More than 12 years ago, the SAGE environmental organization – a non-profit dedicated to encouraging older adults to advocate for future generations – began with a literal dream. Founder Ward Greene dreamt he was late to a meeting of older adults who were waiting for him to speak. The sign at the meeting read “Senior Adults for Generational Equity.”
Greene took his dream as a sign and began working to build the organization he dreamt about. The idea was to encourage older adults to make the world a better place for future generations.
“The future needs all of the advocates it can get,” Greene said. “Every minute another 10,000 people become seniors. SAGE recognizes the people in this third stage of life are an asset. We have enormous opportunities to give with our time, our money, and our voices to actually make a change.”
Today, SAGE is doing exactly that. In 2022, they mobilized more than 125 volunteers to give back across a broad range of initiatives.
“We focus on the three ‘e's of education, the environment, and economic opportunity because we view those as fundamental building blocks for a greater society,” explained SAGE Executive Director Steve Higgs.
SAGE currently offers a variety of avenues for volunteers. It hosts a visiting speaker series to shed light on especially pressing issues affecting the future and inspire volunteers to address them. It offers a 6-month fellowship program that helps volunteers to lead their dream projects – anything including building community gardens to educating communities about how to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. SAGE also hosts workshops, sponsors mentorship programs, and builds relationships between young people and older adults.
“People tend to act out of the relationships they form in their lives; it’s the relationships that cause people to get involved in ways they might otherwise may not.” Higgs said. “What does the word inspire mean? It’s essentially a breathing in of air and life and energy. When I first stated, people would say, ‘Motivation is an inside job.’ We see it that everyone has a fire in them, and we try to add some kindling to help that fire grow.”
SAGE is active in several environmental fronts. They host two teams focused on climate change: Vision 2030, which educates students about the Portland communities 2030 climate goals and solutions and EV For All, which offers education, outreach, electric vehicle charging stations and vehicles to increase awareness and use of electric vehicles.
SAGE also work with “green teams” in retirement and continuing care residential communities to help make facilities more environmentally friendly. And they’ve developed and facilitated events on intergenerational conversations on climate change.
You can learn more about SAGE at WeAreSage.org.