Thirty years ago, President John F. Kennedy proposed a foster grandparent program that never came to fruition. In 1996, Trinity senior Eric Solovy is heading up a group that is trying to make that type of program a reality.
As a result of Professor Thomas McCollough's challenge to his Religion 151 class, entitled Ethical Issues in Social Change and Public Policy, a group of students including Solovy has been awarded $3,000 to help start this "Adopt-A-Grandchild" program.
As a final project for the class, students proposed policies to address the various ethical problems in the Durham community and the University. McCollough, an associate professor of religion, selected four of the proposals, and the students voted on which one to develop further. The class decided to support the "Adopt-A-Grandchild" program in an attempt to address both the needs of children and the elderly.
After working together to finalize plans for the program, the class submitted its proposal to the Steering Committee of the Kenan Program in Ethics. The Steering Committee was established last summer to manage the $250,000 that was awarded to the University by the Kenan Trust to examine ethical issues in society. Next year, the Kenan Trust will award the University $250,000, and $500,000 more for each of the three following years.
"We chose to support the `Adopt-A-Child' proposal because we are interested in reflection and activities which investigate the ethical significance of a variety of societal problems," said Thomas Langford, co-chair of the committee.
Eight students continue to develop the project as an independent study. Solovy, who first developed the `Adopt-A-Child' proposal, said that he developed the project to unite the disparate elements of the class.
"We studied how ethics, race and education affect public policy; this project brought everything together and we were able to really apply what we had studied," he said. Solovy said his interest in community service stemmed from establishing the United Way of Duke during his sophomore year.
One of the main focuses of the class was the United States' neglect of children and the cost that their suffering incurs to society.
"We learned in class that working with children is the key to investing in our future, and I feel that this project addresses several issues that affect our community," said Trinity senior Atiba Ellis, another member of the group.
The class also studied the differences between governmental concern for children and the elderly.
"We read books criticizing the disparity in the amounts of money going to the elderly and to children, so we thought our project would bring together two competing interest groups," Solovy said. "After a semester of exploring a variety of problems within American society, we decided to create a solution to try to bridge the gap between generations," Solovy said.
Other students said they felt the class heightened their awareness of ethical problems in society, especially concerning governmental and societal neglect of the needs of children.
"The needs of children are neglected, and someone really needs to care for them because they are our future," said Trinity sophomore Crystal Smith. "We decided that the `Adopt-A-Grandchild' program would help to close the divide between the young and the elderly; by linking the two generations, everyone benefits."
Kennedy's plan, which paired low-income elderly with children with emotional disorders, was slightly different than the approach taken by Solovy's group.
The group plans to begin enacting the project by pairing 20 elderly people with "adopted grandchildren" from an area elementary school, and then expand the program in the coming months. The group will choose a racially mixed retirement community to give the children both a racial and socioeconomic mix, Solovy said.
At the end of the semester, the group will prepare a report of what it has accomplished and send it to state, local and national governments in the hopes of encouraging other community activists to begin similar programs.
"Our project is going to take a lot of effort, but I think that we have a good start already and can really make it happen," Ellis said.
The group plans to work with various interest groups to finalize plans for the program.
"We hope to form stronger bonds between elementary schools and retirement communities and be able to give the program back to the community," Solovy said.
Both the members of the class and McCollough himself are very excited about the prospects of the program.
"I think that there is every sign that the project will develop into something very significant," McCollough said. "The enthusiasm for a commitment to the project developed because of the intense efforts of several students as they began to research the possibilities and potential resources for carrying out the project successfully."
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