for
many, many years.
Judge, I am grateful to you for your service to the
community and today for your words about the Big Brothers
Program.
Judge Brewer has been volunteering for 2 years and
has previously tutored young children. This coming fall he will
be volunteering in a program that has not traditionally
recruited senior volunteers. It is called, ``Talks my father
never had with me.'' He will be able to mentor young males from
single parent homes.
And this is increasingly important in many of our urban
areas where frankly young men bring children into the world and
then just walk away from their responsibilities, Judge, and
it's important we try and fill that gap in those young men's
lives and give them the kind of role models they can look up
to. And so I am grateful to you for participating in that
effort.
So let's give a big round of applause to our panelists and
thank them for being with us today.
And, Estella, why don't we begin with you. And you can tell
us about the service, the volunteer service, that you provide
with Rose and others.
STATEMENT OF ESTELLA SMITH, VOLUNTEER, SENIOR COMPANION
PROGRAM, SPONSORED BY CATHOLIC CHARITIES AND FAITH-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
Ms. Smith. I started with Rose in 1995. When I first went
to her, she would not talk, she would not eat. She would lie in
bed most of the time. But one day I went, and she was up and
dressed and ready to tell me what she wanted to eat. And she
started talking, and she's been talking ever since.
I take her to all of her doctor's appointments, her dentist
appointments, her hairdresser, take her out it eat, and she's
having a good time. She's not sitting home pining away because
she's 90 years old. She lives alone, and she's getting along
well.
Now she tells me that I am part of her family. Every year
they have a birthday party for her, and she will not take no
for an answer if I don't come. So I have to be there.
And I think that this program is very good for people who
are living alone because these things they could not do if they
didn't have someone to help them. Many times they go in the
doctor's office and they move around so much, when they come
out of that office they are distraught and they don't know
which way they want to go. So they need someone to guide them
and to help them.
I also have an Alzheimer's patient as a client of mine, and
I'm learning how to work with her. She will not go out of the
house. She will not do anything. But whenever she does decide
something, then I work with her. And most of the time she just
want me to fix her something to eat.
And she's in the first stage, the stage now that she's
accusing everyone of taking her things which are still there,
and she can look at them, but she doesn't recognize they are
hers.
And I think this program is very good because we do make a
difference.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T5462.001
Senator Bayh. I would like to thank Ellen Brown for being
here. She is the project director that helps make this possible
for Estella.
Ellen, is there anything you'd like to add to what Estella
had to say?
STATEMENT OF ELLEN BROWN, PROJECT DIRECTOR, SENIOR COMPANION
PROGRAM
Ms. Brown. I just wanted to let you know that we have
presently 109 companions such as Estella serving in the greater
Indianapolis area, and they serve 164 clients.
However, we have a waiting list of over 200 people, people
who are as deserving as Rose who need the help, who need the
care that are provided by these generous, wonderful people that
we call companions.
And I hope that there's some way that we could understand
their living circumstances, because they all live on a very
fixed budget. And although the stipend helps, an increase in
the stipend would make a big difference in helping them to meet
their own needs such as their prescription drugs which are
escalating, and fuel and food costs.
These are the kinds of the things that we appreciate
because they come to us with such a big heart. And as she said
they create a family. And we are very grateful that we have
them to serve the community.
Thank you, sir.
Senator Bayh. Thank you, Ellen.
I'm going to ask each of our panelists a quick question
when they're done testifying rather than save them all for the
end. I think it might flow a little bit better that way.
Estella, let me ask you, this is so marvelous, the work
that you do. Can you tell everyone here, and I think
particularly for folks who aren't here but might read about
this or see this tonight on the news, why do you do it? You
must get a lot of satisfaction from this. But tell us why do
you volunteer and help Rose?
Ms. Smith. I volunteered--I had become a widow, and I was
lonely and devastated, and I needed something to keep me going.
And I started with this program, and it has been a blessing to
me.
Senator Bayh. Grandma Jo, we're going to go with you next.
But, Marilyn, I skipped over you. You're the project director,
and I'd like to thank you for making her service possible.
Grandma Jo, why don't you share your words with us. And I'm
sure we'd also enjoy hearing from Caleb.
STATEMENT OF GEQUETTA ``GRANDMA JO'' LITTRELL, FOSTER
GRANDPARENT PROGRAM; ACCOMPANIED BY CALEB
Ms. Littrell. By joining the Foster Grandparent Program I
fulfilled my dream of being a community volunteer.
After my training, I started at Lincoln Elementary School
in August of 2000. Marilyn Morin approached me about a new
reading program called Early Steps at Clifty Creek Elementary--
--
Senator Bayh. Can we move that mike a little bit closer
so--there we go.
Ms. Littrell [continuing.] Which was closer to my home and
asked if I would help with the program.
Being able to help children succeed and achieve really
makes my day, every day. Children challenge you, and to see
them make better grades and learn more makes me feel really
great. This gives me a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.
Caleb Allen is one of the children I worked with this year.
His story is a real success story. Caleb's grades went up after
I worked with him, and he now reads so well. He scored 355
points on his final reading test in May versus 139 points on
the test in August. His reading is now at the right grade
level, and he reads with 98 percent accuracy. His teachers have
said he will not need any further help in third grade. Caleb is
on the right track to succeeding in school.
The Foster Grandparent Program gives people a chance to get
out and to make a difference in the community. Foster
Grandparents love to give hugs, and we love all of the hugs we
receive every day from the children.
Senator Bayh. Marilyn, would you like to add a word? And
then we'll hear from Caleb.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Littrell follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T5462.002
STATEMENT OF MARILYN MORIN, DIRECTOR, FOSTER GRANDPARENT
PROGRAM, COLUMBUS, IN
Ms. Morin. Grandma Jo is typical of the 92 grandparents we
have. We cover Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, and
Jennings County, and we have 30 schools, abused children
shelters, teen pregnancy programs, and Head Starts. Every one
of the facilities we serve ask for more grandparents. That
seems to be the No. 1 need.
We all know, and I think our grandparents are very aware,
when you touch tomorrow, you touch a child. So we would love to
see this program expand so we can touch more children to better
tomorrow.
I think we all know that our Nation's history isn't in this
room--or our future. Our future is in the classroom, and it is
in the abused children shelter. And these children do need more
help. So expanding this program would really help.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Morin follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T5462.003
Senator Bayh. Thank you, Marilyn.
We, I think it's safe to say this may be the youngest
person to testify before the Senate Committee on Aging, but
what he has to say is equally or perhaps more important than
most of the others.
So, Caleb, we'd love to hear from you.
Caleb Allen. I'm 8 years old, and I go to Clifty Creek
Elementary, and I love my foster grandparent, Grandma Jo. She
has helped me a lot this year. I really look forward to seeing
her every day. She sits by me and we read and did spelling and
wrote together.
She gives me hugs and tells me I am doing really good. She
has really helped me learn to read better this year. I think it
is really great to have a school grandma. I am glad I had a
grandma with me this year. I will miss her next year. I wish
all the kids could have foster grandparents.
Senator Bayh. Caleb, that was very, very good. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Grandma Jo, let me just say, just as Estella, one of the
most pressing challenges we have is the need to help with long-
term care for seniors, one of the most accurate predictors--the
single most accurate predictor of how our children do in school
is whether there's an adult actively involved with that child's
education and the home, with the family.
And where a parent can't be involved, a grandparent can.
And so if you would just maybe take that microphone and just
share with us one more time, you recited how his reading scores
have gone up and that kind of thing.
Ms. Littrell. OK.
Senator Bayh. Just give us your thoughts about how Caleb is
learning, his reading ability has improved because of the kind
of special attention he's gotten.
Ms. Littrell. Caleb has really been a real good student. At
first he was kind of shy, and I had to get to know him; he had
to get to know me. My first intentions is to get the trust of
each child and to learn what they are interested in, and then
we start to work. And this helps me to understand each one.
And his score was 355 points at the end of May, and it went
up from 139 points on the test in August which was 98 percent
reading accuracy.
Senator Bayh. Caleb, do you like reading with Grandma Jo?
[Caleb Allen nodded yes.]
Good. Good. Thank you.
Grandma Jo, thank you.
David, why don't you share with us the services and
training you've been able to get.
Ceil, you want to share some thoughts, too?
Ceil, excuse me, Sperzel is the program director. Which of
you would like to begin? Here, David, grab ahold of this
microphone here. Tell us about the services you've received
from the program and the difference it's made for you.
STATEMENT OF DAVID KNIGHT, VOLUNTEER, RETIRED AND SENIORS
VOLUNTEER PROGRAM
Mr. Knight. The difference it has made for me--in 1993 I
retired. I had two massive heart attacks back to back and a
quadruple bypass at Jewish Hospital.
I started a home-based business last year. Things started
jumping. I started selling a hot weight loss product where
people in the United States was losing ten to twenty pounds a
month. Their health was improving tremendous.
I knew I needed a computer. I had to have a computer. I
came home one afternoon, there was a message on my door.
``You're eligible for free computer classes.''
I drove my car two blocks, signed up for the free classes.
They were not wall-to-wall classes. These were superb,
professional training classes on a one-to-one basis.
I took the classes, and I'm so glad I did. I've benefited
greatly. I get on-line today. I order products on-line. I know
my conference calls, where they're all over the United States.
I view my downline. I'm updated on all price listings of
products. It's just great. One of the greatest benefits I
received is I'm able to help other people.
I went to our national director's home, taught her a three-
way system how to find people no matter where all over the
United States whether they're living or deceased. What a great
benefit.
Thanks, Lifespan, and thanks to the Indiana State. Thanks
so much.
Senator Bayh. Thank you, David.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Knight follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T5462.004
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T5462.005
STATEMENT OF CEIL SPERZEL, DIRECTOR, RSVP OF SOUTH CENTRAL
INDIANA, INTERFAITH COMMUNITY COUNCIL, NEW ALBANY, IN
Ms. Sperzel. I'm the RSVP Director for four counties in the
southern part of the State, and we have several programs in
addition to placing volunteers in all of the other nonprofits
and healthcare agencies in our area. And David is a recipient
of services of one of those programs. And as you can imagine,
there are thousands of people who are recipients.
In Indiana, there are over 9,000 RSVP volunteers who
contributed 1.4 million hours of service last year and every
year to their neighbors in need, not just in a technology
training program, but in all sorts of helping services.
RSVP volunteers deliver meals, they push wheelchairs, they
raise money, they fix houses, they sort books. I could go on
forever but obviously I won't.
But the question is why is that important. Why is it
important that these people do these things? And the answer is
because most of it would not happen if they did not.
Last week when seven senior homeowners called me and said,
``My air conditioning is broken in this heat, and I cannot
afford to fix it,'' I wouldn't have had anybody to call if not
for our senior volunteers.
The last week of July when 98 families came to our agency's
food pantry for help, we wouldn't have had anybody to call if
the volunteers hadn't packaged that food.
In this entire spring semester of the year, retired senior
volunteers helped in the special ed classroom at one of our
local high schools in North Harrison 7 hours a day, 5 days a
week. There would have been nobody to do that if it hadn't been
for those retired senior volunteers.
We need our retired people to give our country their time,
their experience, and their talents, and otherwise nobody else
is going to do it. They have all that skill for us, and we need
it.
And the other part of the bottom line is that the retired
senior volunteers are served themselves. As Estella so
eloquently told us, you feel better and you are healthier and
you live longer if you have something useful to do.
I was asked in this testimony to tell how to get more
seniors into senior service, and the bottom line of getting
people to do anything is--80 percent of people do so because
they were asked personally. And only 36 of the 92 counties in
Indiana are covered by RSVPs, and even fewer in the SCPs and
FGPs.
And so I would say to you we would ask Congress to allocate
more resources for more programs.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Sperzel follows:]
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Senator Bayh. And if we do, you'll put them to good use?
Ms. Sperzel. Absolutely.
Senator Bayh. Very good. Thank you, Ceil. David, thank you.
Judge, tell us about the Big Brothers. That's a great
program, and it's great of you to volunteer. Tell us what kind
of difference it's making.
STATEMENT OF JUDGE WEBSTER BREWER, VOLUNTEER, BIG BROTHERS
PROGRAM
Judge Brewer. I have been volunteering in the Big Brothers
Program and tutoring in School 43. I've tutored two separate
kids once a week for 1 hour. We've made a tremendous difference
in the lives of these kids. I'm just one of a hundred
volunteers.
But I come to this program kind of naturally. I started out
my career in the juvenile court. I went on to the Federal
Bureau of Prisons. I went over to the Federal court as a
Federal probation officer. Elected judge in 1974, served for 25
years.
One thing I determined in my career is that youngsters who
don't learn to read prior to the fifth grade are likely to
become dropouts, and also a lot of social problems of which
you're aware.
My wife was an educator for 35 years. A number of years ago
when our senator was Governor, he spoke to a number of
teachers. My wife was in the audience; I was not. And one thing
our Governor, and senator now, said was that you can determine
the number of prisons you have to build by the number of people
in the third grade. That stuck with me then.
So I'm about the business of trying to help youngsters to
read. And come the fall, we'll be working a new program working
with mentoring four or five youngsters who don't have fathers
in the home.
The two factors that I have discovered in my career that
matters most in terms of making the person a worthwhile citizen
is learning to read and having a male mentor.
I lost my dad last year at the age of 89 years old, and
Reverend Hasburg once said the best thing a father can do for
his children is to stay with their mother. And I remember
Father Hasburg saying that years and years ago.
But my experience has taught me that we must work one-on-
one with children. It's a very impressive thing to do. And
there's something about just any kind of special attention. I'm
convinced that you don't have to have a degree, that you don't
have to be an expert in that area, but having that youngster
read to you and to have his face light up when you respond to
him, I think is a great thing in helping that youngster learn
to do.
When I was in the third grade, I simply couldn't get
fractions, and I thought I was the dumbest kid in the school.
We had a member of the family who was in education. My mother
asked her to tutor me. I found out that repetition is what
learning's all about. And it was through her and the flash
cards in determining the difference between one-third and one-
fourth and one-fifth, and all those kinds of things, that got
me through fractions.
Had I not gotten through fractions, I would have
internalized the fact that I'm a dumb kid and I'm a mentor.
This has been a worthwhile experience for me. I didn't do
it because I was bored or didn't have nothing to do. Hell, I've
got more to do than I know what to do with. But it just comes
as a natural to me that doing--just helping one person, I'm
just convinced that if all of us just touch the life of one
person, we can make this a much better world.
And they told me to limit my comments to 5 minutes, there's
a guy over there with a light who blows a horn when you get
beyond that, so I will cease my comments.
It's such a pleasure being here, and I encourage you if
you're not a volunteer, get on board. It's fun.
Senator Bayh. Thank you. Judge, thank you very much.
He mentioned something that's true. Back when I first
became Governor, we had an overcrowding crisis in our prisons,
and I brought in a national expert to help us plan for the
capacity we'd need in our prisons.
And he put together a big equation--I see Joe Smith sitting
here--he put together a big equation, and you look at about ten
or fifteen different variables. But the single most accurate
predictor of how many people you're going to need to lock up in
prison fifteen years later are the number of at-risk children
in third grade.
We look at 9 year olds and the circumstances in which
they're being raised to predict how many inmates there will be
fifteen years later.
And so if there was ever an argument, Judge, for early
intervention, reaching out to young men like you've done, like
Grandma Jo has done, that's a very good one.
And it's a symptom of a broader problem. And I won't give
another speech here, but just suffice it to say there has been
a growing trend in our society for the last 15 years or so of
particularly very young men who bring children into the world
and then just walk away leaving the mothers and the taxpayers
to try and pick up the pieces. And the consequences to the
children and to society are very, very adverse.
And so if we can get Big Brothers involved, if we can get
people like Judge Web Brewer involved to try and fill that gap,
I mean, hopefully we can convince more of these young men to do
right by their children, to do right by the mothers of their
children as Father Hasburg would say, and as the judge
mentioned, that's the ideal solution.
But while we're still working on that, Big Brothers and
senior volunteers can really make a big, big difference in our
young children's lives. I'll just read you just a couple of the
statistics.
A child growing up without a responsible male presence--
mothers are doing a great job. They are just performing heroic
work. The men need to do better.
Where there's no responsible male figure in the young
child's life, they're five times more likely to live in poverty
when the fathers run off, twice as likely to commit a crime,
twice as likely to drop out of school, twice as likely to be
abused, much more likely to commit suicide, over twice as
likely to be involved with alcohol or drugs, and if a young
girl, much more likely to become pregnant as a teenager.
Those are obviously very serious social problems, and we
need to try and fill that gap in many of our young people's
lives, and Big Brothers and this volunteer effort is doing a
good work at that.
Web, I wish we could clone you and spread you around.
I was interviewed out here by the media earlier. I said I'm
opposed to human cloning, and I am, but in Judge Brewer's case
we might make an exception.
You're doing such good work.
So the last thing I'll say, and then I am going to thank
our panel and ask the second panel to come up, you know, very
often I'm asked--they say, ``Well, Senator, what is this public
service? What is this volunteering all about? That sounds kind
of general. That sounds kind of vague. Does it really make a
difference? Do these dollars really go to something
important?'' Well, ladies and gentlemen, you're seeing it right
here. What they do, they go to Estella to allow her to help
provide long-term care to Rose and another woman. That's making
a real tangible difference for Rose and for the society and for
our taxpayers.
They go to Grandma Jo to help Caleb and other young people,
and that's making a big, big difference and improving the
quality of education.
They go to help David get the kind of skills he needs to be
independent and work out of his home and to help others. That's
making an important difference in his community.
And they go to help the Big Brothers and people like Judge
Brewer make an important contribution in the lives of young
people without whom they might grow up to become juvenile
delinquents and end up in those prisons we were just talking
about. Those are real tangible meaningful contributions to
bettering our society. That's what volunteering is really all
about.
And I want to thank our panel today for helping us shine
the light on the kind of difference you make for our State. I'm
very, very proud of you all. You're really the kind of heroes
that we ought to applaud. And let's do that right now. Thank
you all for being with me today.
Senator Bayh. All right. If I could have everyone's
attention, we have our second group of panelists with us today.
And I want to thank each of these gentlemen for their time. I
know they're very busy and could be doing many, many other
things.
That applies to all of them, but especially Alan Solomont
who is all the way down at the left in terms of the audience.
He's come all the way from Boston to be with us here today.
Alan has been a long time advocate of public service. He's
one of the most philanthropic and dedicated public servants I
know. And I want to personally thank him for making the trip to
be with us today.
Alan is a member of the Corporation of National Service's
Board of Directors, and he's going to provide us with updates
of the corporation's activities and suggestions for what we can
do to expand upon them.
Next, we're going to hear from Marc Freedman, president of
Civic Ventures and author of the book Prime Time: How baby
boomers will revolutionize retirement and transform America.
Marc, thank you for being with us today.
Marc's going to provide some data on the positive outcomes
associated with senior service and his thoughts on ways to
better utilize the programs.
Kenneth Smith from the AARP Board of Directors is with us
and will inform us about the AARP senior service activities and
how the AARP plans to advance and promote senior service.
Kenneth, thank you very much. AARP does such good work.
We're looking forward to hearing from you.
And last, but by no means least, we've got James Perry with
us.
Thank you for being with us, Dean. Associate Dean of the
School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI here in
Indianapolis. He's going to provide us with concrete data that
show the importance of senior service both for the senior and
for the community at large.
Dr. Perry, thank you very much.
Alan, why don't we begin with you. And again, I want to
welcome you to our State.
He's from Massachusetts, but I think it's fair to say,
ladies and gentlemen, we've given him a warm Hoosier welcome
here today at the State fair. So let's thank Alan Solomont for
being with us.
STATEMENT OF ALAN SOLOMONT, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE, ACCOMPANIED BY
LES LENKOWSKY AND TESS SCANNELL, ACTING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL
SENIOR SERVICE CORPS
Mr. Solomont. Thank you very much, Senator. I'm delighted
to be here with all of these wonderful examples of senior
service. I'm also pleased to be here with two of my colleagues
from the Corporation, Les Lenkowsky, who you recognized earlier
and who is about to become the Corporations CEO, and also Tess
Scannell who is the Acting Director of the National Senior
Service Corps.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing firsthand the
benefits to communities when seniors are tapped to meet
pressing social needs and the benefits to seniors themselves
when they are actively engaged in serving their communities.
But since we are here today to discuss the value of
service, permit me to say what a great example you have set in
the area of public service. Your career demonstrates the
difference one person can make, and you teach us all a lesson
about dedicating one's life to the common good.
I was a great admirer of your father's courageous public
service, and I'm honored to know his son and to acknowledge
your contributions.
Senator Bayh. Thank you, Alan.
Mr. Solomont. Senior service in the National Senior Service
Corps are of special interest to me on both a professional and
a personal level. I am a businessman and an entrepreneur
focused on developing innovative ways to provide health
services and elder care to senior citizens.
Although my business interests are mostly in New England,
as you know, issues regarding healthcare and long-term care for
the elderly are national.
I've spent most of the last 25 years of my professional
life caring for frail elders in nursing homes, assisted living
facilities, and in the community. And although I describe
myself as a businessman and an entrepreneur, I've always felt
more comfortable in a room full of white hair than a room full
of white shirts.
In the late 1970's as the administrator of a nursing home
in Massachusetts, I worked closely with the local Retired
Senior Volunteer Program, RSVP, and I saw firsthand how
important volunteers were to enhancing the quality of life for
residents of that nursing home.
RSVP is just one of the programs of the National Senior
Service Corps administered by the Corporation for National and
Community Service. The other programs are the Foster
Grandparent Program, and the Senior Companion Program. Each of
these valuable programs uses the power of senior service to
address pressing community needs and brings comfort and support
to people in our society who are frequently left behind.
When I talk about people left behind, I mean the tens of
thousands of special needs children like Caleb who receive the
love, care, and support of a foster grandparent, or the
thousands of frail elders like Rose and their caregivers who
receive services of senior companions, a program that makes it
possible for frail elders to stay independent in their own
homes.
And there are tens of thousands of community agencies and
individuals that have benefited from the myriad of services
provided by RSVP volunteers.
Senator, you could not have picked a better time for this
hearing. The Nation and the world's populations are aging at an
unprecedented rate. Our generation, the baby boomers, the
healthiest, wealthiest, and most highly educated generation in
this country's history will soon be retiring. And we don't plan
to spend our retirement years relaxing.
Retiring baby boomers are starting new careers, enrolling
in universities, learning new skills, and most of all taking
what they have learned from their life's experiences and
applying them to social causes.
A 1999 survey conducted by Peter Hart for Civic Ventures
found that older Americans are seeking volunteer activities
that take advantage of their special skills rather than
activities that merely fill time.
As a Nation we should seize the experience, energy, and
excitement that mark this generation of retirees. The key
challenge for the future of the National Senior Service Corps
will be to provide opportunities for this very special
generation of seniors that will take advantage of their skills
and all that they have to offer.
I have provided you and the Committee with a copy of
recommendations from the Corporation's Board of Directors which
was sent to the President and the Congress earlier this year on
the future of all of the Corporation's programs, including
AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America.
We recommend that in order to make service an expectation
for all people in later life, we must expand service
opportunities for all senior citizens. We need to increase
resources to expand options and incentives to attract a broader
base of seniors, and we have to get organizations that have not
previously used seniors to get involved with the National
Senior Service Corps.
We have to remove any barriers in our current programs and
program structure that artificially limit the appeal of
opportunities for senior involvement in Corporation programs.
The Corporation for National and Community Service and the
National Senior Service Corps are ready to make senior service
meet the needs of the new century.
It was delightful for me to come here from Boston today,
and I'd be happy to answer any questions or provide you and
your committee with any information that you desire.
Thank you.
Senator Bayh. Thank you, Alan. Let's express our
appreciation.
Alan, I just had two brief questions. I would like to thank
you for your testimony. The first is in my opening remarks I
shared some data about the return of the investment to the
taxpayers that comes from our investment in service, that's
senior service. Has that been your experience at the
Corporation, that it's a good investment for the taxpayers in
terms of the return of our dollars?
Mr. Solomont. It gets tremendous leverage. As you said,
a return of 3 to 1, 5 to 1. If you just look at the Senior
Companion Program and the benefit of providing seniors who are
typically living alone, who with a little support can stay
living in their own homes, not a burden on publicly financed
programs, through the efforts of volunteers or volunteers who
are paid a rather modest stipend, and you think of the
thousands or the tens of thousands of frail seniors who are
staying independent through that sharing and that caring, I
don't know that you can find many better investments of our
taxpayer dollars at a time when the need for long-term care is
going to absolutely explode.
Senator Bayh. It is costs that we avoid and the benefits we
incur as a result of the investment.
My second question is about incentives. What sort of
incentives are ordinarily the sort of thing we'd look at to
encourage seniors to get involved? What would be helpful?
Mr. Solomont. Well, one of the great things that we have
done is to make service opportunities available particularly to
low income seniors. And we've done that by offering stipends,
and modest as they may be, they target our programs to that
population.
I think at this point, given the huge need and opportunity
for senior service, we also ought to be about removing barriers
to service and expanding opportunity for senior service to all
income groups.
Not to lose the benefit of making this available to lower
income seniors, but also to look to seniors like my 82-year-old
mother who needs to get out of the house, who wants to be
useful, and whose skills as a registered nurse could be put to
good use in a program such as Senior Companions.
Senator Bayh. No question. Thank you again, Alan.
Mr. Solomont. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Bayh. Mark Freedman, thank you for being with us.
We're looking forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF MARC FREEDMAN, PRESIDENT, CIVIC VENTURES AND
AUTHOR
Mr. Freedman. Thanks. It's a great pleasure. I wasn't
exactly sure of that when I left San Francisco yesterday and it
was 70 degrees with no humidity, but now I can tell you there's
absolutely no place I would rather be than in Indianapolis.
Senator Bayh. Welcome to the Midwest in August, Marc.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Freedman. Thank you. And thank you also for your
leadership on this issue.
As Alan Solomont suggested, the timing just could not be
better. Right now this country is on the verge of a demographic
revolution. And that word ``revolution'' is much overworked in
our society. But in this case, if anything, it might be an
understatement.
We currently have half the people who have ever lived to
the age of 65 alive at this time, half the people who have ever
lived to the age of 65 in the United States. And we are at a
point where life expectancy in the last century has increased
by three decades which is greater than all of the increases for
the previous 5,000 years.
The population of older adults since we started the
National Senior Service Corps 35 years ago has doubled, and
that number is going to double again over the coming 30 years,
so that by 2030 between a fifth and a quarter of the entire
country is going to be over the age of 65.
The demographers have a phrase for that. They call it the
Floridadation of America. A phrase----
Senator Bayh. Say that again, Marc. By 2030 what percentage
of the population----
Mr. Freedman [continuing.] By 2030 between--depending on
which predictions you believe, between 20 and 25 percent of the
entire population.
And now, when you think about that, 18 percent of Florida
is over the age of 65. So the entire country will have a larger
proportion of older adults than Florida does today. And we've
heard a lot of hand wringing about what a great burden and cost
that's going to be on this country.
But I'm here, along with my colleagues and the people we
heard from in the first panel, to suggest that the reality
might be quite different, especially if we play our cards
right, that this population is really our country's only
increasing natural resource.
And you talked before about--in asking Alan Solomont about
what the benefits are. The Foster Grandparent Program has a
great expression. They say, ``Every dollar spent twice.'' And
when we think about not just what the older adults themselves
get out of it, but what the young people like Caleb who are
receiving the service get out of it, but also what the broader
society gets out of closer ties between the generations and a
sense of community where everybody feels like they have a part,
it's truly an extraordinary opportunity.
And not only do we have great numbers of people coming down
the road, but people who are healthier, better educated, in
better shape economically than ever before.
When the Foster Grandparent Program was started, 35.8
percent of the older population was living in poverty. Today
that number is hovering between 10 and 12 percent.
People are healthier than they've ever been before in
later life. The Los Angeles Times just did a survey which
showed that Americans over the age of 60 feel 19 years younger
than their chronological age. So essentially a 60 year old of
today is like a 40 year old of the generation past. And this is
a population which is poised to give back, that wants to give
back.
The survey that Alan Solomont mentioned, we discovered that
giving back through national service, through volunteerism,
through paid employment that has a socially redeeming component
was a top priority for the current and coming generation of
retirees.
So this really is an extraordinary resource, but I'm a
little chagrined to have to say that it's probably not only our
only increasing natural resource, but our greatest squandered
national treasure. We are not making great use of the talent
and energy and civic commitment in this segment of the
population.
For years we really basically told people to go to the
sidelines, that they're no longer valued, that we don't need
what they have to offer, and that's been a tragic mistake. And
no more so with the current population which is the best
educated population of older adults we've ever seen, four times
the level of college education than just a generation back.
The social scientists talk about structural lag. They say
basically that populations change their talents, their energy,
their well-being, but we don't have the kind of images and
opportunities that go with that.
And I think that just the timing of looking at the National
Senior Service Corps legislation couldn't be a better
opportunity to rethink that gap and find a way to close it.
This is our greatest, largest, most impressive national
effort to remedy that situation and put the talents of older
adults to use. It's a program that has increased from a few
hundred people in 1965, to over half a million people.
And yet now on the verge of this demographic revolution,
it's a good time to step back and see how these programs can be
brought up to date and put in a position so they're going to
best serve the coming generation of older adults. And the
recommendations you set out earlier I think are exactly the
ones that we're going to need.
And this opportunity to step back and look rationally at
the programs is needed from another perspective as well. When
writing Prime Time, I got a chance to look at the history of
the National Senior Service Corps. And while there were many
good intentions in the early days, there was also a big role
for accident.
One of the great stories, LBJ, when he announced the
formation of the Foster Grandparent Program in 1965, he did it
on the day of his 58th birthday. And in the speech in which he
was extolling the great wonders of the older population and how
much they had to offer, the age of the program had been set at
55 back then. He changed it to 60 in every place because he
didn't want to be considered an older adult himself, and he was
particularly sensitive because he had no grandchildren at the
time, and he was announcing the Foster Grandparent Program.
So there are many ways where a good look at what we're
going to need in the future will help.
But I want to close by just saying that along with
expanding and strengthening the existing opportunities that are
out there, we need to create more options for people. This is
an extremely diverse population of older adults with
extraordinary skills ranging from those we heard with Judge
Brewer, and we need to create a range of opportunities so that
people will have choices where they can put into action their
great skills.
And I think that there's a chance now to invest in a lot of
grass roots activity, much of it happening in Indiana. There's
a great program in Columbus called Volunteers in Medicine where
retired doctors and nurses are coming together to provide free
healthcare to the poor, many other examples of that.
And I think a fund for innovation would go a long way
toward widening those kinds of opportunities. And making it--
we've heard from a lot of critics of the aging America that
graying means paying. But I think the graying of America could
be a great payoff.
And we could finally redeem the promise that JFK gave us in
the very first White House Conference on Aging in 1960 when he
said, ``We've added years to life, now it's time to add life to
those years.'' And I think if we do that, we'll not only enrich
the lives of older Americans, but all generations.
Thank you.
Senator Bayh. Marc has touched upon a very important
subject that frankly doesn't get as much attention in
Washington as it deserves. You look at the great challenges
that face our country today. We have the globalization of the
economy where we're not just competing with each other in this
country or our immediate neighbors, but are competing with
nations around the world.
We have the technology revolution with information
technology, telecommunications that has changed the way we
live, we work, and we recreate.
But of all the different changes we face, probably the
demographic challenge may be the most profound of all. And
we're really not devoting the attention to that that we need.
We have a debate about what to do about Social Security and
Medicare, but that's a fairly narrow debate. And I think the
point that Marc made about looking at our seniors not as a
burden or a problem to be managed, but instead as a resource
that can participate in improving the productivity of society
and thereby helping us to meet those challenges is a very good
one.
We ought to look at this in more of a positive light
instead of a negative, the negative light in which it is all
too often presented.
And you're right. We're squandering the resource currently.
I'd like to follow up on your comment about innovation. The
Experience Corps I understand is an innovative program.
Mr. Freedman. Yes.
Senator Bayh. And can you build upon that a little bit and
tell us what role can the Federal Government play in fostering
innovation in terms of senior volunteerism?
Mr. Freedman. Well, the Experience Corps Program--actually,
Judge Web Brewer is part of the Experience Corps here in
Indianapolis which is run through Big Brothers Program--is now
in seventeen cities. And it exists for one reason, because
there was a small pot of money within the National Senior
Service Corps for demonstration projects.
And beginning in 1995, that money went into creating the
Experience Corps. And we focused entirely on low income inner
city elementary schools because we've heard so much about this
coming generation was that the generations of older adults are
taking the younger generation to the cleaners. We wanted to
show a very different image, how the generations could support
each other.
And Experience Corps is focusing on creating a caring,
humane environment where lots of one-on-one personal attention
exists for young people in inner city schools in those
seventeen cities.
Senator Bayh. Wonderful. You know, in my introductory
remarks I suggested one of the things we want to do is expand
the funding available for demonstration projects like that to
hopefully accelerate the innovation, and trying some different
avenues to encourage seniors to participate.
So I think that's completely consistent with what you're
saying and what you're advocating.
Marc, thank you for coming all the way from San Francisco.
Alan came from Boston; you came from San--east meets west right
here in Indianapolis, IN. So we appreciate your making the long
trip. Thank you very much.
And I'm glad with the heat we're having that we don't have
the sort of energy shortage you have in California. We'd be in
big trouble today. Thank you for coming.
Let's give him a round of applause. [Applause.]
Do you prefer Kenneth or Ken?
Mr. Smith. Either.
Senator Bayh. Either one. All right.
Well, Kenneth, thank you for being with us. I'm looking
forward to your perspective. And thank you for representing
AARP here today.
STATEMENT OF KENNETH B. SMITH, AARP BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mr. Smith. Thank you. On behalf of the association and my
fellow members who are here in the audience, I want to thank
you, Senator, and the Committee, for recognizing the valuable,
untapped human resource that America's seniors represent to
assist in meeting the challenges of our communities and which
our communities face today.
We hope that your leadership in this area, Senator, will
increase opportunities for older Americans to contribute their
talents and reap the satisfaction of knowing that their efforts
are valued. Community service has been a part of AARP's vision
since our organization was founded with the motto to serve not
to be served.
Today I will present an overview of some AARP volunteer
activities, the implications for volunteerism in an aging
society, what we understand about the change in volunteer
experiences sought by today's over 50 population, and future
roles and opportunities for seniors.
AARP has traditionally been and is now engaged in
recruiting, training, and deploying volunteers in a wide
variety of service roles.
For example, AARP members in over 3,000 chapters across the
country currently play an active role in serving their
communities. Through each chapter, an average of over 700 hours
of service is contributed annually.
Our National Retired Teachers Association has over 20,000
volunteers working with 500,000 youth in 1,000 communities.
Our AARP tax aid program offered free personal and
confidential assistance to over 1.6 million persons last year.
Our AARP Senior Community Service Employment Program, CSEP,
helped low income job seekers age 55 and older to gain job
skills and experiences that enabled them to transition into
permanent unsubsidized jobs.
And the AARP Public Benefits Outreach, PBO programs helps
potential beneficiaries learn about and receive benefits
available through such programs as the Medicare savings
program, supplemental security income, and Medicaid, while also
educating consumers about their money and management choices.
AARP is proud of these continuing contributions to
communities across the country; however, the unmet needs of
individuals and communities in contemporary society are
daunting.
The challenge we all face is to increase volunteer efforts
in ways that build on current successes without limiting the
volunteer pool to traditional modes of service, modes that
sometimes do not appeal to today's midlife and older
volunteers.
American society is changing, and so must our approaches to
volunteer service. We believe that more can be done both in
mobilizing seniors to serve and in generating service
opportunities that are both rewarding and relevant. Both aims
are important given the rapid movement of baby boomers into
retirement and the changing demographic profile of the
volunteer pool.
I would note a few points in this regard. There are twice
as many older adults today as compared to 1960, as we've
already heard. And by the middle of the next century, America's
elders will outnumber its children and youth for the first time
in history.
Today's over 50 population is the healthiest and best
educated and wealthiest the world has ever seen, as has already
been mentioned. They represent a tremendous untapped reservoir
of experience and talent.
By the end of the twentieth century, 20 to 30 years of
productive living was added to the average lifespan. This means
more work years without serious cognitive or physical
limitations.
In short, traditional volunteer experiences must be
reevaluated for their relevance to human need and adoptability
to achieve what appeals to a more robust senior service pool.
We must create new roles and outlets that foster personal
renewal and provide positive benefits for others in our
society.
There is evidence that service provides significant
benefits to those prepared to serve such as structure,
interaction, a feeling of usefulness.
A 1998 independent sector report found that older adults
are extremely willing to serve if they are asked. Continued
learning and skills development eases the transition from the
workplace to retirement and combats feelings of isolation and
loss of purpose that can result after retirement.
Many national organizations in America are experiencing
changes in their volunteer force because of the mismatch
between the service opportunities offered and those sought by
volunteers.
The challenges of facilitating and supporting and
encouraging creativity in quality service experiences differ
among national, state, and local organizations.
Any endeavor that does not recognize and accommodate these
differences may find itself short-lived. We must look to new
forms of public interest work. These alternative approaches and
roles must include activities research that indicated that
seniors today feel about 19 years older than their
chronological age?
Mr. Freedman. Younger.
Senator Bayh. Oh, I'm sorry. Nineteen years younger. Yes, I
meant to say 19 years younger. That's a marvelous thing, and it
I think proves the truth of what Kenneth is saying. As you
mentioned, we're dealing with a healthier, wealthier, longer
living senior population, and therefore we have to rethink the
types of service opportunities available to seniors.
Kenneth, AARP is already providing, as you've indicated,
service opportunities in so many ways. What can the government
do to amplify the kind of things that you're already involved
with? Are there things that we can----
Mr. Smith. I think encouraging. I think the very fact that
your committee is holding a hearing like this encourages the
organizations that do the recruiting and the training. That's
very, very important.
And there are other ways in which we can partner which will
be revealed to us as we move along, but I think the
encouragement is very important. I mean, look around here.
You'll see the usefulness of all of these people in this room.
And life isn't over for any of them.
Senator Bayh. In interest of full disclosure, I think I
should indicate to everyone that upon my being sworn into the
U.S. Senate I received an honorary membership in the AARP.
Mr. Smith. Good for you.
Senator Bayh. So I'm 45, but I'm on my way, and I'll be
there.
Thank you very much, Ken. I appreciate your time and your
presence here. As a matter of fact, I feel a little bit guilty.
I should have told all of our panelists that since we're at the
State Fair, you could have left the ties at home, but you've
been very good in dressing up for the hearing.
Jim, thank you for your time today. We're looking forward
to hearing from you, and I'll be interested in hearing your
testimony. But you've done so much work in this area, I'd first
just like to ask you a question before you get into it.
Does your research indicate--back up the public opinion
data that Marc cited about people feeling significantly younger
than their chronological age in retirement these days? That's
great news.
Mr. Perry. Well, the evidence certainly indicates that
people are better off from a health perspective both physically
and mentally, but the research does not try to translate it
into the same chronological improvements. Individuals who have
been involved in national senior service are healthier, both
physically and mentally----
Senator Bayh. Also there's a psychological effect.
Mr. Perry [continuing.] Apparent in those individuals of
similar age.
Senator Bayh. Great.
Mr. Perry. And there has been some fairly rigorous research
that's focused on that particular individual benefit. So it is
entirely consistent with that as well as the testimony of the
panel that preceded ours.
Senator Bayh. Good. Thank you. Thank you for your
testimony. I look forward to it.
STATEMENT OF JAMES L. PERRY, ASSOCIATE DEAN AND CHANCELLORS'
PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, INDIANA
UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS
Mr. Perry. I am going to focus on something more esoteric
than the other panelists. I have no public opinion data to
present. But I am going to talk about some of the evaluation
research, some of the scientific evidence, and even though it's
esoteric, I think it's important because Congress obviously has
to justify appropriations and decisions it makes about
increasing support for senior programs and other national
service programs.
So it's important not only to have the anecdotal evidence
which we have received in the earlier panel, but also to look
at the scientific evidence. So I am going to do that.
I also want to make one disclaimer--I got pushed to the end
of the infield when I came in. I pulled up here, and they said,
``No, you're in the wrong spot,'' so I wound up at the other
end of the infield.
And in the process I managed to go past one of the
traditions here at the Indiana State Fair which I hope our
friends from the coast have an opportunity to take in, and that
is the world's biggest boar.
And at the risk of joining the world's biggest boar, I'm
going to talk about the scientific evidence. So bear with me.
[Laughter.]
Senator Bayh. I was under the impression he was in
congress, Dean, so I was glad to see him out there at the hog
barn. [Laughter.]
Mr. Perry. Although the total volume of research about
senior service is modest, a significant consistent body of
evidence has accumulated about senior service since the
founding of the Foster Grandparent Program service in 1965.
In my written testimony, I have appended a bibliography of
more than 35 evaluation studies that have been done over the
last 30 years. Permit me to summarize a few of those results. I
would also be happy to elaborate later during the question and
answer session.
In the assessments of national and senior service, a good
deal of attention has been given to how service benefits the
individual server. One if the examples is Senator Bayh's
question about the health and the individual consequences.
Less attention, particularly for senior programs has been
given to what service means to the beneficiaries of service and
to the larger community. Let me illustrate some of the ways in
which senior service has made an impact in the areas of both
the beneficiaries as well as the community.
One of the program venues for senior service is Head Start,
the early childhood education program. In a 1997 study of what
foster grandparents do in Head Start programs, researchers from
Westat Corporation looked at education outcomes.
They conducted intensive observations of foster
grandparents in six programs, in six classrooms. In effective
classrooms, they observed foster grandparents engage in a range
of positive interactions with children over the course of the
day, including listening attentively and acknowledging their
progress and accomplishments.
The foster grandparents helped to develop and reinforce
prosocial behaviors through modeling, encouraging children to
try new activities, and acknowledging individual contributions
to group activities.
Foster grandparents also help children make productive
choices and redirect misbehavior by providing children with
constructive guidance and feedback.
The researchers concluded that the caregiver behavior has
contributed to positive developmental outcomes for children in
four areas, (1), emotional well-being; (2), social and
behavioral skills development; (3), language development, and
(4), cognitive development.
Now that's, again, fairly esoteric scientific language, but
again, I think it relates very closely to the example we had
earlier from Grandma Jo and Caleb about what happens in the
interaction between the tutor and the person doing the reading
and the young person who is the beneficiary of that service.
Another example of the impacts on beneficiaries comes from
Seniors for Schools which is an initiative for the Corporation
for National Service as part of the America Reads Challenge. It
sought to recruit adults over age 55 to help children read
independently by the end of the third grade.
Sites in nine States participated in the first 2 years of
the program. Each of the nine sites conducted local evaluations
using standardized and nonstandardized reading skills tests.
Project Star, the evaluator for the project, synthesized
results from the nine studies. They found that 88 percent of
the students improved their reading skills during the 1998-1999
project year. Sixty-nine percent of the tutored students whose
grade level change was measured recorded an increase of one
full grade or more.
There are not only benefits for the individuals targeted by
service, but there are also benefits for what might be called
indirect beneficiaries. Again, Seniors for Schools is one
example. Its primary emphasis is student outcomes, especially
reading and literacy.
But in the course of trying to achieve those outcomes,
seniors also worked with parents and families. Each of the four
Seniors for Schools sites sought to involve parents in the
schools. Sites also developed activities to promote literacy
enhancement in the home.
The reported result was that parents took a more active
role in the schools and were better prepared to support their
child's development. So the impacts are not only tutor to the
child, but also tutor to the larger social network that
supports the child in his or her learning.
The benefits of senior service have also been found to go
beyond the direct and indirect beneficiaries to organizations
and communities. Senior service has been found to produce
community-wide impacts.
A common benefit is that senior service permits
organizations to expand service. For example, several studies
have included that the Senior Companion Program has helped
local service providers increase the services they provide.
Another impact of senior service is volunteer leveraging.
This refers to the extent to which senior service participants
are able to involve other volunteers. One of the best ways for
senior service participants to enhance a civic ethic lies in
their potential to engage other citizens in voluntary activity.
The research provides many examples of how national service
participants leverage other volunteers.
This brief summary of the research about senior service
shows a broad range of positive effects. The positive results
reach direct and indirect beneficiaries, organizations, and
communities, and they are only part of the systematic research
that has been conducted on senior service.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Perry follows:]
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Senator Bayh. Let's thank Dean Perry for his testimony.
Dean, it seems to me that the essence of your testimony
here today is that service can be considered a win-win-win
investment for society. It's good for seniors with the health
and the psychological effect; it's good for the direct
beneficiaries, Caleb, the Head Start students you mentioned,
others, and it's good for society in a broader sense, and in
that sense, the taxpayers because we're getting the benefits to
the broader public.
Is that a good summary of your testimony?
Mr. Perry. I think it's an excellent summary.
I think one of the reasons the senior programs have been
highly successful is they have been highly focused. Senior
programs, particularly the Foster Grandparent and Senior
Companion Program, benefit the caregiver by providing some
income and support, some meaningful activity. They also benefit
the beneficiaries.
In recent years the Corporation for National Service has
focused on an idea they call programming for impact which says
that the benefits ought to go not only to the senior who is a
participant in the senior programs, but it also ought to go to
the individuals who are the recipients of service, whether they
be other seniors or young people in reading programs or in
other service delivery contexts.
Senator Bayh. Well, for the benefit of our out-of-town
guests, Alan, Marc, and others, I, Dean, would just like to say
how proud I am that someone who's devoting such thought and
research to this important subject resides right here in
Indiana. So we're very proud to have you on the panel today.
Mr. Perry. Thanks.
Mr. Smith. I think what I've heard from my fellow panelists
demonstrates that we don't live by bread alone. We live by
giving of ourselves. And when that ends, purposefulness in
living ends.
Senator Bayh. Very well said, Ken. Very well said.
I'd like to thank the members of our second panel for their
testimony today. I believe that the members of the first panel
have also remained with us.
And, Geneva, we've reached that part of the hearing. We're
winding down. We don't want to keep everyone all afternoon, but
we're winding down now. But we're going to have a couple of
questions from members of the audience for our panelists.
I, ladies and gentlemen, will stay around after the hearing
is over down in front if you have questions for me. And for
those of you who submitted questions in writing that we don't
get to, we will definitely answer you by mail. I don't want you
to think you've been forgotten.
But, Geneva, why don't you have the questions for our
panelists.
Ms. Shedd. OK. Great. Thank you very much. And thank you
for holding your U.S. Senate Field Hearing right here in
Indiana again this year. We really appreciate this opportunity.
The first question is for Rose, Rose Thurman of the first
panel, and the questions is, ``How did you find out about the
Senior Companion Program? How did it help you in your specific
situation?''
As Rose is coming forward, ``Rose, how did you find out
about the Senior Companion Program? How did it help you in your
specific situation?''
Ms. Thurman. I found out about the Senior Companion through
my daughter, Bobbi Brown. She was a social worker for the
welfare, and she got me into it. And I have really enjoyed.
Please keep it going.
Ms. Shedd. Thank you, Rose.
The next one is for Marc Freedman and Kenneth Smith. And it
is, ``Due to my mother's health, she must spend the majority of
her time inside her home. How can she volunteer?''
Mr. Smith. You can volunteer in a variety of ways, and
sometimes you can do it by the phone. Calling somebody every
day who's shut in is a form of volunteering. And someone who is
shut in at home can do that.
Mr. Freedman. I was going to say the same thing. Telephone
reassurance programs are all over the country and are
enormously beneficial for both sides.
Ms. Shedd. OK. Thank you. I believe because of the time
that's the number that we can ask, and that I'm going to turn
it back to you.
Senator Bayh. Oh, Geneva, ask one more.
Ms. Shedd. OK. ``I would like to volunteer. I do not know
where to start. Where can I go to learn about volunteer
opportunities in my community?'' And that's for Marilyn Morin
from panel one.
Senator Bayh. If I could say just one thing first, don't
forget our 1-800 number which will provide information. It's a
national toll-free number. We can provide information that way.
Would any of our other panelists like to--yes.
Mr. Perry. The Points of Light Foundation. I don't know
whether that's the same number. I don't think it is. It's 1-
800-VOLUNTEER. And it will connect you with volunteer
opportunities in your communities.
Points of Light is one of the recipients of support from
the Corporation for National Service and a partner in national
and voluntary service. But 1-800-VOLUNTEER is another avenue.
Ms. Shedd. OK, Marilyn, did you want to say something about
that? And the number is 1-800--for the volunteer number up here
is 1-800-424-8867.
Ms. Morin. I agree. The 1-800 number is the best way. But
if you are in Columbus, our numbers are Aging and Community
Services. Also in the State of Indiana and nationwide, there
are area agencies. The Triple A's all have volunteer
opportunities. Thank you.
Senator Bayh. Thank you.
Again, I am going to be standing down in front for anyone
who wants to ask me questions when we're done. The others we
will all answer by mail. You will receive a response to your
question.
I'd like to thank the members of both panels again for
joining with us today. Let's give them another round of
applause.
Senator Bayh. I'd like to thank everyone from the area
agencies on aging. Anyone here from the area agencies on aging
today? Raise you hand. I'd like to thank all of you for your
help that you provide.
Les Lenkowsky, again, Les, you've been so good. We're
looking forward to working with you.
State Director Bill Stinson who is not with us but provided
much, much help, and everyone from the State fair.
Tom Haskett, the Indiana Senior Service Director. Tom,
thanks--raise your hand. This good man is doing a lot of great
work here. Tom Haskett, thank you.
And last, but by no means least, I'd like to thank the
Chairman of the Committee on Aging, Senator Breaux and the
ranking member Senator Craig. They give me one field hearing a
year to conduct, and I'm grateful for them allowing us to have
it here at the Indiana State Fair. And I know I speak for them
when I say I think this has been our third consecutive
successful hearing.
Thank you all again very, very much for your presence
today.
This hearing of the Special Committee on Aging is now
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:42 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]