Host Beverly Danields with guests (L-R) Barbara Gaines, Scott Kariya, Pat Scott, Mary S. Bleiberg, Jesse Dean, Dennis Redmond, Evi Blaikie, Alexis Greene

ReServe was featured recently on “Power Tools for Life,” a Queens Public Television program. Beverly Danields is producer and host of the one-hour show that focuses on organizations and individuals serving  the Queens community. The segment that aired June 16-17 was a panel discussion of ReServe’s mission, its partners, and the professionalism of ReServists. It also focused on what it means to give back to a community through service.

Danields spoke to the core of the ReServe program: “They find the perfect match. Here they are fitting a real need, not only for the organizations they partnership with, but for the individuals who are actually ReServists.”

Panelists included, Mary S. Bleiberg, ReServe’s Executive Director; Scott Kariya, a ReServe Program Officer; Dennis Redmond, Director of Staff Development and Support at the Queens Community House, a ReServe partner; ReServist Barbara Gaines, who works with Redmond as a Human Resources Assistant; Evi Blaikie, Assistant to the President at the Community Environmental Center, a ReServe partner, and ReServist Alexis Greene who is helping the CEC as a Marketing and Public Relations Consultant.

Addressing today’s problems Redmond said, “These are very difficult times for all nonprofits as they are in general for society. With shrinking resources, we’re very much committed to providing, to maintaining, our core services.”

He said he appreciated the flexibility and talent pool provided in the ReServe model.  “It forces all of us to be a little more creative in how we do it and also to count on others a little more than we did before.”

Bleiberg pointed to the recent success of ReServe’s partnership with the NYC Serve initiative launched in April.  “We work with one group of people, but we work with many organizations…and I think [serving] is becoming a citywide activity which is to try and say, “OK, how are we going to make this city better and get through this?”

“Aging is what we’re all doing…and it is good to know that you’re needed and useful” said Gaines about her work at the Queens Community House.  “It is not the stipend pay. I’m not saying it doesn’t help, but it is being useful and contributing what you have and what you know and even what you’ve forgotten,” she said.

Pat Scott, a ReServist assigned to the nonprofit’s office, connected ReServe with Danields and assisted in pre-production setup.  Queens Public Television reaches up to 400,000 households.

Institute of Retired Professionals (photo courtesy of IRP web site)

Want to expand your horizons beyond life lessons and a life-long profession? You may want to check out the New School and its Institute for Retired Professionals. It isn’t new. Far from it. But it was the first of its kind in the United States when it was founded in 1962 at the behest of some retired school teachers who wanted to explore new interests. Through the years, it has helped to highlight the capabilities of older people.

In the beginning, the New School provided space to meet but asked the class to make and manage its curriculum. That tradition of peer learning continues today. All study groups are non-credit, but enrollees are encouraged to keep up with reading assignments and contribute to class discussions.

For Fall 2009, some 36 classes are offered, each based on a minimum enrollment of 12.  They range from Ways of Reading Kafka to The Post-World War II Novel; from Great Ideas in Physics to a Figure Drawing Workshop. Each student must enroll for two 90-minute study groups.

For more information: http://www.newschool.edu/irp/