SAGE begins it's transition

Hi everyone,

I’m writing all of you to let you know about SAGE-related activities this summer as well as explain the state SAGE finds itself in now and how it will begin to change this summer.

As hopefully all of you were aware of, we held our Annual SAGE meeting a few weeks ago, where we briefly discussed the history of SAGE and how it went this last year. Cecily, the Greenwood Senior Center’s Director, also told the group why we are unable to have an Americorps next year dedicated to coordinating SAGE, as I and the two Americorps before me have done. The reason we cannot have an Americorps member as SAGE Coordinator has to do with the funding surrounding the Americorps project and the notion that after three years of Americorps members working on a particular project, it either should be sustainable on its own without an Americorps member leading it, or it should be led by an actual staff member of the host organization.

From the Summit we saw that even though it’s evident that many people enjoy coming to the various educational presentations we have on social and environmental justice issues, no one can really commit the time to organizing, publicizing, and inviting in speakers twice a month or more. Thus, we have started to re-envision what civic engagement can look like at the senior center, searching for a self-led, sustainable model that remains fulfilling and meaningful for all of you.

Cecily, some of the key members of SAGE, and I got together and identified three facets of civic engagement that we would like to see continued at the senior center. These are: ACTION, ADVOCACY, and EDUCATION/DISCUSSION. The one-time action projects we’ve tried to do haven’t always been very popular. However, our longer-term action projects (i.e. the Aurora Community Dinners, the Alternative Gift Market, and the SAGE vegetable community garden), have done much better. We are thinking that it therefore makes sense to support and expand these projects during this next year. Either a staff member or an Americorps would assist in the logistics necessary for the particular project, but the idea is that SAGE members would essentially lead the project themselves, perhaps through formation of sub-committees for each project.

Regarding the education and advocacy components, we have made a connection with a community social justice organization interested in sustaining these aspects of civic engagement at the senior center. The organization is the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans (PSARA), a chapter of the national Alliance for Retired Americans. The mission statement of the group is:

“…to ensure social and economic justice and full civil rights for all citizens so that they may enjoy lives of dignity, personal and family fulfillment and security. The Alliance believes that all older and retired persons have a responsibility to strive to create a society that incorporates these goals and rights and that retirement provides them with opportunities to pursue new and expanded activities with their unions, civic organizations and their communities.”


PSARA is a group that educates on and advocates for various social justice issues, including: homelessness, immigration, health care, social security, affordable housing, transportation, and many others.
Incidentally, the PSARA independently contacted us to start up a discussion group surrounding social justice and civil rights issues this at the senior center this summer, right at the time that we were discussing a new model for SAGE. We met up yesterday, and the president and vice president of PSARA seem very excited about collaborating with the senior center and the SAGE project.

So, what does this all mean? Right now, I have three SAGE meetings for the summer scheduled, which will be on the third Tuesday of the month at 2pm. At these meetings, we will discuss SAGE’s transition more, see how we are all feeling about the changes, and begin to organize committees for the three action projects. PSARA will be holding discussion groups on the second Thursday of the month, from 1-2pm. Bette Reed, the Community Vice President of PSARA will facilitate the discussions, bring in speakers, and brainstorm with participants on the social justice advocacy and education they would like to pursue.

I encourage you to attend both the PSARA discussion groups, to get an idea of how the education/discussion and advocacy components of civic engagement can look like at the senior center, as well as the SAGE meetings, where we can talk more about the new model and enhance our three action projects. To learn more about what PSARA does, you can visit their website, www.psara.org.

The first PSARA meeting is Thursday, June 10, at 1pm and the first SAGE meeting is Tuesday, June 15, at 2pm. I will be at both.

I love the purpose of the SAGE project and think it is so important, and hope that our new model can expand and deepen civic engagement at the senior center.

I know this is a lot of information, so please feel free to call or email me with any questions or concerns. We’ll of course talk more about all of this at the first SAGE meeting.

Thanks for all your participation in and support of the SAGE project so far.