Blog Post 3
Two Ways Forward
Solutions for an Age-Friendly Stockton, Practical paths to honoring our elders
Welcome to the final post in our series on creating an age-friendly Stockton.
Catch up on the series:
Part 1: We reimagined "age-friendly" through an Afrocentric lens, moving beyond ramps and buses to cultural continuity and spiritual belonging, honoring elders as living libraries
Part 2: We assessed Stockton honestly, seeing both strengths and the gaps in how we support elder wellness
Now it's time to talk about solutions.
Based on what we've learned about Stockton's needs and what works in similar communities, this post presents two possible solutions that could enhance our age-friendly environment. These aren't the only answers, but they're grounded in evidence and designed for Stockton's reality.
Let's explore what we could do.
Remember that parking lot outside the Chinese restaurant? Where Asian elders played dominoes and cards, and over time African American and Latinx elders joined in? Where games became a cultural bridge and community was born?
The city cited the restaurant and dismantled it all.
That loss teaches us something important: Elders know how to create community. Our job isn't to do it for them. It's to create conditions where these living libraries can flourish and to protect the spaces they create when they emerge naturally.
Here are two solutions that could help Stockton do exactly that.
What We Know Works
Before we dive into solutions, let's ground ourselves in evidence.
Programs pairing elders with youth have demonstrated real results across the country. Experience Corps, operating in 22 cities, shows that older volunteers gain cognitive and physical benefits while children's reading scores improve (Carlson et al., 2008; Fried et al., 2004). In Los Angeles, the Koreatown Storytelling Project preserves immigrant elder stories through youth journalism (ASA Generations, 2024). ONEgeneration in California operates shared sites where elders and children interact daily with mutual benefit (ASA Generations, 2024).
Research confirms: well-designed intergenerational programs improve elder mental health, reduce isolation, enhance cross-generational attitudes, and benefit youth development (George et al., 2021; Pinazo-Hernandis & Kaplan, 2024).
Keys to success include:
Reciprocal activities (both generations give and receive)
Consistent contact over time
Cultural relevance
Meaningful engagement, not token interaction
Stockton can learn from these models. Here are two solutions tailored to our city's needs, resources, and cultural diversity.
Solution One: Establish Cultural Continuity Spaces
The Problem: Stockton has senior centers, but few spaces where elders are honored as cultural teachers, wisdom-keepers, and living libraries. We have diverse elder populations with rich traditions, but no formal infrastructure for intergenerational cultural transmission.
The Solution: Create Cultural Continuity Spaces, places where elders lead cultural programming and youth learn directly from these living libraries.
What This Would Look Like
These wouldn't be new buildings. They'd be partnerships with existing institutions: churches, community centers, libraries that dedicate space and time to elder-led cultural programs.
In practice, a Cultural Continuity Space might host:
Weekly Oral History Sessions: Youth trained in documentation interview elders about Stockton's history, migration stories, cultural traditions. These living libraries become archived for the community.
Cultural Arts Workshops: Elders teach traditional cooking, textile arts, music, gardening, herbalism. Knowledge that might otherwise be lost is transmitted directly.
Intergenerational Celebrations: Seasonal gatherings, cultural festivals, ancestor remembrance ceremonies where traditions are practiced, not just observed.
Story Circles: Regular gatherings where elders share life experiences and youth learn from their wisdom about navigating challenges, maintaining values, building resilience.
Mentorship Programs: Ongoing relationships between elders and youth, not just one-time visits.
Why This Solution Fits Stockton
It builds on existing assets. Many Stockton churches have fellowship halls sitting empty during weekdays. Community centers exist but need culturally specific programming. This solution doesn't require new construction, just new partnerships.
We already have models to learn from. Organizations like Dome of Home already run intergenerational programming in Stockton. At University of the Pacific, Black Unity hangouts demonstrate how intergenerational connection happens naturally when space is created. These aren't hypotheticals, they're proof of concept.
It honors Stockton's diversity. With Asian, Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and immigrant elder populations across neighborhoods like Miracle Mile, Lincoln Village, and South Stockton, Cultural Continuity Spaces could celebrate multiple traditions while creating common ground.
It centers elders as leaders, not recipients. As Nobles (2009) teaches, elders are "guardians of cultural integrity" whose wisdom sustains community balance (p. 220). This solution positions them accordingly, just as the Divine 9 sororities and fraternities have long done, with members from their 20s to over 100 years old actively engaged in community leadership. These living libraries remain active contributors throughout their entire lives.
It addresses real gaps identified in Part 2: lack of culturally relevant programming, limited elder participation in community life, loss of cultural knowledge across generations.
Connection to Theory
This solution reflects Myers' (2018) Optimal Psychology. Healing comes through "returning to wholeness." When elders and youth engage in cultural work together, they become what Nobles (2009) calls "the bridge between the visible and invisible worlds," connecting past, present, and future (p. 223). These living libraries hold knowledge that links generations.
Cultural Continuity Spaces say: Your traditions matter. Your wisdom is needed. Your role as a living library is sacred.
Solution Two: Build an Intergenerational Support Network
The Problem: Stockton has schools needing service-learning opportunities, senior centers with isolated elders who are living libraries, churches with unused space, and healthcare systems treating elder isolation. These operate separately when they could coordinate.
The Solution: Create an Intergenerational Support Network that connects existing institutions into a city-wide web of elder-youth relationships.
What This Would Look Like
Rather than a new program, this is a coordination strategy. It helps existing organizations work together to reduce elder isolation and build intergenerational connection.
The network would facilitate:
School-Senior Center Partnerships: Students fulfill service hours through ongoing elder mentorship. They're not performing for elders but learning from these living libraries. Weekly visits create sustained relationships.
Faith-Based Elder Care: Churches coordinate to provide transportation to services, health screenings in trusted spaces, phone trees for daily check-ins, and "elder ambassadors" who visit isolated members.
Library-Led Programming: Public libraries host intergenerational storytelling, elder-taught classes, tech tutoring where generations teach each other.
Community Care Training: Volunteers learn culturally grounded approaches to elder care, honoring spiritual practices, dietary traditions, language needs, to complement professional services.
Coordinated Transportation: Schools, churches, and senior centers share resources to ensure elders can get to programs, appointments, and cultural events.
Why This Solution Fits Stockton
It's financially realistic. This doesn't require major funding, just coordination. Schools already need service learning. Churches already have space. Senior centers already exist. Connecting them is the innovation.
We have partners ready to engage. University of the Pacific already hosts intergenerational Black Unity hangouts, imagine expanding that model citywide. Dome of Home's existing intergenerational programming could become a node in a larger network. The Divine 9 Greek organizations, with members spanning 80+ years in age, already have infrastructure for intergenerational community work. These organizations don't need to be created, they need to be connected and supported.
It creates systemic change. As Bowen Family Systems Theory teaches, communities are emotional systems. When we strengthen connections at one point, the whole system benefits (Keller & Noone, 2020). This solution weaves a stronger web that protects our living libraries.
It addresses isolation directly. Part 2 identified transportation barriers and social isolation as major issues. This solution tackles both through coordinated effort across neighborhoods from Miracle Mile to South Stockton.
It's scalable. Start with existing partners (Dome of Home, UOP, a Divine 9 chapter, two churches, one school), demonstrate impact, then expand citywide.
Connection to Theory
This solution embodies the Afrocentric principle that "we are because of others" (Myers, 1988). It restores what Bowen calls emotional interdependence, the natural flow of care across a system. When institutions coordinate around elder wellness and recognize elders as living libraries, isolation becomes harder to sustain.
Why These Solutions Matter Beyond Culture
Here's a practical reality: Social isolation costs Medicare $6.7 billion annually nationwide (Flowers et al., 2017). Isolated elders have $1,644 higher annual healthcare costs and 31% greater risk of death, despite higher spending (Shaw et al., 2017).
What does this mean for Stockton specifically?
With approximately 41,600 Stockton residents over 65 (13% of 320,000), and national data showing about 14% of elders experience social isolation, that's roughly 5,800 isolated elders in Stockton. At $1,644 in additional annual healthcare costs per isolated elder, Stockton-area Medicare could be spending an extra $9.5 million annually on preventable isolation-related healthcare (Shaw et al., 2017).
Why? Isolated seniors are hospitalized more frequently and stay longer. They're 29% more likely to require nursing facility care. They arrive sicker and lack support systems for recovery (Flowers et al., 2017).
Both solutions directly address this:
Cultural Continuity Spaces and Intergenerational Support Networks reduce isolation through sustained relationships. Connected elders notice health changes sooner, have informal support systems (like what happens naturally at UOP's Black Unity events or through Divine 9 networks), experience better mental health, and maintain purpose. All of these are protective factors that keep our living libraries healthy and engaged.
According to Bowen's theory, when communities restore emotional interdependence, individuals experience less anxiety and better health (Keller & Noone, 2020).
These aren't just cultural solutions. They're preventive healthcare. If these solutions reduced isolation among even 1,000 Stockton elders, we could save $1.6 million annually in Medicare costs while dramatically improving quality of life. Connection saves lives and reduces costs while preserving irreplaceable living libraries.
What You Can Do
Change doesn't require a committee or a budget, it starts with small actions anyone can take in Stockton.
1. Listen to an elder in your neighborhood
Whether you're in Miracle Mile, South Stockton, or Lincoln Village, ask an elder: "What do you remember about the parking lot gatherings? What other spaces have we lost? What traditions matter to you?" Really listen. Their wisdom is the starting point.
2. Connect with organizations already doing this work
Dome of Home has intergenerational programming. UOP's Black Unity brings generations together. The Divine 9 has members from 20s to 100 actively engaged. Don't reinvent, support and expand what's working.
3. Advocate for protecting elder-created spaces
Speak up at City Council when gathering places are threatened. Ask: "Why are we citing restaurants where elders gather instead of supporting them? What happened to the parking lot community, and how do we prevent that from happening again?"
4. Bridge institutions in your sphere
If you're part of a church, school, or organization, ask: "Could we partner with Dome of Home, UOP, or local Divine 9 chapters for intergenerational programming?" The pieces exist, they need connecting.
5. Start in your own block
You don't need permission to organize a storytelling circle in your living room, create a phone tree for isolated elders on your street, or invite elders and youth in your network to share a meal. The village begins on your block, in your neighborhood, with what you can do today.
Conclusion
We began this series asking what "age-friendly" truly means. We've explored theory, assessed Stockton's reality, and proposed two solutions:
Cultural Continuity Spaces that honor elders as wisdom-keepers, cultural teachers, and living libraries whose knowledge sustains communities.
Intergenerational Support Networks that coordinate existing institutions like Dome of Home, UOP, and the Divine 9 to reduce isolation and amplify what's already working.
Think back to that parking lot outside the Chinese restaurant.
Asian elders setting up folding tables. African American elders pulling up chairs. Latinx elders joining the circle. Dominoes clicking. Cards shuffling. Languages mixing. Laughter bridging cultures.
That wasn't a program. It wasn't planned by a committee or funded by a grant.
It was elders doing what they've always known how to do: creating community from nothing but folding tables, card games, and the willingness to show up for each other. These living libraries were sharing knowledge, building bridges, and preserving culture through the simple act of gathering.
The city called it a code violation. The community knew it as belonging.
When we dismantled that space, we didn't just scatter elders. We sent a message about what we value: order over connection, property codes over people, control over the preservation of living libraries.
But here's what we know now:
Stockton doesn't lack the capacity for intergenerational connection. Organizations like Dome of Home, UOP's Black Unity, and the Divine 9 prove it's possible. The elders who built community in that parking lot proved it's natural.
What we lack is systems that protect, support, and amplify what elders create. We need infrastructure that recognizes elders as the living libraries they are.
These two solutions, Cultural Continuity Spaces and Intergenerational Support Networks, offer pathways to do exactly that. They're not about creating something from nothing. They're about recognizing what's already here and refusing to let it be dismantled again. They're about protecting our living libraries.
As Myers (1988) teaches, "To be truly well is to be whole" (p. 2).
Wholeness isn't ramps and senior centers, though we need those too. Wholeness is that parking lot circle of elders. It's Black Unity bringing generations together. It's Divine 9 members in their 20s working alongside members in their 100s. It's Dome of Home creating spaces where youth and elders belong to each other. It's recognizing that every elder is a living library whose knowledge is irreplaceable.
The village isn't a place. It's a practice.
And in Stockton, from Miracle Mile to South Stockton, from UOP to neighborhood churches, the village has never stopped trying to exist. Elders have never stopped creating spaces of connection. These living libraries have never stopped trying to pass their wisdom forward.
The question was never whether elders could build community. They already showed us they can.
The question is whether we'll finally protect what they build. Whether we'll support rather than cite. Whether we'll see elder gathering as cultural wealth, as living libraries that must be preserved, rather than code violations to be eliminated.
The question is: What will you see? What will you protect? What will you build?
The elders are already showing us the way. We just have to choose to follow. We just have to choose to honor them as the living libraries they are.
Thank you for reading this series. Now the work begins, not in City Hall, but in your neighborhood, with the elders on your block, in the spaces where connection already wants to happen.
Let's not dismantle it this time. Let's protect it. Let's grow it. Let's honor it.
Because Stockton's elders have always known: the village begins with us. And every elder is a living library whose pages must be preserved for generations to come.
References
ASA Generations. (2024, March 1). Intergenerational programs as a tool to advance equity. American Society on Aging Generations Journal. https://generations.asaging.org/intergenerational-programs-advance-equity
Carlson, M. C., Saczynski, J. S., Rebok, G. W., Seeman, T., Glass, T. A., McGill, S., Tielsch, J., Frick, K. D., Hill, J., & Fried, L. P. (2008). Exploring the effects of an "everyday" activity program on executive function and memory in older adults: Experience Corps. The Gerontologist, 48(6), 793–801. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/48.6.793
Flowers, L., Houser, A., Noel-Miller, C., Shaw, J., Bhattacharya, J., Schoemaker, L., & Farid, M. (2017). Medicare spends more on socially isolated older adults. AARP Public Policy Institute. https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2017/medicare-spends-more-on-socially-isolated-older-adults.html
Fried, L. P., Carlson, M. C., Freedman, M., Frick, K. D., Glass, T. A., Hill, J., McGill, S., Rebok, G. W., Seeman, T., Tielsch, J., Wasik, B. A., & Zeger, S. (2004). A social model for health promotion for an aging population: Initial evidence on the Experience Corps model. Journal of Urban Health, 81(1), 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/jth094
George, D. R., Whitehouse, E. R., & Whitehouse, P. J. (2021). A systematic review of the impacts of intergenerational engagement on older adults' cognitive, social, and health outcomes. Ageing Research Reviews, 71, 101400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101400
Keller, M. N., & Noone, R. J. (2020). Handbook of Bowen family systems theory and research methods: A systems model for family research. Routledge.
Myers, L. J. (1988). Understanding an Afrocentric world view: Introduction to an optimal psychology. Kendall/Hunt.
Myers, L. J., Speight, S. L., Highlen, P. S., Cox, C. I., Reynolds, A. L., Adams, E. M., & Hanley, C. P. (2018). Optimal theory's contributions to understanding and surmounting global challenges to humanity. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 58(6), 732–759. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167818762447
Nobles, W. W. (2009). Elders. In M. K. Asante & A. Mazama (Eds.), Encyclopedia of African religion (pp. 220–224). SAGE Publications.
Pinazo-Hernandis, S., & Kaplan, M. (2024). Effectiveness of intergenerational exchange programs between adolescents and older adults: A systematic review. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 22(1), 56–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2023.2267532
Shaw, J. G., Farid, M., Noel-Miller, C., Joseph, N., Houser, A., Asch, S. M., Bhattacharya, J., & Flowers, L. (2017). Social isolation and Medicare spending: Among older adults, objective social isolation increases expenditures while loneliness does not. Journal of Aging and Health, 29(7), 1119–1143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264317703559
