Annette John-Hall: The gains, and joy, in bringing generations together

When Nancy Henkin created the Intergenerational Center at Temple University in 1979, she knew she'd be bucking conventional wisdom.

After all, society is so quick to dismiss the elderly.

You know how we do. We age-segregate seniors by warehousing them in nursing homes. We isolate old folks by leaving them posted in front of the TV, that trusty electronic babysitter.

We miss a golden opportunity to benefit from elder wisdom because we equate old age with incompetence.

But Henkin saw older people as assets to be tapped, not problems to be shoved aside.

Working from that premise, Henkin, a national authority on intergenerational practices and civic engagement, sought to improve communities by bringing together young and old so everyone "can feel like they're contributing to society from birth until death," she says.

"Aging is not something that starts at 65," adds Henkin, an energetic 63. "It starts at birth. At every life stage you want opportunities to be productive."

As someone who's closer to 65 than 25, I'd second that.

Just think of the mutual benefit gained by working together. By 2030, the percentage of people under 18 and over 65 will each be about 22 percent, Henkin says.

"We laud the notion of independence, but how do you strengthen this idea of interdependence?" she asks. "What are the obligations that people have to each other over time?"

Through her programs, students provide respites for caregivers. Foreign-language majors teach English to elderly immigrants. Seniors help elementary school students make healthy food choices or team with middle-schoolers to help them succeed in college.

It's no wonder Henkin's work recently earned her the inaugural $100,000 Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence from the Eisner Foundation. Her center was selected from hundreds of nominations.

See, nonprofits are usually funded in categories. This one's for aging, that's one's about youth; this one's for childhood obesity, that one's for adult-onset diabetes.

If organizations could create programs using an intergenerational approach, funders would follow suit.

"People have to get out of their silos," Henkin says. "Instead of talking about a senior center and a recreation center, why not build a community center for all ages?"

Because in the end, human relationships are the glue that holds communities together.

That's what Temple seniors Danielle Lahnemann and Arthur Kern, both 21, discovered by volunteering at the center.

Lahnemann, an anthropology major from Northeast Philadelphia, taught English to Middle Eastern immigrants at a Philadelphia mosque last year.

"Other than my grandparents, I don't know what other 70-year-old person I would have talked to, especially one who was from Egypt," says Lahnemann, who speaks fluent Arabic. "Older people have so much life experience - we should listen to them."

Kern initially signed up to take 77-year-old Mike Loucas on outings because he thought working with a senior would help pump up his resumé as an aspiring occupational therapist.

But what he got out of his two-year association with Loucas - a Korean War veteran and former boxer who was recently diagnosed with short-term memory loss - was not only a close friendship but a bonus relationship with Loucas' entire family.

Kern and Loucas go to church and the gym together. Kern also takes Loucas to volunteer at Friends of the Wissahickon so Loucas can socialize with other seniors.

"He's a remarkable person," Kern says of Loucas, who's constantly mistaken for his grandfather.

He just wishes other young people could enjoy the same gratification he has.

"In Asian countries, they have a greater sense of duty [to the elderly]," Kern says. "I wish we had that in this country, because you learn so much."