A bridge between community youth and residents at Revera’s Elginwood Long-Term Care home in Richmond Hill is being built through a project resident services co-ordinator Cathy Polera calls “The History of Me.”

Years ago she’d heard of long-term care homes putting residents’ histories on posters outside their rooms to give staff a better understanding of the people they support.

This year, Polera decided to venture along those same lines with the help of two high school students who came to the home in September on a school placement.

Like many students who’ve come to Elginwood, the young ladies were reluctant to get involved at first, not knowing what to expect or how to react to elderly residents they didn’t know.

“I’ve always had students work with me but they’re always very apprehensive and really uncomfortable,” says Polera. “They’ve never worked in long-term care or been around a lot of elderly people.”

As a means to break the students out of their shells and open them up to the true personalities of the residents, Polera introduced the idea of the girls interviewing residents and developing posters based on the information they gathered.

“I thought it would make them feel a lot more comfortable and give them a different perspective,” she says.

The results far exceeded her expectations.

“I can’t explain how it just turned their whole attitude around,” she says. “They were so enthusiastic, the boards are beautiful and the girls are so involved and so dedicated.”

And the residents are benefitting from the opportunity to share memories of their younger lives; their families, their teenage years, the passions that carried them to golden years.

The students have permission to call residents’ families in search of pictures, and Polera is excited by the girls’ artistic talents, which they use to create unique portraits of each resident they speak with.

What started as a project engaging a few residents has expanded to reach more than 30 people living at the Revera Inc. home — the students have said they’d like to profile every resident if time would permit.

Based on the success of this year’s pilot, Polera says she fully intends to continue with students on future placements.