Featured Partner: Wechsler Center for Modern Aging
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan Expands 60+ Programming with Wechsler Center for Modern Aging
by Corey Bliss
By staying true to its rich cultural identity, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan has found itself uniquely positioned to embrace the challenges brought on by the pandemic, and create new opportunities for meaningful connections within the community. With a virtual inauguration in October that drew an audience of over 300, the new Wechsler Center for Modern Aging – now one of 10 specialized Centers of Excellence at the JCC – is primed to make an immediate positive impact. For, as the Wechsler Center’s Director, Susan Lechter, put it, “community underlies everything that we do.”
The Center seeks to reimagine older adulthood in a Jewish communal setting as a time of “expansive possibility, purpose, community engagement, mutual support, and blessing.” To help older adults develop the tools and attitudes they need to successfully transition through life as they age, the Wechsler Center unites and expands upon the JCC’s existing 60+ programming. Its initiatives include a permanent virtual center to foster connections through innovative programming; increased support for those who are aging in place; a focus on research and best practices in healthy aging; a deepening and expansion of volunteer leadership engagement; and faith-centered advanced care planning.
A Permanent Virtual Center
Image courtesy of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.
Acknowledging that a return to normal after the pandemic will necessarily be a ‘new normal,’ the Wechsler Center “will remain virtual forever and after,” Lechter says. Over 25 permanent virtual programs per week will complement their robust in-person programming, once it’s safe to resume. To meet the increased demand for virtual programming, the Wechsler Center has expanded upon the JCC’s technology education programs. “One of our goals is to keep our older adults as current and relevant to the changing technology as possible. That keeps the brain stimulated, and keeps people feeling connected to the world at large, which is such a key piece of living a healthy life,” Lechter explains. “But we also know that education is important with technology, it’s not a natural, hard-wired skill.”
To bridge the technology gap, the Wechsler Center engages older adults to teach their peers how to use new technology, like Zoom, through free and low-cost group lessons. In Lechter’s words, “an older adult mind understands another older adult mind. There’s a patience factor and a shared understanding.” That approach clearly resonates, as there is now high demand for more advanced Zoom tutorials that cover everything from hosting group meetings to facilitating breakout rooms.
Renewed Support for Aging in Place
A personal touch is key to the JCC’s successful community outreach, especially with the onset of COVID-19. This spring, the JCC launched the Caring Committee to connect with older members of the community facing isolation and loneliness. Since then, Betsy Margolis, the Wechsler Center’s Program Manager, and her team of social work interns have made phone calls to over 3,000 people in the community in 2,400 households to check in and identify unmet needs that the Center can support. “Things come up all the time - technology needs, home health needs, community-based needs, an interest in programming. Sometimes there are things they may not even know they might need, unless you dig a little bit,” explains Margolis.
Maintaining cultural and historical ties is especially important in these times. Going forward, the Caring Committee will check in with older adults three times a year, around the holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, and Passover. “It’s about connecting people to other resources, and as their Jewish community, we are well-poised to do that for them,” Lechter explains. “We recognize that people are aging in place, and we want to be there to support that. They may ‘age out’ of doing a lot with us in person that they may have done before, and they may need to connect to other sources of support. But, we will continue to be there for them as their community,” she says.
Emerging Research in Healthy Aging
Nia and Zumba instructor Yvonne Puckett, who is in her 80s, leads a pre-pandemic class.
Image courtesy of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.
With the launch of the Wechsler Center, the JCC has reaffirmed its interest in emerging research and best practices around healthy aging and cognition. Next year, they plan to pair their older adults with researchers to help analyze, experiment with, and give feedback on different technology applications, particularly voice-assisted platforms. By taking a deep dive into new research twice a year, Lechter and her team will ensure their programming aligns with the latest advances in the field. “It’s an evolving and ongoing space, and we want to keep up with the research over time,” she says.
As part of that commitment, the Center will re-frame their programming to have, in Lechter’s words, “a laser focus on cognition and memory enhancement.” The JCC has always offered programs for older adults that stimulate the mind and brain, but they will be deepening their engagement through creative group programs such as bridge (an ever-popular favorite with their members), a new virtual Jeopardy game series, and a new crossword construction group. The Center will also host regular panel discussions and seminars about brain health, covering a range of topics including neuroplasticity and nutrition.
A Commitment to Volunteer Leadership
Image courtesy of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.
In addition to shared experiences, older adults at the JCC are united with a shared purpose. Through the Engage Jewish Service Corps, funded by the UJA-Federation of New York since 2013, older adult volunteers have the opportunity to use their skills, expertise, and passion to effect change. In the past year alone, 1,000 JCC volunteer leaders came together to direct initiatives that address the ongoing needs of the Jewish community at large, including poverty, hunger, joblessness, and social isolation.
Through group gatherings, discussion, and reflection, Corps members engage with each other as a community of like-minded volunteers, and develop new connections to expand their service work. As Lechter explains, “meaningful, purposeful volunteerism is very life-enhancing. And when you create a community amongst older adults, you also promote social connectedness. It’s all part of the same puzzle.”
What Matters: Caring Conversations About End of Life
In putting together that puzzle, the Wechsler Center benefits from a wide network of partners who provide a variety of support services under the auspices of the JCC. Among those is What Matters: Caring Conversations About End of Life, an advance care planning initiative in the Jewish community of New York.
Now in its sixth year, What Matters is a collaboration between the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, The New Jewish Home, and the Center for Pastoral Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, made possible by support from the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel and UJA-Federation of New York. The initiative is informed by and builds upon the protocols of Respecting Choices®, a nationally recognized, evidence-based model of advance care planning based on person-centered care.
What Matters aims to heighten awareness about the importance of completing advance care directives, and enable individuals to thoughtfully consider and document their end of life preferences. “Our goal from the outset has been to elevate advanced care planning in the Jewish community, with the understanding that having these conversations is hard. There is a place in faith communities to have this work emerge and to support people in community, in a place where they feel safe,” says Sally Kaplan, Director of What Matters.
Advanced care planning involves much more than clinical and legal decisions, Kaplan adds. “The key is focusing on the goals and values that give your life meaning – the things that have been with you in your life, and can remain consistent through end of life. Rarely is the time taken to explore the bigger picture.”
Image courtesy of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.
What Matters guides individuals through this process with trained facilitators, who host 1-on-1 and group conversations designed to foster further discussions with family members and physicians. To spark that dialogue, What Matters also leads educational programming across their 20 New York sites that approach the topic in a creative way, such as a film screenings or author talk-backs. “There are different ways to draw people in,” Kaplan explains. Now that What Matters is under the umbrella of the Wechsler Center, Kaplan sees it fitting in “both on the positive side of aging – we like to think that this work is actually really uplifting and hopeful – and also when people have to confront realities at the end of their lives.”
By embracing a holistic approach to aging, the broad scope of initiatives at the Wechsler Center underscores that the process is at once deeply personal, and powerfully communal. For the team at the Wechsler Center and the thousands of older adults they serve, the JCC is much more than a community center and cultural center. In Program Manager Margolis’ words, “We are creating a community of older adults who can turn to one another, inspire one another, and feel connected.”