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Graduates were waiting in the hallway, dressed in red graduation caps and gowns. Family, friends and staff members were thrilled to watch the seniors proudly walk down the aisle to receive their certificates.
However, this wasn’t the typical graduation. June 25 marked the beginning of a new journey for six South Philly senior citizens — many of whom were experiencing their first graduation.
For participant Rosetta Bridgett of South Philly, graduating at age 65 feels very special. After attending Temple University in her youth to get her GED, Bridgett is now eager to go back to college to take an English course. She and 14 peers were among the class of 2013 graduates at Mercy LIFE, 1930 S. Broad St., where the site’s initial set of PEER advocates were certified to assist their fellow seniors, serving as a liaison between their peers and the staff.
“I just wish I was able to graduate before now; that I would have continued in school but I didn’t continue in school,” Bridgett said. “I never had the opportunity to learn, to be able to carry on.”
The State Ombudsman Office launched the Pennsylvania’s Empowered Expert Residents (PEER) Program in 2002 in long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania. However, Mercy LIFE is the first health center in the state to launch the PEER program, Beth Lorell, Mercy LIFE’s social worker supervisor, who is highly involved in the program, said.
“The participants are taught to advocate themselves and peers,” she said.
The enrollees learn their rights, quality of life and care, communication strategies, confidentiality, cultural diversity in addition to improving their quality of life at the center.
To recruit for the initial class, a state-certified ombudsman went to the three Mercy LIFE centers to promote the program. This year, more than 50 people were interested, Lorell said. After a thorough recruiting session, the staff chose 15 people, based on their level of interest and ability to succeed, to partake in the five-week training session. Six of those individuals — Bridgett, Wanda Brown, Angela Costanzo, Edith Hayman, Harry Schreffler and Diane Tully — are South Philly residents.
Brown, a resident of 25th and Jackson streets, is participating in a graduation for the first time at the age of 64.
“People come to me when they have a problem,” Brown said of why she decided to become a PEER advocate. “It seems like the perfect thing to do.”
The program allowed Brown to learn more about herself and how to treat people who need help.
“In my religion, we are supposed to love everybody and treat people right,” she said. “I learned that you have to be confident, that you can’t talk about what people tell you and you have to know the rules, like if they want to write a grief against someone. So all those things I didn’t know. Now I know so I can be a PEER counselor.”
Brown devoted her life to others by raising a family and working as a radio operator for the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department. When she had time for herself, Brown decided to become a companion and caregiver for the elderly.
“I worked at the housing authority years and years ago.” Brown said. “When the kids got older and all, I went to school for elderly. And that’s what I did until I couldn’t do it anymore.”
A first for many participants, graduation is a major part of the program, Lorell said. Bringing more than just certificates and badges, the ceremony created a sense of accomplishment for the graduates and staff members.
“It is very empowering to them. They worked very hard for it,” she said.
Meanwhile, the program, which allows certified advocates to assist at its Newbold, Grays Ferry and North Philly sites, increased the participants’ confidence in raising their voices.
“Some of them served their country, their family,” Lorell said. “They believe in rights; they want to have their voices heard as strongly as possible.”
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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