WebJunction

Hi Vicki,

You’re new – welcome to the boards! (I’m glad you posted to the best one first, btw) ;)

I’ve heard of the U3A (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3A and http://www.u3a.org.uk/) but I don’t know of a real, formal American counterpart. It seems like each community does its own thing.

See http://www.harrowu3a.co.uk/u3a_sites.html#USA for U3A’s USA sister institutions. It goes state-by-state.

New York’s are:
the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement (MVILR) at http://web2.sunyit.edu/mvilr/;

QUEST - The Community for Life Long Learning in Manhatten at http://www.questonline.org/

The Institute for Retired Professionals of the New School University at http://www.nsu.newschool.edu/irp/

Academy for Learning in Retirement at Saratoga Springs at http://www.esc.edu/alr and

The Round Table, SUNY at Stony Brook at http://www.stonybrook.edu/spd/roundtable/

The wiki article says that “In the British model it is acknowledged that retired folk have a lifetime of experience and, collectively, a vast amount of knowledge.”

Incidentally, “Third Age” is also the name of a really cool initiative in the Hartford, CT area that prepares its constituents for “leadership opportunities within the Greater Hartford Community.” See http://www.leadershipgh.org/programs/third_age.html.

It seems like libraries are natural incubators for USA U3A?

This is interesting!

Doug

Thank-you, Fishrocker, for your response and especially for the first two links you mentioned. They were new to me! The wikipedia site gives a short explanation of the concept. While the second, 'U3A in the UK', has a really exciting website and is a wonderful example of the how the U3A operates in a community setting.

Originally posted by kurashige@taconic.net on April 4, 2006

It seems like the OASIS http://www.oasisnet.org/ idea and the U3A http://www.u3a.org.uk/ idea aren't too philosophically far apart; instead of being academically/geographically driven (U3A) it's simply more community driven (OASIS).

Either way, I wonder if there are any older adults/retirees out there who might be interested in forming a support group surrounding the idea of taking care of my kids so I can get some sleep?

We have a nice little thread going here, let's keep it up.

We've recently partnered with the local community college in providing classes for local seniors.

The initial one is on computer use, a six week course, that will be held in our computer lab.

Hi fishrocker,

It's a matter of our having the contacts and needed resources.

The local community college (http://www.clcillinois.edu/) is making an effort to go off-site with programming for seniors. They contacted the large retirement community/nursing home that is adjacent to the library (http://www.victorylakes.org/) about doing such programming. We already provide some programming (a reading group) and because of our location already have most of their residents as our patrons.

They needed a place that had a computer lab ... hence, us.

Also ... and this may prove critical in the future ... since we can already count most of the other seniors in the community as our patrons it's a lot easier to use our facility than to entice seniors to another.

Finally, this helps us fill a bit of a "hole" in our scheduling. Seniors, generally, do not want to travel at night ... so having the retirement center and the community college as partners can mean filling in mornings and afternoons that might otherwise be vacant on our room schedules.