Melisa_Jones

Down the Long Road

Written, designed, and photographed by Melisa Jones

Dedication This book is dedicated to many people. It is dedicated to my parents who supported me while I was making my documentary, to my teachers for encouraging and helping me through this project, and to the people I interviewed at the Community Services Agency and the senior center. I could not have completed this project without you. Thank you!

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my parents for supporting this project and my teachers Ms. Parkinson, Mr. Greco, and Mr. Florendo who helped me finish this project.

I would also like to thank Allison Hopkins, Earlene Minnis, and Tony for giving me your time for an interview!

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Table of Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 8 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11 Chapter 1: Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 12 Chapter 2: Housing A Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Chapter 3: Lunching Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 22 Chapter 4: A Different Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 24 Chapter 5: Importance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 26 In Conclusion . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 28

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Foreword As a child, I thought about growing up a lot, but I never really thought about growing old. I was aware of the people around me who were much older, but I never gave age any deep thought. Now that I am a teenager, I often think about growing older and sometimes I worry about what will change and how I will be affected. I live in America. In the society I live in, aging is not always viewed as a positive thing. Many of the ads I see on the internet, TV, and big billboards in public are dedicated towards looking younger, advertising things such as anti-wrinkle cream, lotion, new solutions, etc. Elderly citizens are often brushed aside by the younger generations who see them as burdens. Looking at all of this, I wonder, “Why is aging portrayed in such a negative light?” What I found out is that, as they age, more people fear losing their independence than death. Senior citizens are seen as frail people who are losing or have already lost their independence. When one hears the term “senior citizen”, one tends to think of someone in a nursing home who has to be tended to by nursing staff. This stereotype of the elderly is largely untrue. there are plenty of opportunities for senior citizens and plenty of activities oriented towards their age group. You only have to know where to look.

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Introduction

Have you ever thought about the future? Not the future as in your future job or how many children you want to have, but the future as in when you become classified as a senior citizen. As a teenager, can you imagine yourself 50 to 60 years from now? Ask yourself what it would be like. The answers one would tend to hear when asking that question are “the same, except with gray hair”, “dead”, and “50-60 years older”. As a young person, you are able to go and hang out with friends at a shopping mall, restaurant, or a club and are able to get yourself there without much help. Now imagine you’re a lot older and unable to get yourself to such places or you don’t find those places fun anymore because they are more geared toward younger people. It’s also getting harder for you to take care of yourself and get to important appointments and socialize with friends. You would rather not go into a nursing home and lose your independence, so what options do you have? This is where services and places such as the Community Services Agency and the Senior Center (CSA) play an important role, providing a healthy environment where seniors can socialize and have fun.

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Chapter 1: Origin The Community Services Agency (CSA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1957 by a group of Mountain View residents who were concerned about the well being of low-income families living in the area. By 1967, they had expanded to cover categories such as immigration and housing issues and the needs of the elderly. Currently, they have over 500 volunteers a year. About 300 of those volunteers are for their holiday program; they come in to help with the children. About 200 volunteers who are there regularly go and visit with seniors once a month or even once or twice a week. CSA tries to stay away from government funding as much as possible.

CSA volunteer Linda Freed 12

Volunteer Coordinator Allison Hopkins and Nutrition and Health Education Assistant LaDrea Clark

CSA gets grants from local companies such as Cisco and also accepts donations. CSA’s Volunteer Coordinator, Allison Hopkins, gives a brief overview of the senior services program. “So our senior services program is to help home-bound, frail elderly remain independent in their homes for as long as possible. So we have case managers that do home visits with them, make sure that they’re safe, taking their prescriptions correctly, getting the right nutrition, stuff like that”.

She explains that a lot of their senior clients are “house-rich but income-poor”, which means that they would have this beautiful house but they wouldn’t have a lot of income.

When asked about the senior lunch program, she describes how it is their only off-site program and it is run at the Mountain View Senior Center. The seniors are invited to go and eat lunch Monday through Friday and they don’t have to pay if they don’t have the money to. With a smile, she adds “It’s actually really good food over there.”

Chapter 2: Housing A Community The Mountain View Senior Center sits on a fairly quiet street in a large lot. The buildings are painted a calm tan color and trees line the sides. The first feeling you would get upon walking inside is a little bit of wariness, unsure of what the people inside might be like, but that quickly melts away when you see that the seniors at the center are a friendly, close-knit community. If seniors are unable to drive there, the Outreach Transportation Agency provides rides for them. At the center, activities such as dancing and health classes are offered to keep seniors active and well-informed. A game room has been set up with games like pool and ping pong.

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On a wall in the hallway, there are the names of people who have attended activities at the center and what they have liked about it. A lot of the seniors seemed to greatly enjoy line dancing.

While walking around a bit, I watched the seniors dance in the lunch room and play games in the gaming room. All of them were smiling and laughing and talking. Everyone at the center seems to love being there.

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Chapter 3: Lunching Together The senior lunches at the center are run by CSA and are for seniors 60 and over. Earlene Minnis, the Site Manager at the center tells me that the food comes partly through Santa Clara County and also through restaurants and dairies. The meals are designed to accommodate special diets, with dieticians provided by the county. The program can have as many as 100200 people come in to eat lunch each day. Entertainment is sometimes provided at lunches, such as choirs and speeches, says Tony, a 92-year-old senior citizen who has been going to the center for about 12 years. When asked about what he does at the center, he replies, “We have a lot of friends there and we meet and talk and dance and eat.� He describes the food as enjoyable. Looking at the menu, one could agree whole-heartedly with his statement. The menu includes items such as teriyaki chicken, roast pork loin, and baked salmon, to apple crisp, tropical fruit, and birthday cake for celebrations.

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Chapter 4: A Different Perspective Before visiting the Senior Center, I was wary of the elderly. I didn’t always give them my full attention because of past happenings and unfair prejudices. However, my experiences at CSA and the Senior Center can be summed up as highly enjoyable experiences. CSA and Senior Center volunteers and staff are very friendly and each have stories of how they came to be there. They are very helpful and enjoy working with others. I had fun interviewing them and learning about their jobs. At the Senior Center, seniors are very social and love to dance.

Around lunch, they play the piano and dance together, which is fun to watch. The people who work there are very helpful and polite and seem to be enjoying themselves a lot. However, there are a lot of teens who haven’t seen this side of the elderly community and aren’t aware that the elderly can be just as much fun to be around as other teens. In our society, age is viewed as a negative thing. It is seen as a burden and a period of your life when you lose your independence, whereas in other cultures, age signifies wisdom and the elderly are viewed with much respect. As a result, the elderly in our culture are often brushed aside and are sometimes viewed as burdens by the younger generations. One of the reasons for this is that some people are afraid of death. For them, age signifies the oncoming of death and they want to distance themselves from death as much as possible.

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I became wary of the elderly at a very young age after my grandfather died. We were very close and I took this loss hard. I distanced myself from older people because I didn’t want to become too attached to someone who would die before I did. I didn’t want to become old myself, because I didn’t want to look like he had when he died. However, as I grew older and after talking with my neighbor Tony and observing my grandmother, age 86, I realized that aging does not mean that opportunities disappear and your life grinds to a halt as soon as you become a senior citizen. There are plenty of activities for the elderly to do and a lot of them are provided at Senior Centers and get-togethers.

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Chapter 5: Importance Socialization and activity are important for seniors. As Earleane Minnis states, “I think one thing that really is important that people know for a program like this, it’s not only a nutrition program, but it provides crucial socialization for the seniors. So many of them, if they didn’t come here, they would be home all the time.” Since some seniors are unable to move from place to place easily, they would sit at home all day without anywhere to go, but even if they could drive, there mi ght not be places in their area that are angled to entertaining their generation. However, the Senior Center and CSA offer a place that provides a variety of options for the elderly and helps keep them as independent and as happy as possible.

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In Conclusion...

After visiting the Mountain View Senior Center and talking with Community Services Agency about the program run there, I walked away knowing that life can remain enjoyable even after you have grown out of the places you used to frequent. Age seemed like less of a barrier to me, knowing that I could still continue to have fun and be independent as a senior citizen. Through these organizations, seniors have an independence that we, the younger generation, can perhaps look forward to instead of dreading.

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Bibliography Hopkins, A. (2012, Feb. 16). Personal Interview.

Minnis, E. (2012, Feb. 24). Personal Interview.

Tony. (2012, March. no exact date). Personal Interview.

City of Mountain View. City of Mountain View-Senior Center. City of Mountain View. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.

Community Services Agency. Community Services Agency-History. Community Services Agency.

28 Feb. 2012.

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