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March 17, 2007
Foster Grandparents Provide Encouragement to Youth
By Christine Bordelon
It was 10:30 on a recent Wednesday morning at Jefferson Community School, and, as math teacher Susan Block explained the geometric properties of a circle to a class of seventh graders, Papa Bienvenu and Papa Amaya stood ready for a rescue.
“Do you understand what she’s talking about,” Seymour Bienvenu, 80, asked a perplexed student. “Here’s the circle, the radius, diameter and chord. You need to look at the picture (in the book) to see what it is.”
“Do you hear what she’s saying,” Bienvenu said to another student about Block’s explanation of radius and diameter. “The radius is half the diameter, OK?” He patted the student’s back before moving on.
Bienvenu and Armando Amaya, along with Amaya’s wife, Olga, are volunteers with the Foster Grandparent Program, a federally sponsored program that began in 1965 through the Senior Corps. Since 1984, the local program has been administered through Catholic Charities to students with special needs, said program director Suzanne Praytor. Currently, it’s at 29 schools, Head Start and day care centers, homeless shelters and other New Orleans area sites.
“Volunteers can work with any age child from birth to 21 as long as they have special needs,” Praytor said. “The disabilities can be developmental (physical and mental), academic or even poverty-related where child may need special attention.”
Jefferson Community School, a charter school for sixth through eighth graders who were expelled from other schools, is the newest location for Foster Grandparents, coming on board in September 2006. Its principal Glenn Gennaro said the grandparents fill a void in students’ lives.
While initially hesitant on how the elderly volunteers would be received, Gennaro found students quickly warming up to them and cherishing the daily encouragement.
“They call them papa and mama and love to hear their stories,” he said. “It’s really worked well.”
“Everyone needs grandpa’s and grandma’s love,” Praytor said of the role volunteers play. “As soon as a child knows to trust them, they open up and confide in them. That’s the whole purpose of the program – to get the child to let those feelings out. The child knows someone loves them, encourages them and gives them the TLC (tender, loving care) they need.”
Praytor explained that depending on a volunteer’s experience, tutoring is one function of Foster Grandparents. Armando Amaya not only provides one-on-one tutoring during class or in a separate classroom, but he said he will do whatever is necessary to make things run smoothly such as making copies in the office, hunting for extra books, etc. His wife’s penchant for soccer has her kicking balls with students on the field.
No matter the task, the Amayas stress the importance of education, being a contributing member
Foster Grandparents offer love of society and being respectful to others.
“We wanted to give confidence to these kids,” Armando Amaya said, adding that he and his wife joined the program after Hurricane Katrina. “Most have problems at home. The kids say no one cares about them. They need guidance.”
Mentoring has always been an essential component of the program, Praytor said. A long-time foster grandparent once told her how a young man embraced her on a New Orleans street, thanking her for giving him hope to be successful in life. He had become a medical technician.
“It’s a part dear to my heart because I tell the volunteers that they may not see the results but they are planting the seeds (for the betterment of children’s lives),” she said.
While the program helps students, Praytor said volunteers, who are all over age 60 and agree to work 20 hours a week, benefit by contributing whatever experience and knowledge they have and earning a small stipend for their efforts. After an initial training session, volunteers have monthly education sessions as well.
“I found something I can do to be productive in the world,” Bienvenu said.
Social studies teacher Kenneth Triche values the grandparents’ presence.
“They give one-on-one assistance,” Triche said. “The students like them, and they all make contributions in the classroom based on their life skills.”
Triche said Mr. Amaya, a retired doctor, gave a lesson on genes and heredity, and Bienvenu, a former teacher for 40 years, lectures weekly on a topic decided in advance.
“These kids need a lot of extra help besides what the teacher gives them,” Bienvenu said. “I not only help them with subject matter but with setting short-term goals for themselves and help them understand that education is important to their future.”
Students acknowledge the wonderful resource they have in the volunteer grandparents.
“It’s pretty fun to have them in here because we learn things that even the teachers don’t know,” seventh grader Stephanie McInerney, 14, of Kenner said. “Papa Seymour used to be a teacher, and he taught us about the Civil War.”
“We wish we could get more like them,” said school secretary Lyndell Cusack, a liaison with Foster Grandparents, of the Amayas and Bienvenu.
Praytor said her local volunteer grandparent base is currently at 79, down slightly from the pre-Katrina level of 88. She welcomes new members, emphasizing that volunteers enjoy the program so much that they stick with it until they get sick or die.
“They died doing something useful, and that’s what they wanted – being a contributing member of society.”
For details on the program or to volunteer, call Suzanne Praytor at (504) 310-6882. Volunteers have to be over age 60 and meet certain income requirements.
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