EngAGE welcomes Shana Allen, Program Director for EngAGE NW in Portland, OR.
Shana has been a Qualified Mental Health Associate since 2019. She was born and raised in St. Helens, OR, and worked for the St. Helens School District for the last five years using a trauma-based approach to support students. Shana currently volunteers as the President of the local softball organization and is passionate about giving back to her community.
From the Board of Directors and the EngAGE Leadership Team
Dear Friends of EngAGE,
After founding and leading EngAGE for almost twenty-five years, our beloved CEO, Tim Carpenter, has announced his decision to transition into semi-retirement. The nerve of him to leave on a high note with the organization so strong, with more than 50 communities in California and Oregon! The EngAGE Board of Directors has now begun our search for someone to fill his size 13 shoes.
Those of us who have been there since the beginning may recall the way it all started. How a young man with a huge brain and an even bigger heart became fixated on one of the strangest quirks of being American – the way our culture, in ways great and small, acts to consistently marginalize, patronize, and dismiss as ridiculous adults who, after a lifetime of striving and competing and gathering unto themselves, have finally reached the time when they are able to turn their honest attention to the big questions of what really matters and what constitutes a truly good life.
Our uniquely cynical narrative of aging as a sad, slow-motion tragedy in which the ravages of mental and physical decline act to diminish one’s ability to project personal power has a certain self-reinforcing ring of truth to it. But we think it misses the most important part of the story of growing old: the emancipation from stress afforded by wisdom gained through time and experience.
The enlightened perception that informs many older adults to finally set aside old grudges and form bonds of connection; to trade competing against one’s neighbors for supporting them; to focus more on the enduring joy that comes from giving than on the fleeting pleasure of getting for oneself; to finally, truly understand that life is a gift to be savored, not a battle to won at any cost, may in fact be the defining feature of older age. For many people living in EngAGE properties, becoming an elder is not a time of invisibility; it is the time when one is, finally, liberated.
From its first property, the now-famous Burbank Senior Artists Colony in Los Angeles, to the most recent, fifty-ninth one, Broad Leaf Arbor in St. Helens, Oregon (a community for all ages developed with our partner, CDP), EngAGE’s chief ambition has remained constant: to turn the story of aging upside down. By creating the opportunity for older adults to live in safe, clean, beautiful communities, intentionally designed to promote intergenerational connection and help residents find their inner artists, EngAGE communities have become boiler rooms for a new story of respect and optimism that is getting national attention.
But there is still a lot of work to do. Despite the various social and political movements that seek an end to all forms of discrimination by elevating marginalized voices, one substantially stereotyped and widely exploited group of Americans continues to be left to fend for itself – the elderly. The Board of Directors at EngAGE is taking seriously its charge to find the right person to whom Tim can pass the torch, even as we lament his loss, celebrate our stunning achievements over the last twenty-five years, and reaffirm our commitment to our cause.
Exciting times indeed, so stay tuned!
All our best,
The EngAGE Board and Leadership Team
A personal message from Tim Carpenter
Hello, colleagues, partners, and friends,
After leading EngAGE since its founding, I have decided that the time has finally come for me to move into a new phase of life, and that means stepping aside as CEO. The pull to move into semi-retirement has grown strong recently, but it has been a tough decision to leave something where I believe I have been able to make a difference. Our Board of Directors has been working diligently on the Succession Planning process and is beginning the search for a new CEO who will step into the leadership role of EngAGE just as we prepare to celebrate our 25th anniversary. The organization is stronger than ever, adding new communities, exploring new and wonderful programming opportunities for residents, and making a positive difference in the lives of more people than ever before.
If someone had told me a long time ago that I would spend more than half of my adult working career doing one thing, I would’ve laughed. But back then, I could not possibly have known that the product of my journey with EngAGE – a sea of stories and experiences and connections of love that make me laugh and cry daily – would turn out to be the thing that today makes me feel like the guy who hit the lottery. It has been such a gift to work with our amazing staff, including 20 years with the talented, sensitive, deeply compassionate Nancy Goodhart, our brilliant Board, and our myriad partners, collaborators, and co-conspirators. What a creative, rewarding, and meaningful piece of my life. I am so very grateful and humbled by it all.
I will remain in my position during our Board’s search for our new CEO and for a time thereafter to support that person and help ensure a smooth organizational transition. I hope to connect directly with all of you at some point soon to thank each of you individually for playing the important role you did in my life and in the story of EngAGE.
What a ride it has been. Thank you for coming on it with me. And now let’s all look to the future and EngAGE’s next great chapter.
Onward,
Tim Carpenter
Founder & CEO, EngAGE
EngAGE welcomes Pauline McCourt, Program Director at Patton Home and Cascadian Terrace in Portland, Oregon.
Pauline has worked as an educator in Portland Public Schools for twenty years and as a classroom teacher and community service coordinator in private education for over ten years. Additionally, she was an educational director for The Meadow Day School, an early learning facility. Pauline was the founder and, for ten years, director of Kids for Kenya, a nonprofit that provided educational service trips to Kenya. She also has been a volunteer and educator for nonprofits providing services in gardening, food security, and shelter support for people experiencing homelessness.
EngAGE welcomes Michelle Yu, Program Director at The Metro@Chinatown and The Metro@Hollywood.
Originally from Hong Kong, Michelle grew up in a bi-lingual environment and appreciates the complexity and creativity in listening. She has experience researching homeless policy, managing art programs for homeless people with mental illness, and creating educational programs for older adults. Michelle previously worked for EngAGE in various capacities from 2006 to 2019. She has returned to serve as Program Director at two communities. Michelle also teaches spiritual development /meditation and enjoys drawing, painting, and gardening. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Master’s in Public Health.
I made a shockingly dumb mistake at work the other day. Fortunately, it didn’t cause a problem for anyone except me. But I was baffled. What in the world had I been thinking when I did it? Had I been thinking at all? The mistake was discovered by a much younger co-worker who quite possibly might have wondered if the old girl was past her “sell by” date. Worst of all, that same thought occurred to me.
But I dismissed it. The reason I was not thrown into despair by the absurdity of what I’d done is that there were factors other than brain failure to consider.
When younger people make mistakes, they don’t immediately assume that there is a serious medical problem with their brains, but for older people, there’s often a tendency to leap to that conclusion. It is a legitimate concern, of course. The CDC estimates that about 5.6 million people in the U.S. aged 65 and older have Alzheimer’s Disease or related dementias, which is about 10% of that population, a substantial number.
It’s also been well documented that age correlates with some reduced brain function for all of us. However, every “senior moment” is not a harbinger of doom. Our pervasive focus on that fear means that we often overlook a less dire but still significant problem that affects our mental capabilities: distraction.
dis·trac·tion (noun):
1. a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else
2. extreme agitation of the mind or emotions
While the temptation is to say that distraction is a problem for the young with their unshakeable attachment to their phones and constant stimulation from social media, older people are faced with distraction that affects our ability to focus, too. I believe that the two most common causes are lack of sleep and “overwhelm.”
Lack of sleep
The National Institutes of Health has reported that insomnia increases with age, with up to 50% of older adults in the U.S. reporting symptoms. Older people generally take more medications than younger people, and some of those drugs can affect sleep quality. Conditions like restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea increase with age. Tackling an illness of any kind can disrupt sleep patterns. Older people also usually get less REM sleep, the type of deep sleep that is restorative. Even our circadian rhythms are likely to change as we age.
In addition to physiological causes of insomnia, there are other possible sources related to life stresses such as caretaking or loss of a spouse or partner; financial insecurity; relocating, either by choice or necessity; and feelings of isolation, a problem of epic proportions in our society.
Whatever the reasons for our lack of sleep, the results are well-known to all of us: low energy, a short attention span, and foggy thinking that leads to poor decisions.
Overwhelm
Those same life stresses can get in the way of focusing on what we’re doing in the moment, even with a good night’s sleep. They contribute to the generalized feeling of overwhelm that is the bane of modern life. Also, a lot of this feeling has to do with technology.
My generation was raised on three television networks, a daily newspaper or two, a few radio channels, and landlines that limited us to three minutes for long distance calls or we’d go into debt from the extra charges. If someone called us and we weren’t at home, they’d call again. We had limited choices about all of this and accepted that reality.
But we believed that having more choices would make life better. In some cases, that’s true. However, we’ve discovered that having to make too many decisions amid too many choices can be overwhelming. No wonder. In 2019, an article in Forbes reported that the average adult consumes five times more information every day than their counterpart fifty years ago.
We have access to cable and streaming networks offering so many shows that most of us can’t keep track of them. Online shopping is very convenient, but the many choices can make decisions difficult for even the most mundane items. It’s helpful to be able to get the latest news immediately by hopping online, but not if it sucks us into hours of doomscrolling. We used to get our news only a few times a day; now it’s blaring at us in a 24-hour cycle, even though much of the blaring content is repetitive or filler material.
I see far more ads in an hour online than I would have seen watching an hour of television when I was younger. Most annoying are the ads that litter a website with blinking images and videos playing off to the side as I try to read. Banner ads flash below and above. Pop-ups intrude, asking me to sign up for a mailing list or take advantage of an offer. Clickbait links clutter the bottom of the page, surprisingly even on credible news sites. Sometimes the experience of trying to read an article or post doesn’t feel worth the effort.
On social media, there’s an extra layer of mind-numbing distraction caused by the way those interactive technologies function. Studies have been done, films have been made, and books have been written about how our brains have been changed by overexposure to social media: our attention span has been reduced. We are manipulated by those sites which have as their goal keeping us scrolling, feeding us an unending diet of ads and bite sized bits of information that take our attention away from the rest of life. We may do our best to extract the benefits from what we’re offered (and there may be benefits even beyond convenience and connectivity), but it’s a constant battle to avoid a quasi-hypnotic, usually agitated state.
For many older people, simply adapting to technological change has been a challenge. I adapted years ago, reluctantly, because it was required by my job as a writer. Today, I enjoy the benefits that change has offered, including providing me with an encore career as a social media manager. But I don’t delude myself into thinking that there hasn’t been a price, for me and for everyone. In the past, we weren’t bombarded with non-stop distracting electronic stimuli, and now we are. That doesn’t mean our brains can easily adjust. Perhaps we’ll find out that they can’t adjust at all.
So, returning to my mistake at work, when I think of what was going on at the time it happened, I’m convinced that what contributed to my decision-making ability falling to an unacceptably low level was several nights of insomnia, temporary extra work pressures, and not taking enough breaks from my online life.
Yes, it’s important to pay attention to our mental health, including being aware of symptoms that need to be checked more closely by a doctor. But being aware doesn’t mean automatically assuming the worst if there’s a blip in our memory or a slip up in our decision-making. It means that first we should find ways to get enough sleep, cope with stress, and balance our real life with our online activities. Take a walk. Visit a friend. Write a story. Make art or play music. Water the plants. Reconnect with the world offline. Give your brain a rest. And try not to get distracted.
Cynthia Friedlob is the Websites & Social Media Manager for EngAGE and was a host of the former Experience Talks Radio Show. She is the author of In Praise of the Smaller Life: a journal of memories and musings, an interactive journal. Before joining EngAGE, she was a writer for many years in children’s television and family feature films. Prior to that, she was a vocalist in a jazz trio. She’s been a visual artist for over thirty years. She enjoys her creative, smaller life.
EngAGE welcomes Jay Tate-Lammert, Program Director at El Verano Senior Apartments in Anaheim, CA.
Jay has over ten years of experience in social services ranging from mental health counseling to relationship coaching. She studied Psychology at Rhodes College and obtained her Masters in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently, she became a certified behavioral health coach. In her private life, she enjoys roller skating with her son, walks with her three dogs, and karaoke on a night out. She looks forward to more time on the beach after moving this year from Texas to California.
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EngAGE takes a whole-person approach to creative, healthy living by providing high-quality arts, wellness, and lifelong learning programs to thousands of residents of all ages in affordable housing communities in California and Oregon.
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