UMA Senior College will present its next Forum on the Future, “Young and Old, Learning and Working Together,” from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10, in Jewett Hall Auditorium at the University of Maine at Augusta.

With the modern age traditional family consisting of only parents and children at home with grandparents often times living alone or in retirement communities, traditional cross generational interaction is diminishing. Reaching across the divide, and finding purpose for older people, are volunteer programs developed to enable older and younger people to collaborate and interact.

The forum will include a panel discussion highlighting significant volunteer activities that reach across generations. Speakers include Ruth Saint Amand, director of MaineGeneral’s Retired Senior & Volunteer Program, Marianne Pinkham, director of Spectrum Generations centers who will describe her work as an enrichment coordinator with second-graders, and Terry McPhetres, a 12-year volunteer and current board member with Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.

The panelists will discuss impediments and problems that arise when younger and older people work and learn together and how these issues are resolved.

This forum is first of a series on how society can address the under-utilization of the elderly and expand their interaction with younger generations.

Forum on the Future is a series of lectures put on by the UMA College of Arts and Sciences and UMA Senior College. It is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided. A snow date is set for Jan. 31.

For more information, callRachel Paling at 621-3271 or UMA Senior College at 621-3551.