The University of New Hampshire is kicking off a series of public forums that will look at ways to simultaneously assist students struggling to afford college and New Hampshire's growing population of elderly people.
Organizers received a $75,000 grant to come up with a program that could be done in partnership with AmeriCorps, the federally funded service organization.
"Through this grant, we get to design a new AmeriCorps program that could be in New Hampshire for years to come, the goal of which is really intergenerational opportunities," says UNH’s Michele Holt-Shannon, Director of the NH Listens program.
"Segregating by age seems like something we're just -- that's just kind of baked into American society in a lot of ways,” says Holt-Shannon. “And could we -- should we -- change that?"
One idea would be to give young people entering college money to pay for tuition in exchange for assisting the state's seniors.
Holt-Shannon says, after a series of public forums, they hope to have a proposal by the Spring.
The next forum will be held at Berlin High School on December 17.
