50 People To Know: How Allan Luks Hopes To Get Seniors Off The Sidelines
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Could senior citizens be the key to bringing the country together?
Allan Luks sure thinks so.
The Director Emeritus of the Fordham Center for Nonprofit Leaders has spent his career helping others with the Peace Corps, Big Brothers & Big Sisters of New York, the Children's Aid Society, the Alcoholism Council, and the Institute for Advancement of Health.
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He sees tremendous potential in senior citizens' wealth of knowledge and experience.
"The seniors I've worked with don't want to be on the sidelines. They really have this last lap mentality. They want to make a difference," he tells WCBS 880's Sean Adams."And the country needs some group that's going to push for social change to happen at a quicker rate, where people will come together, people will say I can cooperate. And seniors are that group."
Luks is striving to set up a program that will train senior citizens to work with, and put pressure on, public officials. He plans to start small on the local level.
"They can be the missing link, the missing leadership we need to create a society that's much more cohesive and stop being so divisive," he says.
He envisions the seniors giving wisdom and guidance while getting a sense of purpose in return.