By Robert Roy
Retirement for many leads to uncertainty, loss of purpose and questions about the future. Acceptance, ongoing participation and being open to new possibilities are a must. Opportunities to do so are readily available.
Bridge Meadows a multi-generational community focused on offering permanent, caring relationships for foster children in adopted families is a prime example. Designed and constructed on the former two acre site of the John Ball Elementary School in North Portland, Oregon the program provides intergenerational community living for twenty-seven adopted children. Nine family homes and twenty-seven apartments for elders make up the community site.
Founded in 2004 Bridge Meadows was modeled after an exemplary program for adoptive children and their families in rural Illinois south of Chicago called Hope Meadows and further inspired by a similar program, The Treehouse Community, outside of Boston. Funding of $11.4 million for the design, development and construction of the community was a blend of public and private funding.
The program opened for business in 2011 and today is at capacity. Adoption placements for foster children living in the adoptive homes along with mentoring and support from 29 elders offers state of the art intergenerational community living. The day-to-day program is designed to cover, education, recreation, health and wellbeing and arts and culture. Neighborhood- like activities offered includes educational events, family gatherings and recreational activities in a community center, the use of a library, individual mentoring and tutoring, the use a computer lab and care and oversight of a community garden.
Derenda Schubert, Executive Director describes Bridge Meadows: “Bridge Meadows is a community created with the social purpose to help children from foster care become adopted, support their families to thrive and provide meaning and purpose for elders. Three generations now have an extended group of people who care about them and cheer them on! Parents and elders are no longer isolated as they walk their life journey. One of the elders said to me, Derenda you call Bridge Meadows a community, but we are really a family.”
Eligibility for the elders begins at age 55 and is determined by an array of factors. Most important is a commitment and a desire to live and use accumulated skills and talents in a community setting to insure loving care and permanency for foster children being adopted. In addition these experiences provide an opportunity for the elders to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle that lead to an enriched feeling of inclusion and a renewed sense of purpose.
Joy C., a Bridge Meadows elder expresses, “I feel this sense among us that we can help patch up a small tear in society. Instead of just being “low income” seniors, I feel we are now contributing members of society. It’s both a subtle and grand shift in self-perception. We are now teachers, friends, aunties, grandparents, musicians, neighbors, uncles, writers, counselors—all more than a statistic or a hard-luck story.”
Bridge Meadows has become nationally recognized as a state-of-the-art innovative intergenerational resource for children in foster care who are waiting to be adopted exemplified through the following awards, A Silver Award for Best Living for 55+ by The National Homebuilder’s Association; An Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition of Adoption Institute and an August, 2013 award in being chosen as one of five national finalists of the coveted Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence. The Eisner Prize award is given annually by The Eisner Foundation to an individual or a non-profit organization that brings together multiple generations, especially seniors and youth, to create positive and lasting changes in their community.
An Eisner press release regarding Bridge Meadows Elders states: “ Bridge Meadows is an innovative solution at the intersection of child welfare, aging and affordable housing—issues that impact each of us. Not just socially and emotionally, but economically as well. Ensuing that current and former foster youth have the stability, caring connections and educational supports they need to succeed can recalibrate the trajectory of their lives.”
Being chosen as one of five finalists for the Eisner prize speaks for itself. The Bridge Meadows program is unique! — Ageless community living at its best!
www.bridgemeadows.org
