Grand Grace
“GrandGrace” Program to Serve Seniors at Palolo Chinese Home
Palolo Chinese Home and Common Grace, a nonprofit organization that matches adult mentors from neighborhood churches with vulnerable children in elementary schools, are partnering to launch a brand new, intergenerational program called GrandGrace to serve the residents and senior day care participants of Palolo Chinese Home.
On Oct. 2, Palolo Chinese Home officially welcomed Common Grace to its campus. The nonprofit was previously located at Kaimuki Christian Church.
“Having Common Grace on our campus is a win-win opportunity for both of our organizations,” said Darlene Nakayama, chief executive officer of Palolo Chinese Home. “The children and their mentors will fill the lives of our residents and participants with joy and youthful energy as they learn about caring for elders.”
“We’ll help the children build respect for the elders while also giving the elders purpose,” said Aries Jackson, executive director of Common Grace a native of Jakarta, Indonesia, who has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia while her father served as a diplomat. She now uses her multi-cultural experiences to create relationships between the community and lonely children.
Since Common Grace began 15 years ago, about 2,000 mentors have helped children in the third to fifth grades in more than 20 elementary schools across Oahu and one on Kauai who need personal attention and support because they may be falling behind academically or experiencing personal challenges at home.
School counselors identify and select the children to participate in the Common Grace mentorship program. Many of children may come from broken homes or non-English speaking families or may be homeless.
“Common Grace started with adult mentors and elementary school students, and then we started YouthGrace to connect high school students from six high schools with elementary students three years ago,” said Jay Jarman, founder and CEO of Common Grace, who served as a pastor in Hawaii for more than 20 years. “Now we’re starting GrandGrace to the give the children opportunities to be with the grandfathers and grandmothers at Palolo Chinese Home.”
Common Grace will continue its YouthGrace high school mentorship program between the students of Palolo Elementary School, located around the corner from Palolo Chinese Home, and student mentors of Kalani High School.
The mission of Common Grace is to provide lonely elementary school children with caring, attentive mentors. The nonprofit organization’s goal is to provide 3,000 additional children with compassionate mentors by 2025 and create 25 high school/elementary school partnerships by 2020. For more information, visit commongrace.org.
