Best programming, Forest Hills Public Schools, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Joanna Williams accepting.

The Forest Hills Senior Computer Learning Center has participants up to age 92. They ran 75 classes, had a cancellation rate of only 8%, and had 400 registrations at $50 each. That’s not why they got the award.

They got this award because they treated the older adult audience as a profitable market segment, not as a discount charity audience. In five years, LERN’s Julie Coates predicts the older baby boom generation will not only be the largest audience for a vocational and leisure programs, but it will be THE audience. As Julie says, “seniors are not they. Seniors are us.” By establishing their programs now with the expectation of a financial return, these programs are positioning themselves for the huge enrollments in the baby boom generation of learners that will occur shortly.