A Positive Pen Pal Program: Promoting Well-Being Through Intergenerational Connections and Positive Humanities

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Service Learning Projects
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
well-being
positive psychology
positive humanities
intergenerational intervention
positive affect
writing
art
music
Psychology
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Brown, Heidi K
Eisen, Cheryl L
Contributor
Abstract

The Positive Pen Pal Program is an intergenerational initiative designed to increase the well-being of senior and youth residents at Education Based Housing, Inc.’s (EBH) affordable housing communities through communication exchanges involving writing about positive events and experiences, art, and music. The pilot program involves a month-long, bi-directional letter writing exchange about topics such as gratitude, meaning, and purpose between ten pairs of residents, with each pair comprised of a senior resident and a youth resident. This project provides a stand-alone playbook for EBH’s Resident Engagement Specialists. The playbook includes a brief introduction to well-being; sample recruitment letters for seniors and youth; sample instruction letters for seniors and youth; sample prompts for writing about positive events and experiences, art, and music; sample marketing information to solicit sponsorship from community businesses; measurement tools to assess aspects of well-being of the participants; and survey questions to assess the impact of the program on the participants. The implications of this work include enhanced understanding of the interplay among positive psychology, the humanities, and intergenerational interventions in affordable housing communities. Beneficially, this intervention is low-resource and expandable across multiple humanities domains and residential communities.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2021-01-01
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection