Many moments I would realize that although I was here to teach the learners, I was gaining so much knowlege from them. This program gave me a deeper sense of the word ‘community.'

Project SHINE began as Project LEIF (Learning English through Intergenerational Friendship) and was funded by the Florence V. Burden Foundation to work with Southeast Asian refugees in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia. After a successful pilot year, LEIF was replicated in three cities across the country. 

In 1993, The Intergenerational Center received a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.  Named Our Elders, Our Roots, the program explore the impact bi-lingual students have on LEIF's tutoring programs.  Our Elders, Our Roots was replicated at institutes of higher education in three different cities across the United States with additional funding support from the Administration on Aging.  

When U.S. Congress jeopardized public benefits of legally-immigrated, non-citizens by passing the Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Our Elders, Our Roots increased its focus on tutoring language skills and civic knowledge to more effectively aid in the process of naturalization.  Supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Our Elders, Our Roots became Project SHINE, or Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders. 

Project SHINE and Special Projects:

SHINE believes that communities where members of all ages and cultures engage in meaningful roles that contribute to the growth of each other are strong, healthy and sustainable communities.

Since 1985, the different incarnations of SHINE have reflected our core belief.  Throughout the life of Project SHINE, our programmatic work have responded to different environmental factors and focused on different aspects of sustaining healthy communities of all ages and cultures.  Organizations, like individuals, grow by learning throughout its life-cycle.  And so SHINE continues to expand our core service learning program and explore new and meaningful roles that support the mutual growth of college students and older immigrants and refugees in our communities. 
 
Our latest research studied ways in which older immigrants and refugees already engage civically and contribute to their communities.  SHINE is currently working with three pilot project sites to expand older immigrants' social networks and create culturally relevant roles that support and sustain elders' civic engagement.