San Luis students and seniors build bonds through TAG program

San Luis High School students spent the last 10 months meeting with border seniors monthly or biweekly, sharing recipes, photos, meals and life lessons through Together Across Generations, a University of Arizona program built to reduce isolation among older adults. The effort landed in a state where nearly 1 in 5 Arizonans is 65 or older, and in Yuma County, which was under an Extreme Heat Warning through Aug. 9 with daytime highs expected to reach 117 degrees.

For Francisca Castillo, a San Luis senior in the program, TAG has been “a blessing.” The connections have also taken small, practical forms, including Camila Mesa, a San Luis High School graduate, helping clean dishes for a TAG senior.

TAG is part of a broader project focused on loneliness in older adults living in border and rural communities, where geographic isolation and limited social connection opportunities can make regular contact harder to maintain. In San Luis, the program has brought teenagers and older neighbors together around ordinary tasks and conversations.

Arizona Department of Health Services materials on social connectedness call for checking on neighbors and family members during extreme heat. In a community like San Luis, where older adults face both aging-related isolation and the pressures of border-region heat, TAG centers recurring visits, shared meals, photos, recipes and practical help such as dishwashing.