Willing and Interested Seniors for Education (WISE)

A school is a reflection of the community it serves; the more the community cares, the better chance the school has of fulfilling its educational mission.

At the schools that participate in the Willing and Interested Seniors for Education (WISE) Program, community members show they care by working as volunteers in classrooms, school libraries, lunchrooms, and hallways. They are tutors, mentors, counselors, and, most of all, friends to children of all ages at 14 Chicago public schools.

"WISE has helped us bring in the community's most valuable assets--people with wisdom, patience, insight and caring‹to our school," says Doris Morton, WISE on-site coordinator at McDowell School.

WISE began in 1991 as a volunteer program at three far South Side schools. Most WISE volunteers are retired, respected members of the community, and many have seen several generations of children pass through their community school. They share their talents and life experiences with young people as a way to give back to the community and invest in its future.

"The children see us working with the staff, acting as mentors, going on trips, tutoring or doing whatever is needed," writes Diana Pepper and Margie Polk, WISE volunteers at Higgins Community Academy. "They begin to realize that education is important to us, and that we are always willing to help in any way we can, not for pay but because we really care."

Willing and Interested Seniors in Education (WISE) is offered through the Urban Leadership Center to public schools in Chicago Public Schools Subdistricts 9 and 10. The program brings one of the community's most valuable assets to the schools: people with the wisdom, patience, insight, and caring that often comes naturally to those who have had birthdays for more than fifty years.

Involving retirees and older adults in the education process at local schools was developed by three gentle, caring, and committed women. Dorothy Robinson and Juanita Watson, community representatives on the Kipling local school council, and Richardean Wilson, teacher representative (now retired) on the council, had discussed the idea for a school volunteer group made up only of seniors. According to Dorothy Robinson, they had been introduced to the Urban Leadership Center through the center's training program for local school councils and felt the center was the place to take their idea, which resulted in the WISE Intergenerational Program.

The WISE volunteers, and the students, parents, teachers, and principals who interact with them, say that the volunteers bring a sense of caring to the schools.

Each participating school has an on-site coordinator who works with teachers and the principal to schedule volunteers. Some are under the direction of a teacher and tutor children one-on-one, while others work with small groups or assist teachers and school personnel on agreed-upon tasks.

The Urban Leadership Center provides training to the volunteers in a variety of areas that will prepare them to help students improve both academically and socially.

One on-site coordinator sums up the feeling of the program participants when she says that "the WISE Program us the most wonderful thing that has happened to our school. WISE joins the school and the community; the community loves the program, and the children look to the volunteers as grandparents and friends as a guide toward their education."

If you would like more information about the WISE program, please contact:

Urban Leadership Center
University of IllinoiS Extension
10244 S. Vincennes Avenue
Chicago, IL 60643
Phone: (773) 233-2900
E-mail: urbanleadero@mail.aces.uiuc.edu