Graham, an Elder-focused Non-Profit
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Two-sentence project summary:
Graham is an elderly outreach non-profit—similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters, but for elders over 75 years old. Its focus is to develop friendships and share what we learn along the way.
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The man on the left is the reason I started this organization…
His name is Lee Graham, and I like to think of him as my pinch-hitting “grandparent.” By the time I was becoming a fully-formed person, all of my grandparents had passed away. Luckily, my mother met this man, and over the course of a 10 years, he became one of my best friends.
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Graham as a program will have two complimentary parts:
(1) The first is an elderly outreach program connecting volunteers with elders, to spend time together. The program focuses on local programs, that welcome elders and offer affordable activities.
(2) The second part of the organization is focused on documenting the wisdom of our elders, generally focused on the ones who are part of our organization. Once a friendship has been formed with a volunteer, Graham gets the two people together for an interview. Afterwards, Graham gives presents their advice to the public. We host the interviews online as short snippets and produce a quarterly publication that would introduces people to the organization while also helping us gather funding for the work we do.
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For me to learn more about time, aging, and elders— I write a little bit about those subjects here every day:
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This is our logo. It is based on the signature of the Lee Graham…
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Where Graham is at, as of February 2nd, 2016:
• A Los-Angeles-based non-profit has offered to be our shepherd organization until we get the joyous 501 (c)(3) status.
• I’ve become friends with about 15 people over 75-years-old. I plan to interview each of them over the next 6 months. This will culminate in a small bound book in the summer of 2016.
• I’ve assembled a fairly tight collection of questions that will serve as the basis of what I’m calling the “Graham Questions.” I should write it up and post it online soon. (If you’d like to see the earliest incarnation of the questions, click here.)
• I want to put in more time on Graham, but I don’t have enough money to not concentrate on writing and illustrating books. I’m working to change this situation now.
• Laura Daroca has joined the Graham organization. She is going to help me co-ordinate and actually organize our organization.
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Graham Historical Bits:
• I wrote a bit about where the name Graham came from here.
• In 2009, when first learning how to code, I made Graham a website. It’s a mess, but I still like the feel and tone.
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Lee was even friends with a unicorn:
