Whatcom Intergenerational High School: Intergenerational Learning Coordinator AmeriCorps VISTA
Intergenerational Community Organizer - Work with community volunteers across generations to provide learning support to high school students as a part of the WIHS Intergenerational Learning Alliance.
Whatcom Intergenerational High School is a tuition free public charter high school serving Whatcom County. Students co-create their classroom experience, enabling them to pursue their passions, think critically, solve problems, and be creative. This phenomenon-based learning approach helps them develop a strong sense of individual and community culture while exploring real-world skills. Students are taught to understand that no text is neutral – bias is in everything. Critical Literacy is the ability to spot these biases and see the power dynamics in books, social media, music, art, news, and other resources.
Community elders provide education, support, and connection for students, both in and out of the classroom. This program has been founded to rebuild the long-lost connection between our elder and teen populations, starting with Whatcom County. Through the Intergenerational Learning Alliance (ILA), volunteer "allies" will have access to interpersonal training, as well as opportunities to build supportive relationships with high school students in small cohorts, to accompany students on their phenomenon-based learning explorations, and to explore their own learning passions alongside students. At WIHS, we acknowledge that students' needs range beyond academics. Thus, community and student "allies" are encouraged to support each other's holistic wellbeing and needs through open communication, collective problem-solving, and collaborative exploration.
The Opportunity Council VISTA Cohort in Bellingham includes monthly team meetings, Professional Development opportunities, fun team-building events, and 4 annual Days of Service.
The ILA coordinator builds relationships with community elders and organizations, both of which have helped with the construction of the Intergenerational Learning Alliance. The coordinator also builds and delivers trainings to onboard elders, manages the application and tracking process, structural and other template documents, and some basic protocols for the implementation of the ILA at the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Next year, the VISTA working on this project should maintain these elder and community organization relationships, continue to update and revise the structural documents, begin to recruit traditional providers, and be the point person for volunteer coordination (including scheduling). In addition, if WIHS received the Aging Well Whatcom Grant, this VISTA will be in charge of recruiting the founding six members of the Intergenerational Equity Council.