Grant Applicant: Seniors with Skills

The feature below is brought to you by Seniors with Skills, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Seniors with Skills, please visit their website page: here.

Even though it may be assumed that those who transition from a job into retirement are content with having a work-free lifestyle, this is often not the case. During the later stages of life, many want to continue pursuing their passions, whether it be in the arts, engineering, or various fields they may not have previously encountered or accomplished.

Seniors With Skills, established in April of 2018, works towards providing various opportunities in these types of fields to those who wish to remain active in the community. Having dedicated years towards personally assisting seniors with becoming closely acquainted with the rapidly evolving technological field, Jaya Manjunath aimed to reach a large platform through affiliations with various retirement homes, which have now expanded to both the United States and Canada.

Currently, the organization hosts two main programs: the Cards and Knitting Program and the Computer Skills Program. Through the Cards and Knitting Program, members of Seniors With Skills make cards and knit clothing with seniors, all of which are donated to local hospitals to give to patients. Through this program, seniors are able to contribute back to their communities, as their work and progress are manifested through the scarves and cards that help those currently in various hospitals.

In the Computer Skills program, various computer training programs help seniors become well acquainted with online technology, as it can often be overwhelming to those who have lived most of their lives without such devices. Through this, seniors are able to learn how to create resumes, find job opportunities online, to learning how to use social media in order to connect with others, whether it be from sending emails to sending messages through online platforms.

Seniors have been able to reunite with old friends and family, which have been invaluable and rewarding as often as people grow older it becomes more difficult for people with declining health to be able to travel to reunite with those they care about. Through these programs, seniors are able to focus their skills towards mentally stimulating activities through positive contributions to other communities and their own social groups.

The organization has expanded to 70 volunteers in both Canada and the United States who work in local retirement residents, and is continuing to expand in both locations and people through the online matching form on the Seniors with Skills website.

Seniors with Skills have been able interact with hundreds of seniors through these programs, with both the volunteers and the elders contributing together towards a main purpose, whether it be in donating to hospitals to connecting with loved ones.

With current efforts, a great number of cards and knitted items were donated to various hospitals, and computer lessons have facilitated seniors’ access to various parts of the internet, whether it be listening to favorite songs and video from the past on Youtube to hopes of reconnecting with others in the future.

By presenting seniors with opportunities to help others, many who may feel a lack of purpose or motivation after leaving their jobs to retire are able to explore different interests and passions. Even though physical beauty may decline over time with age, people’s inner beauty will always shine through, and the organization works to allow anyone, of any age, to express their own beauty shown through their work towards their communities.

Seniors with Skills is an organization that serves as an arbiter between seniors and opportunities they may have never known about, which is now planning expansion in both fields and communities.

In the future, Seniors with Skills hopes to grow its volunteer base through its online matching service within the website so volunteers from diverse areas can employ programs in different retirement homes nationwide. Just as its members have had great success with various retirement moments both on the East Coast and in Canada, the organization hopes to connect to other areas in order to help other seniors reach out to friends, family, and their own community.

Even though Seniors with Skills is already affiliated with numerous retirement homes and regions across the United States and the Canada, in the continuing years there are developing plans of gaining a larger audience in hopes of ultimately giving back to a group of people who often can feel left behind from a rapidly evolving society and technological advancements.

Written by:

Nam Tran Nguyen