AUGUSTA — A public forum on older people serving as volunteers, “Young and Old, Learning and Working Together,” will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10, In Jewett Hall Auditorium, University of Maine at Augusta. Snow Date is Sunday, Jan. 17. UMA Senior College will present a panel highlighting some significant volunteer activities which reach across generations to provide not only much needed on-going support to its recipients, but also enrich the lives of the volunteers themselves.

Speakers include Ruth Saint Amand, director of MaineGeneral’s RSVP and founder of the “Born to Read” and other programs, who will discuss that organization’s “Thresholds” five-step decision-making model to assist Kennebec County Correctional inmates; Marianne H. Pinkham, regional director of Spectrum Generations Coastal and Knox, who creates, conducts and facilitates experiential in-service, training, evidence- and school-based enrichment programs among other activities; Terry McPhetres, a 12-year volunteer and current board member with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, who will describe the process of older people mentoring young people and his joy at seeing his client through to high school graduation.

The panelists will discuss impediments and problems that arise when younger and older people work and learn together and how these issues are resolved.

This forum is first of a series on how society may address the under-utilization of the elderly and expand their interaction with younger generations.

The forum is free and open to the public; refreshments are provided. UMASC is open to all persons 50 years and older, their spouses and partners.

FMI: uma.edu, 207-621-3551.