From our experience, we know that people are very willing to be candid about their lives, their hopes, their feelings and their needs. Plunge participants and the people they visit all have stories to tell as a part of bridging the gaps between each of our different experiences. Charles Burnside, a Memorial Health Systems security guard, went on a plunge because he and his family lived in the neighborhood where the plunge took place. "There was a shooting a few months ago - a guy was walking home from work and got shot, " he said, "My house has been broken into. I see the improvements being made, and I'm encouraged by them. But I know change takes time. And I can't afford to have my kids get hurt."

Betty Hubler, an elderly widow, told plunge participants that she can't depend on neighbors like she used to. "I was born in this house, and I have seen big changes," she said, "At one time, everyone owned and took care of their homes. Now, there is so much rental. Years ago, I knew everyone. Now I don't know anyone."

How To Construct A Plunge

Step 1: Decide the general theme, pick a topic, identify a community need you'd like to learn more about. (Examples: crime, drugs, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, aging, etc.)

Step 2: Determine when and where you will go on your plunge.

Step 3: Ask others on your own staff, other agencies and organizations, individuals who are directly affected, and community leaders to participate in both (or either) the planning or implementing stages.

Step 4: Determine how you will transport people on the plunge - will you walk, take a bus, or some other inventive method. The number of people you invite will help you make this decision. Don't forget to consider your participants as well - Will they be able to walk?

Step 5: Make sure your transportation decision works with your visitation schedule. If you decide to use a bus but can't get it into the parking lot of the place you are going or down the alley way - you may have to rethink your route, topic or even transportation choice.

Step 6: If you are going to take a larger group on a neighborhood plunge, you may want to have the neighborhood organize the event - provide the tour guides and lead the discussion. Let the people have ownership in the plunge experience.

Step 7: Another thing to consider is the amount of time you expect to commit to your activity. A plunge can last anywhere from four to eight hours.

Step 8: Remember there are some advantages to having everyone traveling together. A bus or large van serve as good tour vehicles, allowing participants to get a perspective of the plunge setting. And while everyone is together, it's a good time to begin "debriefing" about the experience. Impressions are fresh on everyone's minds, ideas may have been sparked. Take advantage of the time you have together to talk about your experience and capture any new ideas. The interaction of participants between stops serves to enhance learning and reinforce the experience.

Step 9: It, is important that the people and/or agencies you're interested in getting to know have a clear understanding of your objectives in order to guarantee effective participation. Past perceptions about your organization may play a large part in how receptive people are. The more positive the perception, the easier it will be to garner support.

Step 10: You must be clear about your intentions with the agencies or individuals you are approaching for a site visit. It's good to have any questions cleared up and ground rules understood well in advance of the visit, and it's important to communicate ground rules to plunge participants before you arrive.

Step 11: Give yourself a time line of a few months to get everything together. Of course, getting your board together for a day-long program isn't always easy. There is a lot of coordination that must go on between the plunge sites, plunge participants and transportation in order for all to work smoothly.

Step 12: Remember that plunges are generally informal events. Dress is typically casual and appropriate for the environment in which the plunge takes place. Business or formal attire can stifle conversation when the people you are talking with don't have the luxury of dressing likewise. Still, as a courtesy to the people you are meeting with, wearing name tags is a good idea.

Margo Demont noted that the bridges participants make between their own fears and the plunge issue can be very important. After a stop on the Aging Plunge to a County home for the indigent aged, she remarked that sometimes for participants . It was very depressing Some people are very fearful of aging." She added though, that these moments build participant self-awareness, a vital component in processing and coming to terms with our own unease, and even possible solutions later. Plunges may entail facing the gaps in our own certainty and comfort level in efforts to build bridges of understanding and acceptance.

Margo also tells of more lighthearted examples of learning on the Aging Plunge. At one stop, plunge participants stopped senior residents to ask what they liked best about the community in which they lived. She recalls one of the answers: "'Our little store - its' so fantastic - you can go in and buy two eggs and half a loaf of bread,"' Margo laughs, and points to the discovery about senior life to be made. "You realize, 'Well Gosh, when I'm old and alone, man, you're right - I'll only need two eggs. Gee, I never thought about a whole loaf of bread."

A new Memorial Health System Board member, Richmond Calvin, said that as a plunge participant he learned more "about the kind of partnerships the hospital is involved in ... It has also opened my eyes to the complexities and complications people go through and how our value systems are different - sometimes foreign - because our worlds are so different ..."

Exploring different worlds is exactly what a plunge is. By itself, a plunge is not a promise of some future action. Rather, it is an informationgathering tool that may help in future decision-making, refine projects already under way, or help to garner support for proposed new programs.

In another sense, however, a plunge is something that can help your organization develop and nurture better linkages in your community. It may be a catalyst for new ideas, it may help bring groups together (hospitals and schools, for instance) that might not otherwise have realized their commonalities. A plunge can be one of the threads that weaves together the patchwork that eventually will become a Healthy Community!

Still, some very tangible things can come as a result of a plunge. Memorial's Leighton Center for Senior Health, which was constructed in 1989 thanks to the generosity of benefactors Judd and Mary Lou Leighton, was developed as a result of the Aging Plunge experience.