After retiring as a certified public accountant, Sue Alexander was looking for things to do that did not include watching daytime television. While seeking volunteer opportunities, she heard about the Early Childhood Service Corps (ECSC), an intergenerational training program connecting healthy older adults with early childhood programs.”
“I didn’t know what to do with my time,” Alexander said. “The first year I traveled a lot but I said, ‘I can’t keep this up.’ I couldn’t afford it—with the opportunity Early Childhood Service Corps has given me, I feel useful, younger; I just feel good in a lot of ways.”
The Early Childhood Service Corps, run by the nonprofit Montessori Intergenerational Learning Community, or MILC, prepares adults 55 and older to volunteer in classrooms or earn teaching or substitute certification. CEO and founder of ECSC, Lisa Armao, was inspired after watching a video called ‘Growing Season’, about an early childhood community found inside an assisted living community in Seattle, Washington.
After falling in love with the concept, Armao left her job as an early childhood Montessori director to co-create the program with the nonprofit Boomers Leading Change.
“We did a feasibility study under Boomers Leading Change and found out that about 57% of retired adults would want to work in preschools,” Armao said. “I love the concept of intergenerational programming and getting older adults and little kids together—it’s great for little kids and it’s great for older adults.”
Boomers Leading Change was handed over to MILC and transferred to ECSC in January 2021 after being unable to maintain funding during the pandemic. Since then, the program has grown significantly, with 132 trained early childhood substitute teachers who are certified to teach. Approximately 100 volunteers and 77 partner sites across the state have signed up to use their older adults in any capacity.
Armao conducted personal interviews with over 400 older adults from various walks of life. Some want to help children and families in a meaningful and purposeful way, while others need to work because they can’t afford to retire.
By using a cohort model, ECSC has become a community-building program where older adults become part of the early childhood community by getting to know the children and families. Aside from volunteering in classrooms, many adults volunteer their time to help with community events, food pantries and other areas where communities may require assistance.
“I got to tell you, it’s shocking to me,” Armao said. “I just cannot believe that it’s going—we went from a staff of one and a half to a staff of five this year because we’ve just grown so fast.”
Sitting on the floor of the Family Star Montessori infant room, Alexander wipes small faces after lunch. She volunteers at the Denver location twice a week for three hours a day, helping the teachers with playtime, naptime, lunch or simply giving relief to educators so they can use the bathroom or have lunch.
“These guys [educators] work so hard, I’m happy I can help,” Alexander said. “These young ladies are very good with the kids; they have to really love the work they do.”
As for Family Star Montessori, they love having help from the ECSC volunteers. Executive director of Family Star Montessori schools Lindsay McNicholas thought the flier for the program “was too good to be true.” This program has allowed the facility to maximize its capacity to provide services to schools, children and families.
“We have many generations in one classroom learning from each other, learning with each other,” McNicholas said. “It’s really powerful for our teachers and also for our students; it’s the part that’s so special about this program.”
The program addresses the early childhood educator shortage and integrates older adults into the workforce. Although the Department of Higher Education and the Colorado Department of Education developed an action plan that outlines the necessary steps to resolve the state’s educator shortage in 2017, the educator shortage in Colorado has not improved.
Nearly 60% of surveyed Colorado teachers consider leaving their profession in the near future. Alexander believes older adults who don’t want to be pushed aside can help because the next generation deserves so much more.
“I think there is a large group of people that could benefit from what Lisa has offered and could also provide so much benefit to these teachers; they’re stressed, overworked and probably underpaid,” Alexander said. “These little child brains are so precious and deserve so much more; they are our future and they need to be nurtured.”
Early Childhood Service Corps prioritizes children’s safety and vulnerability, and as part of their free training, they provide 18 hours of coursework on early childhood rules and regulations.
“At one point I was going through this and I even wrote a note saying, ‘How could these people trust me with their precious little brains?’” Alexander said. “ By the end of the training, I was like, ‘Let’s do this!’ They gave me confidence and were very thorough—it was a good program.”
The training includes body safety, anti-bias and cultural sensitivity classes, which prepare adults to enter a space with children without feeling overwhelmed or stressed. If they decide to become teachers, Arapahoe Community College offers an early childhood certification program.
Armao and her team are currently recruiting for their seventh cohort and invite any older adults to sign up. They are reaching out to older adult community centers, assisted living facilities, libraries and anywhere older adults enjoy hanging out.
“I hope the message keeps getting out there,” Armao said. “I would be thrilled if we kept getting enough funding to keep building these cohorts statewide and just keep replenishing and helping early childhood.”
