Listening deeply to our stories

The Issue

Seniors today are great libraries wisdom, ideas and experience that tend to waste away in isolation. The wisdom that seniors carry with them often is bottled up; communication between other seniors and younger people is often limited to cursory exchanges. The greatest wealth we have in our community is the ability to share wisdom and stories for the betterment of all. The circulation of ideas has proven to lead to our greatest innovations and advancements as a society, yet we seem to have lost the ability to have meaningful exchanges. We can become each others' greatest teachers if we only knew how.

 

Imagine if the ideas and experiences of thousands of our seniors could be exchanged first with other seniors and then with younger people. The ideas exchanged in subsequent mentorship and the relationships developed would ripple through our community like a rock landing in the middle of a still pond. The benefits would be long serving and tangible. 

 

The New Horizons Seniors Program meets Christopher Bowers

The Government of Canada has recognized this opportunity for some time and through its New Horizons Seniors Program, partnered with Marshall McLuhan Award winning teacher Christopher Bowers, to launch a new program called The Power of Personal Stories. This dynamic program uses a unique peer teaching tool developed by Mr. Bowers that helps seniors to ask great questions of one another and easily communicate their ideas, insights and experiences to others in a fun and easy fashion. The benefits are impressive (view participant comment below).

• Seniors feel relevant again, much like Elders in more traditional culture.
• In feeling heard and respected, self esteem significantly increases.
• The mind is exercised and activated.
• Ideas flourish and seniors actually start goal setting rather than waiting to die.
• Seniors create deeper friendships, improving their quality of life.
• Ideas and insights are fluid and move around creating broader innovation. 
• On a broader level seniors can pass on their wisdom to young people, creating a huge wisdom transfer within our community, spurring a myriad of opportunities for many in our community. 
  

How to Make the Wisdom of our Elders Workshop work for your organization

 

It's easy.

We book a workshop time at your facility.

You encourage those within your community to attend, we do the same!

Through Christopher Bowers Facilitation the workshop takes place.

New ideas, motivations and friendships are created by the workshop's end.

Participants complete a short workshop rating sheet so you can understand the benefits gained from the program.

 

The workshop is covered by sponsorship. A donation for materials used is appreciated but not required.

 

As a service provider for seniors, you will have given something of significant value to your members or clients and will enjoy the extended benefits created by the participants. 

 

Please contact Christopher Bowers to explore details on running a pilot project in conjunction with your organization. 

What participants are saying about what surprised them

  
     "How easy it is to get people talking"
     "I was surprised that I found it fun"
     "The simplicity of the concept"
     "How similar my partner's views were to mine"
     "The energy in the room with everyone sharing"
     "Depth of thoughts"
     "How easy it was to converse (when given a topic)"

How could you use ideas from this session?

     "Realize that even though you've worked with someone for 15 years,
     there is a lot to learn about them."
     "I've learned how to carry on a conversation with others as I am quite introverted."
     "We are always in places where we have the opportunity to get to
     know someone".
 "I know that having a couple of conversations opens the world to you".
     "Remember that every person is deep and has a story of their own".

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