Indicorps programs seek to inspire Indians from around the world – abroad and local – to give their time in service of India. In the spirit of Indicorps’ long-term mission, Indicorps has commenced planning of a “Senior Corps” initiative that engages motivated persons age fifty and above in soulful service. These opportunities will be with partner organizations and will incorporate major Indicorps values of grassroots change, leadership, and reflection in pursuit of personal development.
For the past eight years, Indicorps has offered a year-long fellowship program for young persons of Indian origin worldwide. During this time Indicorps has also successfully developed and piloted several other service programs, including the Young Professionals Initiative, the Ahmedabad Ultimate Frisbee league, and Volunteer Ahmedabad, a local youth service initiative. Indicorps recently surveyed prospective program participants and determined that significant demand exists for the program: there seems to be an increase in interest among Indians above the age of fifty in serving their country.
Indicorps seeks to pilot two three-month Senior Corps terms in late 2010 and early 2011, respectively. The initial sites are likely to be in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, or Rajasthan.
The team responsible for developing and administering Senior Corps must understand service and its value among older volunteers. Additionally, as this is a pilot project, team members are needed who can recognize potential issues in the program and quickly work towards structural and sustainable solutions. Furthermore, team members with a wide range of skills – logistics, human resources, training and programming, emergency management, counseling, etc. – will be needed.
Need for Project:
Senior citizens of Indian origin worldwide are increasingly interested in doing something for India, but they often lack the proper channels to effectively participate in India’s development. All people hold enormous capacity to contribute to India if offered opportunities to serve, and seniors especially have valuable experiences and perspectives to offer their communities. By participating in constructive civic action, seniors can build powerful skills and make an impact in their communities. The experience of volunteering fosters compassion, understanding, and tremendous self-confidence. Ideally, senior corps’ members can serve as role models and pioneer a broader spirit of service in an underutilized segment of the diaspora community and the local Indian population.
As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, your primary task will be to assist in the planning, management, and future development of Senior Corps. Working closely with the Senior Corps staff coordinator, you will prepare for the arrival of the first batch of Senior Corps participants (projected for November 2010). You will accompany them to their field site and remain onsite as the program coordinator for the duration of the three-month project term. In February 2011, you will return to the Indicorps head office in Ahmedabad, where you will incorporate learnings from the first term into your preparation for the second Senior Corps session (with different participants from the first batch), which is projected to start in April. Again staying on site for the three-month duration of the Senior Corps term, you will return to the Indicorps office in July 2011.
Your responsibilities will be directed towards developing and coordinating a volunteer program for older persons of varying backgrounds and interests. This includes: researching effective program structures, successful models of project development, in-service support systems; guiding the pilot program; supporting Senior Corps participants in the field; creating a marketing strategy; managing finances; evaluating progress; and ensuring sustainability. In order to be successful in your project, you will have to understand the needs and motivations of older volunteers, be adaptable and creative in your approach, and have the ability to encourage others to be vibrant and active members of their community.
As part of the lead up to the arrival of the first Senior Corps batch, you should survey various service-learning, service-leadership, and civic-engagement models, including communicating with the people who run such programs. You will assist Indicorps staff with the Senior Corps orientation and will have three months to understand and adapt Indicorps methodology, processes, and structures; due to the timeframe of the Fellowship, participants for the first Senior Corps batch with be selected prior to your arrival. As you become more comfortable in your role, you will be given increasing levels of ownership over the program – planning workshops and trainings, devising documentation and support methods, developing projects appropriate for the target group. While at the project sites with the Senior Corps participants, you will partner with Indicorps staff and volunteers to build infrastructure to support the target group and keep the members motivated. You may co-facilitate reflections and follow-up meetings to deepen understanding. Most importantly, you will strengthen the connection of spirit through one-on-one conversations; deep listening will be a valuable skill. To ensure sustainability, you will assist in planning the framework for future iterations of Senior Corps.
Target Community:
Senior citizens, retired resident and non-resident Indians, stay-at-home parents, and older persons between jobs are often overlooked as potential volunteers. Many are passionate about social issues and professionally experienced, but lack structured opportunities to be effective change-makers.
Objectives:
• To develop and implement a Senior Corps pilot program
• To promote volunteerism among members of society age fifty and above and help them connect it to the larger meaning of service
Challenges:
• As with all pilot projects there will be unexpected challenges and obstacles, and you will need to be creative and adaptable in dealing with structural, logistic, and personnel issues.
• Older volunteers generally have a greater need for planned activities and structural stability than younger volunteers; balancing this need with the co-existing desire among older persons for personal autonomy may prove to be challenging
Team-Based Model
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and the partner entity. In this case, Indicorps will serve as the partner organization as well. Indicorps will host two to four fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps fellows, your focus is to assist Indicorps in launching a new pilot program for Indians above 50 years of age. This project seeks to harness and channel this energy for India’s development and provide feasible/vibrant avenues for personal growth at an advanced age.
You will either stay with a host family or live in a shared accommodation for the duration of your stay in Ahmedabad; you will likely live onsite during your time with the Senior Corps participants at their project sites. In Ahmedabad, you may cook your own food, eat with the host family, or use a tiffin service. You will need to do your own laundry and help with other daily household chores. Internet and international phone facilities are easily available in the city. You can either use a bicycle or travel in city buses and shared auto-rickshaws within Ahmedabad. You will live and eat with the Senior Corps participants while at their project sites; room and board will be provided for you. As in Ahmedabad, you will need to do your own laundry and help with other daily household chores. As the Senior Corps sites are likely to be in rural areas, internet and international phone facilities may not be as convenient as in Ahmedabad.
Due to the nature of a start-up project and the need to capture learnings to improve subsequent programming, a fellow selected for this project should be willing to make a two-year commitment.
For this project, a basic knowledge of Hindi is required. If you do not have basic knowledge of Hindi, you can still apply if you commit to learning the language before the start of your Fellowship year.
Please explain the qualifications that make you a strong candidate for this project - be sure to elaborate on any experiences working with senior citizens and/or running volunteer programs.
2.
Twenty senior citizens have signed to volunteer for the pilot program of Seniorcorps. Two weeks before the program 12 drop out. How will you manage this change? How will you manage the expectations of the applicants so that they too are prepared for unexpected challenges?
3.
Describe a time when you have had to accomplish a goal in an unstructured environment where numerous projects were running concurrently. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? How effective were you in achieving your aim?
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