It Happened Last Night: Delaware County Adults 50+ Brainstorm How to Enrich Their Community      

If the conversation at the Upper Darby Senior Center was typical of the other Boomers Night Out! sessions held all over Delaware County last night, Delco must be abuzz today with creative ideas for connecting people 50+ with meaningful opportunities for civic engagement. The five simultaneous sessions  were sponsored by the Delaware County Community Foundation, the County Office for Services for the Aging, and Coming of Age. The first part of the evening was devoted to learning about the findings in the Foundation's recent study of local 55+ civic engagement (principally volunteering, lifelong learning and paid work).  

Then came the brainstorming— interestingly, focused on ways to help and support non-boomers: at-risk kids, young parents struggling to raise their families, and the isolated and lonely elderly (One participant summed up the people they wanted most to reach out to by quoting Mother Teresa: "Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.") Next steps for these folks? Connecting and communicating with more organizations to make more people in their county aware of community needs, resources, and opportunities to address those needs by drawing on the wealth of local 50+ passions, talents, and skills.   Go, Delco!