My organization is called NextGen Alliance, and our purpose is to create engaging activities with seniors, particularly those in memory care with neurodegenerative disorders. We typically create art-related activities that promote hand movement and critical thinking. 

I first started volunteering with the seniors in memory care at a center near my house. There were limited activities provided for the seniors when I was there, and it was up to us volunteers to think of projects for them to do. These activities were often thought of last minute and were repeats of what we did weeks prior. A couple of other volunteers and I noticed and thought, ‘Okay, this is happening. Let’s try to make a list of ideas of what we can do every week and start planning out the activities beforehand.’ That’s when the idea behind NextGen Alliance came up. 

One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced so far has been picking the officer team and making sure that everything has been running smoothly. We’re in the process of filing our 501(c)(3) paperwork, so that has been a lot of work as well. Most of this process has been going on during the summer, so we’ll have to see how running the organization will go during the school year— so far, it’s been pretty manageable. 

The original intention behind NextGen Alliance wasn’t to be an organization or a nonprofit; it was simply a group of us who noticed this issue and took initiative. If you find a need in the community for something that you enjoy and want to get other people involved in, that can be really meaningful. 

I don’t want to be one of those people who graduate and then forget about the organization that they started; I definitely want to continue working on it. As of now, we’ve been working with two senior centers, and we’ve just been doing small events with fun activities, such as art, origami, and clay. Currently, we are also working on establishing it as a 501(c)(3) nationally, and once we do that, we’re hoping to also get remote volunteers and potentially start more chapters in the future.