{"id":5504,"date":"2020-05-26T11:54:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T15:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/?p=5504"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:35:08","slug":"engaging-across-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/2020\/05\/26\/engaging-across-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"EngAging Across Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-news\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"recybqcNjp\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/14\/with-the-engaging-project-ellrodt-20-aims-to-ease-the-ache-of-loneliness-in-old-age\/\">With \u2018The EngAging Project,\u2019 Ellrodt \u201920 aims to ease the ache of loneliness in old age<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;With \u2018The EngAging Project,\u2019 Ellrodt \u201920 aims to ease the ache of loneliness in old age&#8221; &#8212; News\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/14\/with-the-engaging-project-ellrodt-20-aims-to-ease-the-ache-of-loneliness-in-old-age\/embed\/#?secret=2lCBw4opIA#?secret=recybqcNjp\" data-secret=\"recybqcNjp\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflections from Grace about her research process, interests, and priorities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I relied the most ever in my life on Google Maps and the hilariously (in retrospect) vague directions of my host mother over weeks of fieldwork in Temuco, Chile. I managed to get myself to aging social service and physician offices, and to the front doors of older people\u2019s homes. What I heard inside left me with oddly satisfying question marks. So back in Maine in the fall, I talked with older people across waxed, striped, floral, cantaloupe-printed tablecloths. You name a tablecloth, I\u2019ve seen it. And it\u2019s probably featured in one of the portraits I snapped along the way. I was interviewing about the growing public health concern of loneliness among older adults, in post-industrial \u201caging\u201d countries like Chile, and, yes, the U.S. A person lonely for years faces similar risks as smoking 15 cigarettes every single day. As an environmental studies major, I was hoping to pinpoint local environment&#8217;s influences on social engagement, or an unhealthy lack thereof.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1-900x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5506\" width=\"280\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt1.jpg 1919w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I was driven to go deep on elder loneliness because it provokes a common reaction: &#8220;That makes me think of my neighbor, my father, my grandmother.\u201d But, it took time for The EngAging Project to encompass my own grandmother in my mind. Though solo living has been her rhythm since my grandfather died two decades ago (and especially now), I don\u2019t think of her as a lonely person. She\u2019s never hinted so. Does this project bear witness to experiences like hers? Does it offer guidance? I see now: Yes. We should talk about the people and places which welcome, orient, motivate her, which make her feel connected to herself, and from there, to others. And how, with simple tools, she can take charge of growing that list. As a matter of wellbeing, as important as medications.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2-900x675.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5507\" width=\"263\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2-900x675.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2-200x150.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/files\/2020\/05\/GraceEllrodt2.jpg 1919w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br>This project is not about labeling all older people as lonely, nor about creating yet another bullet point on the ever-growing \u201cproblem list\u201d of aging. Rather, The EngAging Project highlights stories of connection as much as gaps in resources. As more people aspire to not just age in place, but engAge in community, in Maine, in southern Chile, and in the communities that lie between. This site, though humble, uses visuals and voices of older adults themselves to share stories, takeaways, and tools for any older person, and for any younger person in search of a grounded but hopeful view of aging.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflections from Grace about her research process, interests, and priorities: &#8220;I relied&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monthly","with-sidebar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10337,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504\/revisions\/10337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/harward\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}