Leveraging the experience of older adults for a sustainable future

A new world may yet emerge from this challenging time in human history. What role will older adults play in the transformation?

That question drives Sympara's initiative Aging for the Common Good. As we reimagine underutilized religious properties for social impact, we engage congregations made up primarily of older people. They are the vanguard of a revolution to reinvent not just sacred space but spiritual community. So we're curious about the gifts that older people might share with neighbors as we travel together toward a new world.

At the heart of the initiative are cogenerational writing groups for six to eight participants who share reflections essential to the well-being of individuals and society. Through a six-week online, facilitated process, each group explores experiences of loss, discovery and renewal and considers the role of elders in navigating change. Sympara partner SeniorCorrespondent.com publishes select essays and poetry.

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The next writing group starts April 20, 2026. We will consider what our lives have to do with location. Wherever we live, we shape the place, give it meaning and structure and purpose, if only by observation and routine. And the place shapes us. In this six-session journey, we will let lines of modern and contemporary American poetry lead us to places we have known, places we inhabit now, places we make through our presence, perception, and participation in community. Those lines of poetry will serve as prompts for our essays. The theme is "The Poetry of Placemaking."

Our previous group, which met in the fall of 2025, reflected on “Places of Resistance, Renewal and Reimagination." The group wrote essays about places that have strengthened and sustained us, critical reflection given the state of our world today. In our histories we have known places that registered a different note in the dominant culture. These are places — locations, sites, addresses — that don’t fit the normal pattern. We have stood our ground in places of protest. We have cultivated places of refuge. We have experienced refreshment in the unlikeliest of spots. Inspired by one setting, we have imagined it blossoming elsewhere.

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In the spring of 2025, the group considered the theme "Cultivating a New Spiritual Community." We asked whether it is possible to create spiritual community across lines of division. And we explored how community is sustained over time amid conflict, loss, and other changes.

In the fall of 2024, the group took up the question "Identities in Place?" We explored the dynamism of our aging spirits and the evolution of our self-understanding amid changing circumstances and shifting environments. The group that met in the summer of 2024 focused on "generativity," a late stage in human development first named by the psychologist Erik Erickson in 1950 as a concern beyond the preoccupations of the self to contribute to the well-being of others, particularly younger people. We explored the interplay of legacy and creativity as well as the barriers and openings made by identity.

To be notified of upcoming writing groups, send an email to writing@sympara.org.

In addition to writing groups, future activities of Aging for the Common Good will include research into the unique leadership task of elders, mapping the assets of older adults through participant-driven research with congregations, senior living communities and civic groups, and cogenerational experiments for social impact.

If your community or organization wants to join Aging for the Common Good, contact Daniel Pryfogle at daniel@sympara.org.