Helping the elders

Young and old are benefitting from program

Americorps volunteer Latoya Super tosses firewood onto a pile for Yurok elder Robley Schwenk, 76. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Trading knowledge for young knees, Yurok Americorps volunteers are helping their tribe’s elders stay in their homes while connecting with cultural values and soaking in the seniors' smarts.

The Yurok Tribe recently acquired 15 Americorps-funded volunteer positions to serve the nearly 800 elders who live on the reservation and nearby areas in Del Norte and Humboldt counties.

Americorps is a federally funded volunteer service program like the Peace Corps but for domestic programs.

The Triplicate recently tagged along with the volunteers from the Yurok Tribal Americorps Program while they broke a sweat to help an elder.

A pile of about two cords of fire wood awaited the three volunteers, ages 20–25, when they pulled up to the home of a local elder on Requa Road.  They quickly got to work, forming a chain to pass and stack the wood in the nearby storage shed — one volunteer provided work music from his cell phone. The job was only moderately strenuous, but it’s just the kind of chore that becomes too much to handle with age.

“I had a stroke, and I can’t get around that well anymore,” said Robley Schwenk, the 76-year-old elder receiving the help. “My balance is kind of off.”

After the stroke, Schwenk’s daughter, Londa Martin, found it was a lot more work to take care of her father. The volunteers help, Martin said, adding that it’s a relief to know her father has wood.

“There's things that (the volunteers) do that I can’t do myself,” Martin said.

Schwenk is one of the roughly 180 elders that the tribe is currently serving through its Elder Services program. A survey of Yurok elders in 2006 found that “Elders expressed a strong desire for services to help them remain in their homes,” said the project narrative for the Elder Services program.

The volunteers assist elders in a variety of ways, including yard work, housework, food delivery and sometimes just talking and providing company.

“A lot of the elders upriver don’t really have people that come visit them,” said Brandon Yost, a 20-year-old volunteer. “Like any old person, they don’t like being lonely.”

Too much for one

After the survey identified needs in the elder population, the tribe hired Kim Yost as elder services coordinator. She had  experience working with seniors after 15 years as the Del Norte County coordinator of the North Coast Opportunities Foster Grandparent program.

Yost relished the idea of working with her tribe, but without a staff to share the load, she was soon buried by the task at hand.

“She was the one person trying to do it all, and obviously you can’t do that when you have two different counties and elders everywhere in Humboldt and Del Norte county,” said Jessica Carter, Yurok Tribal Court’s programs administrator.

The Tribal Court administers the tribe’s Elder Services Program.  Carter wrote the grants that landed the Americorps positions, lightening Yost’s load.

Only four of the 15 volunteer posts are filled so far. The positions, designed for at-risk youth aged 16 to 25, offer a boost to young adults while learning more about their tribe, Yost said.

“It lets them understand what the need is in our tribe with our elders, but it also lets them realize how valuable they are on that level,” Yost said. “Some of them are just looking for a place to grow and feel at home.”

Few opportunities for youths

Brandon Yost pulls wood from a pile left outside Schwenk’s home. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

During the 2008-2009 school year, the adjusted grades 9-12 derived dropout rate was 27.1 percent for American Indian students in Del Norte compared with 20.1 percent for all students. In Humboldt, the rate was 28.3 percent for American Indian students compared to 17.4 percent for all students. The state average for all students was 21.7 percent.

Brandon Yost and Sam O’Neill, 20, are both utilizing the volunteer program to complete their GED.

“There aren’t many opportunities for people like me,” O’Neill  said. “There are a lot of people just like me that haven’t graduated.”

Roy Webster, an employee with the Tribal Court who has been working with the volunteers recently, likes what the program teaches and he enjoys trying to motivate the youths.

He tries to show them that “there’s more to life than the computer, video games or drugs,” Webster said. “Because flat time for kids is bad.”

“I'll agree with that one,” said Brandon Yost, who is Kim’s son. “When I was younger, that was the worst time — when I didn’t have anything to do, because I’d go find something to do.”

And it was “guaranteed” to be trouble, Yost said.

Aware of the social issues that plagued his community, O’Neill avoided trouble as a teenager by reverting to cultural pastimes, spending lots of time on the river.     He and his friends would go fishing, gather mussels or mushrooms, often bringing their catch and finds to the tribe’s elders.

“They can’t do those things anymore, but I’m a young man so I can help out,” O’Neill said. As a teen watching older friends chat with the tribe’s elders, he stopped being shy and followed suit. He started to grow close with  a few elders.

One elder who was hesitant to receive services from the volunteers let his guard down after finding that O’Neill was part of the crew.

“Most of them don’t want the help because they want to be independent, but they can’t do some things,” said volunteer Crystal Sternberg, 20.

Now, the same things O’Neill did for free are bringing benefits for all the volunteers — beyond finishing a GED.

Benefits of service

In exchange for 900 hours of service, the volunteers receive $6,920 living allowance and a $2,775 education award.

The classes taken to finish a GED go toward 100 hours of the service commitment dedicated to individual development and training. This also includes CPR and first aid training, American Red Cross and FEMA disaster worker certification, professional medical training, drug and alcohol abuse prevention, a driving course, power tools safety and other skill development training.

Sternberg and Latoya Super, 25, plan on using their education awards to finish college. Super wants to  become a certified nurse assistant, inspired by the needs of her diabetic mother and her brother, who has cardiac issues.

Brandon Yost is considering college programs in graphic design or a tattooing vocational school. O’Neill plans on getting the schooling necessary to run heavy equipment for a construction crew.

Super enjoys learning more  about her culture through the program.

“Plus the elders want you to learn more about the culture and the language,” said Super, who speaks Yurok and Karuk, adding that some elders prefer to speak Yurok.

The volunteers also participated in a cultural retreat in Weitchpec, learning about things like traditional gathering, fileting a salmon, weaving baskets and how to work as a team.

They also learned how to recognize elder abuse, when an elder is neglected or has a need to be remedied.

Kim Yost said the volunteers picked up quick, and on the ride home started talking about new projects the elders could use after visiting their homes.

Yurok Tribal Court Chief Judge Abby Abinanti said the position is more than community service.  

It’s also about teaching youths that “this is your family responsibility, and what you should be culturally doing is helping your elders,” Abinanti said.

Sometimes that responsibility is less labor-intensive and more of a neighborly gesture. The volunteers delivered Christmas baskets to some of the elders, who are 80 or older.

The gifts were greeted with “big smiles and thank yous,” Sternberg said. “It was pretty cool.”

Youths interested in the Americorps positions can contact Kim Yost at the tribal office, 707-482-1350.

Reach Adam Spencer at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it