Making Learning a Habit: SCALL

SunCoast Alliance for Lifelong Learning

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | May 2021

For years, our community had a number of individual organizations that each delivered education opportunities to adult learners. But what these groups lacked was an effective way to get the word out—to inform potential students about the offerings, events, and programs. Each group struggled with this exact same challenge.  

Enter SCALL, the SunCoast Alliance for Lifelong Learning. It was created six years ago by co-founders Sam Samelson and former president, Robert Carlson, to meet the needs of these organizations. Quite simply, the goal of SCALL is to represent lifelong organizations to the hundreds of thousands of learners in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Interim president Samelson adds that “In addition to being part of our thriving arts and culture scene, lifelong learning enhances the quality of life for our residents.” 

One of the original SCALL member organizations is Sarasota Adult & Community Enrichment (ACE), which serves adults 18 and up, though the average age of their students is 63. ACE classes are not for credit and don’t have grades, which means they’re purely about the students’ passion and enrichment—a winning combination. Pre-pandemic, they served 16,000 people a year.

COVID-19 changed the way they operated, however. “ACE continued to serve the lifelong learning community during times of despair, isolation, and lockdown, says Community Outreach and Marketing Specialist Galina Jordan. “When Zoom was still unfamiliar to many in early 2020, ACE offered free-of-charge training sessions for everyone willing to learn how to Zoom.” 

Recipients of that training included two dozen ACE teachers, who learned what they needed to begin teaching online by May 2020. ACE students took to the online offerings as well from day one and began joining classes from home and abroad. One student even attended classes from a Sarasota Memorial Hospital bed!

One of the hallmarks of ACE is right in their mission: “to provide dynamic and responsive lifelong learning opportunities to meet the changing needs of the community.” Despite offering 600 classes a year, people sometimes want something that’s not on the books. For example, a few years back, someone called to ask about classes in pickleball. “We didn’t know what it was,” Jordan admits. “No one in the office did.” But they researched it, then hired a qualified teacher and ran a successful pickleball class. 

Jordan adds, “Lifelong learning is an important component to a physically, cognitively and socially healthy lifestyle. In today’s reality, an overriding priority is the health and wellbeing of individuals. In the summer of 2020, we offered 50 online classes and, in this sense, we believe that all ACE classes are real wellness classes. Something to be proud of, no?”

SCALL Board of Directors member Lynne Anast has been a director of lifelong learning programs for over twenty-five years. Since 2007, she’s held that position at Friendship Center for Aging Studies. About SCALL, she says, “It is an amazing organization, a real clearing house for lifelong learning organizations. When senior adults move here, most of them seek out lifelong learning in the area. We make it easy for seniors to navigate the lifelong learning scene in both Sarasota and Manatee Counties.”

Anast always looks forward to the annual SCALL expo that promotes all the member organizations—this typically occurs in November. “Yet in 2020,” Anast notes, “we all faced the issues of COVID-19. A team of us led by [SCALL Board of Directors member] Robyn Levin held our first ever virtual expo. We had entertainment from McCurdy’s Comedy Club and musicians of the Sarasota Orchestra, and several of the non-profit lifelong learning organizations shared how our lifelong learning was converted to Zoom or hybrid learning. It was a big success, and our attendance was amazing.”

As of last year, Peter McAllister of Ringling College of Art and Design joined the Board, as well. “All of us at Ringling College value teaching and learning, and value serving the community,” he explains. “It is a natural fit to be part of SCALL with our Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) as an important part of the new Ringling College Museum Campus. OLLI supports the mission of the College by offering innovative programs that provide education and professional development opportunities to members of the broader community.”

In addition to OLLI, Friendship Center, and ACE, the list of SCALL members is extensive and growing: Historic Spanish Point, Mote Marine Laboratory, The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, Goodwill Manasota, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and so many more. The membership list pretty well matches any What to Do in Sarasota? list, with good reason. Sarasota is alive with creativity, cultural, arts, and education. People don’t come here just to passively take it all in. They come here to be part of it.

SCALL interim president Samelson continues to be amazed at the sheer number of people who take advantage of lifelong learning opportunities in our community and the wide variety of educational offerings. COVID-19 could’ve been a real issue, but he points out that “SCALL members were able to sustain their sense of community because of the resourcefulness of our members in coping with the restrictions caused by the pandemic and how they all embraced technology so quickly.”

Samelson hopes to have a permanent new president in place by the end of the year. In the meantime, his goal is to “to make SCALL better known both to our members and the community as the leader in lifelong learning.”

For more information about SunCoast Alliance for Lifelong Learning, please visit www.suncoastlifelonglearning.org or email info@suncoastlifelonglearning.org.