Tempe and Mesa Experience Corps - Linking Older Adults with Young Learners
Alice Corkill has no intention of retiring – she is much too busy. At 73, she tutors 10 children, four days each week. Alice is a member of Tempe Experience Corps, a branch of the national award-winning program that tutors and mentors children who need extra help with reading.
Alice and her 26 colleagues in the Tempe project join the Mesa Experience Corps members to work with young children on reading, word and letter identification and writing. The two projects, funded by The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, provide productive opportunities for older adults to make a very real contribution to the well-being of children who may need that little “extra” attention. In order to ensure that the children get the best assistance possible, Experience Corps provides a rigorous screening and training program for its members.
The Experience Corps programs, now in twenty cities around the country, measurably demonstrate increases in academic achievement and improvement in children’s self esteem – while also benefiting the older adult. School administrators in the established projects applaud the improvement in academics and behavior of the students who work with the Experience Corps’ members.
“Our Experience Corps members are contributing greatly to the education of our students as a result of their involvement, enthusiasm and commitment,” said Principal Thea Hansen of Mesa-based Kerr Elementary School.
The Mesa Experience Corps program, which received a two year grant for more than $187,000 from Piper Trust, places members in 4th grade classrooms to support teachers during school hours. Teachers identify the student participants based on low performance on the 3rd grade AIMS test. Members and students seek to improve the vocabulary, spelling, reading and writing skills. Although the next round of test scores are not yet available to indicate increased academic results, Principal Hansen and the teachers anecdotally believe the program is having an positive impact based on student attitude changes, increased self-esteem and visible skill improvements.
In the Tempe Experience Corps program, members work one-on-one or in small groups with students. The Trust’s investment in the Tempe-based program is almost $300,000 over a four-year period. Alice Corkill spends her time with children in kindergarten through 3rd grade because she says being around children makes her feel good - and she is seeing real results. Alice believes that a little more time with a child today will make a significant difference for that child in the future – a fact borne out by independent national evaluations of Experience Corps.
“One little boy I started working with kept saying, ‘I don’t want to read, ’” shares Alice. “I could see it was a confidence issue, so we started playing games together. Slowly he’s come around to reading with me. Now I hear comments like, ‘I sure had fun today!’”
The Tempe and Mesa Experience Corps programs are an outgrowth of The Next Chapter initiative sponsored by the Trust which seeks to capture the energy and expertise of the Boomer generation by helping them re-career post-retirement, volunteer in the community or continue personal development and learning.
Click here to read more about The Next Chapter initiative in Maricopa County.
CONTACT:
Pat Esparza, Experience Corps Program Coordinator, 602.697.6464
Peggy Goldberg, Project Director City of Tempe/Social Services Division, 480.858.2465