The Older Adult Mentor Network:

Using Life Stories and Technology to Explore Health and Wellness among Older Adults in the Community

The goals of the Older Adult Mentor Network project are two-fold: 1) to work with older adults to record their life stories and experiences as a means to inform students and the community about the aging experience, and 2) to create an on-line, World Wide Web (WWW)-based network in which these life stories can be shared and through which older adults and students can develop mutually beneficial mentor relationships. The network will be piloted with older adults from the Chicago Department of Aging Central/West Regional Senior Center (CWRC) and students and faculty from the UIC Occupational Therapy (OT) program. The project addresses Great Cities initiatives to create innovative, community-based service delivery and educational demonstration models.

This network will serve as a central, community resource database with links to information, educational materials, current research, and ongoing hot topic discussion groups on health, wellness, coping, aging, disability and other current topics of interest identified by community participants. By adopting a participative action approach, the voices of older adults can be heard and rich descriptions of their life experiences shared. Through the innovative use of information technology, older adults an students can create a virtual community that can grow and expand to include Senior Centers and other organizations that provide community services to older adults in the Chicagoland region and beyond.

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