With his term ending, Marc recruited five volunteer teachers and translators to keep the program going. Finally, he helped organize a major conference on the area's Digital Divide challenges. With the support of a Learn and Serve America grant, The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and Pinellas County high schools are partners in a unique intergenerational program that involves high school service-learning students serving hospice patients and their families. A few students see patients and families in their homes, usually supporting children living with a terminally ill family member. The videos are especially popular.
Experienced teens teach others how to interview and use the camera.
Palm Harbor University High School has 100 Hospice teen volunteers from the traditional, Instructional Baccalaureate and Medical Magnet programs. The program started with a school-based Learn and Serve grant in 1996. The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast is a large facility that provides the students and 2,500 other community volunteers, with careful training, screening and selection of assignments. A program coordinator and 15 volunteer coordinators provide supervision. The Suncoast Hospice Teen Volunteer program involves a major health care agency, high schools with strong mandatory service-learning programs and bright, motivated students who accept emotionally challenging service assignments in ever increasing numbers.