This Active Life -- March 2003

Cover Story

Reclaiming Hope

Most of us have at least glimpsed the wreckage of Amer-ica's broken promises. Shattered urban neighborhoods pockmarked by boarded-up shop windows and stripped bikes. Rural trailer parks where children, clad in ragged hand-me-down clothes, play in the dirt. Places seemingly devoid of hope. We see--but many of us avert our eyes. Not Chloe Giampaolo, Bernadette Ortega, or Grady Yancey. These NEA-Retired members, and others across the country, are sowing seeds of hope by tackling some of the toughest issues confronting their communities. Their passion for changing lives--which first propelled them into education--still burns.

"A man's greatest fear in prison is dying at the hands of another man--and it happens all the time," says Chloe Giampaolo, explaining what draws two dozen inmates to the conflict resolution workshops she facilitates at the Maryland Correctional Institute at Jessup (MCIJ). "The men who come into this program are very concerned about changing their lives."

Men like "Miracle Marvin." A convicted drug lord, Marvin was serving a lengthy sentence at MCIJ when he participated in the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), for which Giampaolo serves as an external facilitator. He took the program's messages--respect yourself, and expect the best in others--to heart, becoming a program facilitator to aid other inmates.

One day, a former rival dealer--a man who had murdered Marvin's kid brother--was sent to MCIJ. Swift retribution was expected. "Marvin's homeboys told him, 'We'll take care of him for you,'" Giampaolo says. But Marvin responded, "Don't touch him." Some time later, Marvin approached the other inmate and told him, "I forgive you."

Founded in 1975 by inmates and Quakers in New York state, AVP helps participants shed destructive impulses and build positive attitudes and skills for dealing with others. Through role playing and other problem-solving activities, participants learn that when you respect yourself and others, creative nonviolent solutions are more likely to emerge.

Maryland member Giampaolo, who taught in public schools for 35 years, has conducted AVP conflict resolution workshops since 1989. When she asks men who go through the training how it has affected them, their most common reply speaks volumes: "It saved my life."

"I'm not a bleeding heart," Giampaolo says, "but I've gained a healthy respect for people who are incarcerated that society has disowned. I've always been in awe of the talent and intelligence of the men I work with. I tell them, 'Your behavior at one time did not match the good person inside you. I choose to believe that good person existed then and exists now.'"

Some might find the prospect of going into a prison frightening, but Giampaolo says she's never been apprehensive. "I know the men I work with would lay down their lives for me." Ironically, some of the best inmate facilitators in the program are "lifers": men who know they will never again walk freely outside prison walls. "These men see that they can make a difference to the younger men coming in," Giampaolo explains. So the spirit of giving is passed from one to another.

For her part, Giampaolo says the program has helped her grow as well. "It's hard to explain just how, but it's made me more of a whole person," she says. "It gives me a great feeling to work with men who want to change, and to serve as a vehicle for change. That's what keeps me going." (For more on AVP, e-mail Giampaolo at jonpaul65@aol.com.)

Santa Fe, New Mexico, with its drop-dead gorgeous landscape and vibrant cultural scene, is a mecca for bon vivants. It's also home to numerous hard-working public and private employees struggling to cope with inflation and lousy pay.

The chasm between the city's working poor and well-off tourists and second-home part-timers is one reason New Mexico member Bernadette Ortega hit the streets this past January morning, getting signatures on a petition backing a city ordinance to guarantee a living wage for private sector employees in Santa Fe. NEA-New Mexico and its Santa Fe affiliate are part of a community-wide coalition pushing the campaign, even though public school employees will not be directly affected.

Ortega, a retired instructional assistant and NEA-Santa Fe vice president for Education Support Professionals, knows firsthand how rising local costs have strapped local workers. Rents in Santa Fe start at about $700 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, and prices for gas, food, and other essentials are well above costs in other New Mexico towns. Santa Fe wages are 23 percent below the national average, while the cost of living is 18 percent above the national average. When Ortega retired after 21 years as an ESP, her salary was just $16,827.

Santa Fe approved a living wage ordinance last year for full-time city employees (boosting minimum hourly wages to $10.50 by 2005), but public school employees were not included in the package. Neither would they be covered by the current drive for private-sector employees, but Pat Chavez, UniServ consultant for NEA-New Mexico, believes the initiative will create competition to support higher wages for ESPs at the bottom of the pay scale. Moreover, many ESPs moonlight at second jobs that would be covered under the new living wage proposal.

On a recent day, Ortega visited several of them. Joanna Vijil, who works in the cafeteria of Cesar Chavez Elementary School, is at work at 5:45 every morning and works a second job when she leaves at 1:30. Her parents watch her 10-year-old son after school, and she normally doesn't get home until after 8 in the evening. "I barely make it from paycheck to paycheck," she told Ortega. Raising her pay would mean "I wouldn't have to work a second job, so I could be home for my son after school."

Then it was off to see Andrea Harvey, an instructional assistant at Agua Fria Elementary School. Harvey works a second job waiting tables--where she earns more than she makes helping children in school full-time. "I could quit here and go to the restaurant, but I stay here for the kids," she told Ortega. She and her husband and three kids, she said, "want to live in a real house, not in a mobile home park."

Having moonlighted during her own career, Ortega knows firsthand how stressful the combination of high living expenses and low wages can be. "I know when I was working two jobs it was such a struggle," she says. "They work in jobs that are very demanding from the minute you walk in, all day long, there is no letup."

Her empathy for the city's working poor drives her as she collects signatures on the petition. At press time, she and others in the local living wage network had collected 1,400 signatures, and the City Council was set to vote on a living wage ordinance in late February.

"A state legislator told us a few years ago that we in Santa Fe ought to be happy with what we're making because the ambiance makes up for it," Ortega says. "I told him: 'We are the ambiance. We are the waiters, the bartenders, the people who work at the opera and at all the different shops during peak seasons." (For more, contact bravoortega@webtv.net.)

They come into Grady Yancey's classroom at the St. Philip A.M.E church in Atlanta with varied life paths, as young as 17 and as old as 76. They have one thing in common: a desire to better their lives.

Whether they are sent by the courts or sign up because they have reached a dead end in their jobs, the students who come to Yancey's adult literacy classes are assured of his commitment to their cause. If they attend class regularly and carry out the assignments, he'll do everything he can to help them read, write, and compute successfully.

"Most of the students are working toward their GED," Yancey says. "Many of the younger ones have not completed school because of poor attendance. The older ones usually come in because they're having problems finding a job, or they've been downsized and are trying to get a GED before going on to junior college and learning additional skills."

The first step in the program, which is sponsored by DeKalb Technical College, is an entrance exam to determine each student's skill level in language arts and math. (Some test at only a third-grade level, Yancey notes.) Then, Yancey designs an individualized lesson plan for each of them and finds appropriate materials to teach them. From then on, each pupil works at his or her own pace. Reading and mathematics are the main subjects, but Yancey also does activities to work on students' self-esteem.

In two years of teaching adult literacy, Yancey, a former social studies teacher and president of the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), has helped about 80 students improve their literacy skills. Many have gone on to get their GED. Although the program doesn't do formal follow-up on all graduates, "the students who have finished say that the program has been very helpful for going on to the next step, such as vocational schools or to college," Yancey says. "Some have gotten better jobs and have improved their earnings."

Although Yancey more or less fell into the job ("A friend of mine who did the program had to leave and thought it would be ideal for me"), others say his commitment typifies a lifetime of service to others. "Grady is a person wholly committed to giving," says Annice Reynolds of GAE-Retired. "He truly embodies the volunteer spirit--contributing without any push for recognition."

Yancey says he enjoys the program so much he hasn't missed a day since he started. "It's extremely rewarding for me to work with people so interested in improving themselves," he says. "My greatest satisfaction comes from helping people--period."

Additional reporting by Mary Kershaw

Redefining Your 'Golden Years'

When they quit work, some seniors actually quit working.

But the number of retirees spending their golden years on the golf course or playing endless hands of bridge is dwindling. Instead, more of them are volunteering to tackle some of society's toughest issues.

It's part of a worldwide redefinition of aging, experts say. As life expectancy has climbed, seniors are living longer after retiring from full-time work. Today's seniors have unprecedented skills and expertise. And the pool of potential senior volunteers will rise as the baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) continue to retire from full-time employment.

"The coming wave of aging is more educated than ever. They have considerable skills, knowledge, and expertise," says Marc Freedman, President of Civic Ventures and author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Revitalize America. "This is a win-win of staggering proportions."

A recent survey of Americans ages 50-75 conducted by Civic Ventures found that despite the downturn in the economy (which has eroded the retirement savings of many seniors), older Americans "are turning out in record numbers to serve their communities." More than half of those surveyed had volunteered in the past three years, and one in four volunteer at least five hours per week. When asked what kinds of volunteer work they most enjoyed, working with children was the top response of those surveyed.

Civic Ventures' report spotlights the benefits of volunteering for the volunteer as well as those being helped. Those who volunteer reported being more optimistic about their future, compared with those who didn't, and also were more likely to say they were accomplishing a lot. What's the payoff for all this positive thinking? Well, recent research conducted by Yale University and the Miami University of Ohio found that Americans 50 and older who think positively lived an average of seven and a half years longer than those with a less positive outlook.

To download copy of Civic Ventures' The New Face of Retirement, go to www.civicventures.org.

For More

Interested in volunteering? It's a good idea to check in first with your local and state affiliates about opportunities. NEA local and state Associations carefully choose partnerships and service arrangements that bring help to those who most need it.

Other resources:

• Civic Ventures runs Experience Corps, a program that links older Americans with programs serving children and youth. Volunteers help children with homework, mentor, serve as role models, and support activities such as book drives and parent involvement campaigns. For more information about opportunities, go to www.experiencecorps.org.
• Senior Corps. A program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Senior Corps offers services such as foster grandparents, senior companions, and "RSVP" (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program). Go to www.seniorcorps.org to learn more and find a program near you.
• The National Mentoring Partnership provides resources to strengthen mentoring programs. At www.mentoring.org, you'll find information on the benefits of mentoring, an online mentoring training guide, and resources to help you find local programs.
• Don't forget the Peace Corps. The number of seniors signing up for Peace Corps assignments is rising. For information and a list of regional recruiting offices, go to www.peacecorps.gov.