Rock 'n' Roll Grandma and Grandpa: illustrated storytelling for senior citizens who love to age.
Education does not teach us to grow old. The establishment of Rock 'n' Roll Grandma is to promote the revitalization of silver-haired manpower, the usefulness of old age, and retirement.
In Taiwan, 25.9% of the total suicide population in 2016 was 65 years old, and the depression condition of the senior group is high. Grandma Rock hopes to design different learning products and services so that the senior group can become an important human resource in the society and promote mental health, and also because the senior group goes into the society, it is more likely to create opportunities for self-fulfillment as well as exchange between the youth and silver, and together they will move towards a better life in old age.
Rocking Grandma was established as a social enterprise. Rock 'n' Roll will focus on the mature age group over 50 years old, providing activities and educational programs to recover the inner value, and open up the beautiful imagination of the elderly together; and combining various kinetic technologies, such as Rock 'n' Roll Storytelling Fun, which is a part-time job opportunity for illustrated storytelling service, so that the elderly can retire without retiring, reappear in style, increase the social participation of the elderly, and reduce the physiological failure of the mature age group due to the depression of the retirement. The program will also reduce the depression of the mature age group due to retirement, which in turn affects their physical decline.
Rock 'n' Roll is the first silver-haired social enterprise in Taiwan to advocate that the 50+ should be useful in old age and should not retire. It hopes that by applying what they have learned to their own use, they can create a way for mature people to exert their social influence through storytelling and become useful human resources in society, thus realizing the purpose of silver-haired manpower revitalization for the purpose of development. The Rock 'n' Roll Storytelling Program is designed to reach more people at different levels through age-appropriate picture book public service seminars, age-appropriate storytelling skills development programs, and performances in kindergartens, cafes, and community care centers, and to bring more mature people back to participate in Rock 'n' Roll's age-appropriate picture book activities and storytelling skills development programs as the beginning of the social enterprise's initiative.
Many of Taiwan's retired seniors are in perfect physical condition, more than ten years away from needing to use "long term care" services or facilities. In 2025, Taiwan will enter a super-aging society, so Grandma Rock wants to carry out social advocacy and entrepreneurship for the mental health of the elderly in the spirit of "old age is useful, retirement is not a retirement," through the business module of the revitalization of silver-haired manpower (Grandma Rock pays for the training and starts working immediately after certification). Through the business module of silver-haired manpower revitalization (Grandma pays for the training and starts working immediately after certification to earn back her tuition fees), we hope that every senior citizen will find their intrinsic value in the program.
Therefore, the Rock 'n' Roll social enterprise mainly wants to unlock the secrets of the "heart" of the elderly, with the Rock 'n' Roll storytelling program, through the mode of selection, training, and performance to practice the possibility of silver-haired manpower revitalization, to cultivate the second expertise of the elderly, and through storytelling to open up the public's imagination of old age, and to strengthen the new concepts of active aging advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2002). Unlike volunteer organizations, we use fee-based training as a model for developing the company's sustainable operation, and is currently the only silver-haired working group in Taiwan, with the number of community members having accumulated to 2,200 so far.
"The silver-haired manpower is an important resource for the society. They don't stay at home all day and wait for their retirement, but after their retirement, they are isolated from the world, as if whatever happens in the world has nothing to do with them." --Lin Tsung-hsien, Founder of Rock 'n' Roll Grandpa's Milk
"My idea is to wean the participants to create their own storytelling opportunities." Lin encourages the silver-haired to step out of their comfort zones, push their boundaries, and learn to explore. "You have to give in order to receive." Under the system of Grandpa Rock's Milk, participants have to pay a fee to get the picture books and attend classes. However, every month, if a storyteller goes out to tell a story and returns, Lin Zongxian will give them a red packet according to the record when they go back to their families. Although the amount of money is small, it is the best encouragement and motivation. "It gives them a sense of fulfillment to earn money through storytelling," he says. By creating prices out of values, Lin designed this circular mechanism to return the tuition fees paid by his grandparents to them. "I didn't want to make money from this service in the first place." Operating with the concepts of public welfare and social enterprise, Lin aims to cultivate seed trainees and spread the idea of "making the old useful".
If you have any questions or for more information, please contact Grandma and Grandpa Rock or us at Sunyu Academy.
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Rockstar Milk Powder
