Program is Recognized

Student Assisted Independent Living (SAIL), a program offered at Ithaca College, received a 1997 Governor's Community Service Award for its success in bringing college volunteers together to assist elderly and chronically ill members of the community. The award was presented in May to the Foundation for Long Term Care, the developer of the service learning program.

The award is given annually to a handful of individuals and organizations that exemplify the tradition of improving lives and communities through volunteerism. SAIL is offered at 12 college campuses across New York State, including Ithaca College and Cornell University. The program teams college interns with local long-term care providers, seeking to increase the number of college students serving the elderly and aiming to develop a pool of young volunteers willing and able to lend their services to future generations of elderly.

The Ithaca consortium is coordinated by the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute, and provides student volunteers for Ithacare, the Tompkins County Office for the Aging, the Tompkins County Senior Citizens Council, and Titus Towers. Courses that combine seminars and volunteer experiences are offered at Cornell in the fall semester and at Ithaca College in the spring.