Twenty Friends gathered this weekend to be trained as Aging Concerns Facilitators. Callie Janoff, of New York Yearly Meeting and George Schaefer of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting worked with us to help us become the following:
An Aging Concerns Facilitator is a Friend in Concord Quarter of PYM or elsewhere who has taken the Aging Concerns Facilitator training to be of service with seniors and adults with disabilities within their Quaker communities.
Facilitators provide a listening ear and an open heart, as well as a connection to appropriate resources to improve the life of the person assisted.
Facilitators also bring guidance to their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings on concerns around aging. They are helped in this through contact with their coordinating committee and their Coordinators.
Callie is the staff person for the ARCH program in NYYM. ARCH stands for Aging, Resources, Consultation, Help. George is the Care and Aging Coordinator for PYM. They came to us with a tremendous wealth of experience. They trained us well. We took in an enormous amount of information on the following areas: Developmental Stages of Aging, Spiritual Gifts, Visitation Strategies, Listen Skills, Caregiver Dynamics, End of Life Decision Making, De-cluttering, Meeting support strategies for end of life, Disability appreciation, Housing. We came away feeling energized from the fellowship that came about from sharing common goals and stories. There will be more about our activities in the future. You will soon be hearing about individual Meeting initiatives from the folks in your Meeting community who committed to this work. If you are interested in finding out more about the work of the Aging Concerns Facilitators please contact Lynne Piersol at concordquarter@pym.org
