Boca West Children’s Foundation came to the rescue of The Fuller Center and The Volen Center, providing funding to help enable the two organizations to launch their new collaborative Intergenerational Project. The project is a full time early education program at The Volen Center where seniors and children interact, learn, play, thrive, and enhance each other’s lives. The program has just opened its doors to the children.
Ellyn Okrent, CEO of Fuller Center, told 12 children’s families who were on the waitlist for School Readiness funding through the Early Learning Coalition that they could start on opening day because Boca West Children’s Foundation saved the day by donating $13,000 in funding for October tuition for the 12 children. Fuller Center remains hopeful that the waitlist for government funding will open up soon.
The Intergenerational Project became a reality after being named a $100,000 beneficiary of the Brain Bowl Events, Inc. Volunteer Committee Project, enabling Fuller Center to establish the program. The project benefits the community by expanding the opportunity for an additional 28 children, ages 3-5 years, to access needed childcare at a time when affordable care is difficult to find.
“This new program is helping working families, including employees of The Volen Center, by offering childcare at their workplace so they are free to care for the elderly who are counting on them,” said Ellyn Okrent, CEO of Fuller Center. “Equally as important, this program gives the elderly suffering from loneliness and isolation a purpose and a reason to live. Research has shown that having a purpose improves health and has a direct correlation with the extension of life.”
In addition, the Junior League of Boca Raton made a $15,000 contribution to the program for books and educational supplies and the GEO Group contributed as well.
“Intergenerational facilities save users and communities space and money while improving the health and overall outcomes of both age groups. While these programs are widely supported, they aren’t well known and receive little funding. In fact, there are waitlists at intergenerational schools because of the benefits,” said Elizabeth Lugo, President and CEO of The Volen Center.
“Brain Bowl’s mission is to bring awareness to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Dementia. Intergenerational interactions are a wonderful way to reduce stress and anxiety to exacerbate those conditions,” said Pamela Higer-Polani, Founder of the Brain Bowl Events, Inc.
Numerous studies have linked social interaction with decreased loneliness, delayed mental decline, lower blood pressure, and reduced risk of disease and death. In addition, children who have early contact with older people are less likely to view them as incompetent. The children are prone to feel more comfortable around those with disabilities and impairments of all kinds than their peers who lack such experiences. Children often live far from their biological grandparents; this gives them an easier way to have daily interactions with this age group.
For more information, please contact Elen de Paula at edepaula@fullercenterfl.org or call (561) 391-7274, ext. 121.
About Boca West Children’s Foundation
The Boca West Foundation was launched in 2010 and came about as a desire by the thousands of volunteers from the Boca West Country Club to give back to children in Palm Beach County. The Foundation’s mission is to identify and fund projects to assist children and their families in need in the area. Since its inception, the Foundation has granted more than $18 million for specific programs for more than 30 charities. Visit Bocawestfoundation.org for more information.
About the Fuller Center
For more than 50 years, the Fuller Center’s mission has been to embrace, educate, and empower hardworking, under-resourced families and children to reach their full potential. We build a positive future through education for the more than 1000 children (infants through young adults) that we serve annually, as well as 600 of their family members. The Fuller Center reaches families in 50 zip codes throughout Palm Beach County, as well as North Broward County.
Almost all Fuller Center working parents – 92% – serve as essential or frontline workers, working in hospitals, retail outlets, restaurants, and hotels. They are our bus drivers, store clerks and cashiers, farmworkers, delivery drivers, security guards, bank tellers, office workers, healthcare workers, home health aides, hospital orderlies and cafeteria workers, and childcare and eldercare workers.
Our programs help empower children to start school prepared, succeed academically, and break the generational cycle of poverty through quality early childhood education, after-school and summer camp programs, our private CHOICE elementary school and teen leadership programs, and comprehensive, family-centered empowerment services. They support parents who are essential to keeping our local economy open and who provide the vital services we all count on.
The Fuller Center also offers mentoring programs and adult on-the-job training, coaching, and employment support, and no-cost transportation from 14 area schools to our campus-based after-school programs. We serve more than 1,400 nutritious meals and snacks daily.
In addition, Fuller Center provides opportunities for local colleges and universities to place undergraduate and graduate students in internships and child development practicums.
About Brain Bowl Events, Inc.
Brain Bowl Events, Inc. is a volunteer-based non-profit organization whose mission is to help raise awareness, promote understanding, and provide support to those living in our community and their loved ones coping with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, the 100 types of Dementia, or a related neurocognitive disorder.
About Volen Center
Serving from Broward to Palm Beach County, The Volen Center enhances the well being of South Florida seniors by education and advocating on their behalf, and by providing health care and supporting services that meet their physical, emotional, social, and psychological needs.
