Helping Enrich the Lives of Older Adults
By Mike Costanza
As the executive director of Oasis Rochester, 62-year-old Ann Cunningham helps the Rochester area’s older adults live richer, more fulfilling lives.
Under her direction, the nonprofit offers a broad range of benefits for those 50 years old and older, including classes in the arts and humanities, fitness and wellness programs and opportunities to volunteer in the community.
The nonprofit has just two employees — Cunningham is one of them — and about 60% of its instructors are volunteers.
About 750 older adults, whom Oasis Rochester calls “participants,” enrolled in one or more of its programs in 2024 alone. The local nonprofit is part of the Oasis Institute, which is active in more than 250 communities nationwide.
Cunningham, a married Irondequoit resident and mother of two daughters, spoke to 55-PLUS about Oasis Rochester and the path that took her to her current position.
Q: In a few sentences, what is Oasis Rochester’s mission?
A: Our mission, really, is to help older adults live vibrant, healthy, productive and meaningful lives. We do that by promoting healthy aging through lifelong learning classes, active lifestyles and volunteer engagement. We have classes in anything from history to the arts, humanities, music, tours in the community, personal development. We have exercise and music classes as well.
Q: As executive director, how do you help your nonprofit accomplish its goals?
A: It’s really kind of my role to steer the ship as an agency. I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades. I help put the classes and the catalogues together, help set the budget. I do development, I do grant writing, I connect with aging service providers in the community and I also serve on the Monroe County Aging Alliance, which is a consortium of aging service providers. We help support older adults in the community. I’m also trained in reframing aging.
Q: What is the Monroe County Aging Alliance?
A: We are a consortium of service providers in the aging services field. We come together and talk about the needs of older adults in our community, and how can we push those areas of need forward and support older adults in our community.
Q: You say you’re trained in “reframing aging.” What does that mean?
A: It’s kind of changing the narrative on aging. It’s using the correct terminology. It’s trying to help people realize that we are all aging. This is a natural process. It’s trying to look at the aging process in a healthy way. This is very much research based, but really the connotation that is set up when you use “senior” is a negative connotation, so we use “older adults.”
Q: Your background and original training were in audiology. Before coming to Oasis Rochester, you first worked as an audiologist for the Rochester Hearing and Speech Center, then as the senior audiometric technician at Monroe #1 BOCES in Fairport. What led you to enter an entirely different field?
A: I worked as an audiologist for 11 years and I took some time off to help raise my kids. During that time, you used to be able to serve as an audiologist with a master’s degree, which is what I have and that changed to a clinical doctorate. To get back into the working world as an audiologist, I would have had to have gone back to school. I wasn’t really prepared to do that at the time. My husband was downsized in 2009, so I went to work for BOCES. I worked there for about six years, but then decided I wanted something different. I loved working with students, but I also loved working with older adults. This position here at Oasis opened up and it kind of melds everything I have done in my adult career, kind of brings it all together. The needs of older adults, I understood that from my work in audiology, but also continuing the love of learning that I saw in our students.
Q: How did you feel on your first day as executive director?
A: I very much felt welcomed, like I was a part of the community. It felt like the right place for me to be.
Q: What challenges did Oasis Rochester face when you first walked into your office?
A: Our classes run on a trimester basis. Every three-and-a-half-months we have a new registration process and that was all done by paper. I was told when I interviewed that Oasis would never go to online registration and I just knew that that needed to be changed. It was a big challenge.
Q: Why was going to online registrations such a big challenge?
A: We needed to change our thinking. Our older adults are very vital, know how to take on new skills and learning how to register online was one of those things. We started training them on how to register online. We helped people who needed help accessing their computers or registering online.
Q: What challenges does Oasis Rochester face now?
A: We are still trying to recover from COVID. During COVID we switched all of our classes to Zoom, as many as our instructors would allow. Some just didn’t want to teach on Zoom. We knew how important that was to provide those classes.
Q: Did the pandemic affect enrollments?
A: We absolutely did drop by about 50%. We’re probably between 60% and 70% [now]. So were slowly creeping back. We’ve got seven Oasis ventures like ours across the country and it’s all been slow to come back.
Q: From 2011 to 2023, you sat on the board of education of the West Irondequoit School District. Why take such a responsible position while running Oasis Rochester?
A: I grew up in and received a great education in Irondequoit. We settled in Irondequoit, and raised our kids in the Irondequoit school district. I decided to serve on the school board to give back to the community that gave me and my children so much.
Q: Can you tell me of some of the school board’s accomplishments while you served on it?
A: We did a lot of advocating for our district and for public education. That meant sitting down with our area legislators. We were able to work towards a fuller funding of public education. We went to a full-day kindergarten and also made some significant capital improvements for our buildings. I’m proud of that.
Q: Since 2024, you’ve held a seat on Irondequoit’s town board. What led you to run for that seat?
A: There was an opening and I put my name forward. There was a resignation midway through a term and I was designated to fill part of the vacated term by the Irondequoit Democratic Committee. That was for one year of a two-year vacated term. I ran in November for the second year of that vacated term. Hopefully, we’re going through the process right now to put me on the ballot this November for my own four-year term.
Q: What would you like to accomplish in office?
A: I put my name forward because I wanted to be of service to the community. Monroe County is an age-friendly, livable community and we are working towards making our towns and our villages age-friendly, livable communities. Our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities are great places for people of all ages to live and so we want to make sure that we are providing safe, walkable streets, that we provide age-friendly housing and transportation, that we have access to needed services and that we have opportunities for people of all ages to participate in the life of the community.
Q: On your off time, what do you do for fun?
A: I love Americana music. It’s a blend of folk, country and rock. I go to a lot of concerts, not only locally but I do a little bit of traveling with that. One of my favorite bands is The Avett Brothers. I also love Brandi Carlile and going to Abilene [a downtown Rochester club]. I love spending time with my family. I have two adult daughters. One is living here in the community; one is still in college. When they’re in town, we like to spend time together.
Free Membership
Membership in Oasis Rochester is free. Its programs are relatively inexpensive and scholarships are available for those who cannot afford to pay for them.
For more information, go to https://rochester.oasisnet.org