The old adage says that it takes a village to raise a child. As a child, adolescent or young adult, who was part of your village that prepared you for adulthood? And who are the youth that you are influencing today? Would you like to expand your village?

Today’s family and youth often face challenges that affect the intergenerational support youth can access during adolescence. Extended family may live far away or work long hours just to make ends meet. Families are also smaller than they were decades ago, which means there are fewer aunties, uncles and older cousins to act as role models and family support.

As a result of the changing demographics, faculty with the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Cooperative Extension received a grant to pilot “Creating a Village,” a project that incorporates elements of the “village” to not only benefit youth but also older teens, adults and older adults.

The project began on Maui last school year and expanded to Oahu during the summer. It includes middle school-age youth, teen mentors, youth-adult partners and content experts from the community. In 4-H club settings, middle schoolers are introduced to life management skills such as financial literacy, self-care and healthy living. Teen mentors are the village’s “cool older cousins” who act as role models, learn alongside the youth and gain employment skills. Youth program facilitators are the village “aunty or uncle” and work closely with the teen mentors to create opportunities for youth to gain knowledge and develop leadership and resiliency skills.

Each club meeting also includes a volunteer expert from the community who leads hands-on learning experiences with youth. These experts are the village’s community resources who are important guides during adolescence and into early adulthood. Last school year a retired public health professional introduced youth to self-care strategies such as breathing, tai chi and relaxation. At another club meeting a credit union employee introduced youth to financial institutions, including opening and maintaining accounts. When youth learned about finding a job they decided to flip the script, acting as a potential employer and asking the teen mentor and club leader questions in a mock job interview.

Additional club meeting topics include planning and preparing healthy foods, maintaining physical health, managing stress, making education and career choices, volunteering in the community, making good spending choices, preparing for emergencies, maintaining a vehicle, keeping a clean and organized space and much more.

As the project prepares for a new school year, project staff are seeking additional volunteer experts to become a part of the Village. The time commitment is a couple hours which includes preparation and leading activities during a club meeting. Staff are available to assist with planning so the volunteer has as much fun as the youth.

While the project was intended to take place in person, pandemic related health precautions required the project to go online last school year and may necessitate the same this school year. Despite this shift, youth and adults felt it was a huge success.

If you would like to learn about becoming part of the Village, think about some of the life management skills that have helped you through adulthood, and then tell us a little bit about yourself by answering a short online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/JoinTheVillage. Project staff will then be in touch to answer questions and identify how to best utilize your experience and expertise.

We look forward to hearing from you!

* Heather Greenwood Junkermeier is with the University of Hawaii Manoa Cooperative Extension, Maui Intergenerational and Aging Programs. Aging Matters covers topics of interest to the aging Maui community and appears on the third Saturday of each month.