Senior Champions Share Life Stories

In September, a group of NYCHA’s older adult residents participated in a live, virtual storytelling event to share their life stories with an audience. The stories they shared — in English and Spanish —were touching and riveting: participating in a sit-in in North Carolina during the Civil Rights Movement; seeing Nelson and Winnie Mandela at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn; surviving an apartment fire before finding a new home at a NYCHA development; evacuating a plane that was on fire and dealing with racism in the South; and more. 

The event was the culmination of a program facilitated by Life Story Club (LSC), a non-profit organization that seeks to promote healthy aging, combat ageism, and reduce social isolation through storytelling. LSC works with older adults, including homebound adults, and creates storytelling clubs where participants are guided with prompts and questions that encourage them to share stories and conversation, while also socializing and building friendships.  

“We were blown away by the incredible life stories shared in our NYCHA storytelling groups,” Lily Zhou, Founder of Life Story Club, said. “We are truly honored to be a part of the NYCHA community and to serve as a resource for their older adult residents. Life Story Club is looking forward to more storytelling this winter!” 

LSC’s programming was provided to NYCHA’s Senior Champions, a group of older adult resident volunteers who work with NYCHA and community members to engage their fellow seniors and keep them informed about the Authority’s programs, issues, and initiatives. In January 2021, LSC began working with Senior Champions, providing multiple sessions of its storytelling club to a total of 61 Senior Champions.  

Storytellers at the live event included Reverend Samuels, Ona Burrell, Brenda Pope, Lydia Vega, Mercy Ponniah, Abraham Ponniah, Anne Johnson, Felix Vega, and Maria Pacheco. 

“We are happy to partner with the Life Story Club to bring their storytelling program to our Senior Champions,” said Rayford Hooks, Manager in the Resident Engagement Department. “Seniors are one of the largest populations living at NYCHA developments, and LSC’s program to combat isolation among seniors was especially valuable during the pandemic.”  

LSC sessions were held once a week for an hour over Zoom (participants who weren’t able to use Zoom were connected by phone, through a conference call). 

Married Lattimore Gardens residents Mercy and Abraham Ponniah each shared stories that began in their native Sri Lanka. Mrs. Ponniah spoke about her family home in Sri Lanka, which had been burned down due to ethnic rivalry. With government assistance, she and her family were able to build a small house on the land and eventually donated the land to a church. 

“I’m generally known as a storyteller, and we were really interested in participating,” Mrs. Ponniah said. “I shared this story because I wanted to show my gratitude for being able to give our land to the church and how the church helped change the village completely.” 

Mr. Ponniah also shared about Sri Lanka, and how as the seventh child in a large family he always wanted to go to a foreign country, but due to work and paying off family debts he didn’t have the opportunity to until later in life. After 20 years of working at the church on Mrs. Ponniah’s family’s land teaching Sunday school teachers, he was finally able to get a green card. He had applied 10 times and, in 2006, moved to the U.S. with Merci and their two sons. He couldn’t bring his daughter because she was 21, but she and her husband continue to work at the family church in Sri Lanka. 

Of the Life Story Club event, Mr. Ponniah said: “This became an opportunity for us to share our life stories. Also, we were able to listen to others share their stories about various subjects, and it was very interesting to listen and learn from them about the things they lived through. We are thankful to NYCHA and Life Story Club.” 

Mrs. Ponniah added: “Listening to these stories taught me not to be judgmental, but by listening, you feel more empathetic, more love. My eyes are really open to how people go through struggles and how they victoriously climbed out of the trouble. We should not be judgmental, but be more concerned about people.” 

Learn more about Life Story Club here: https://lifestoryclub.org/