(upbeat music) - Next on "You Oughta Know".

This New Jersey organization is helping women take back their power.

A Pennsylvania man proves there's no age limit to following your dreams.

And a look at a community-based program that's allowing seniors to regain their independence.

(upbeat music) Welcome to "You Oughta Know".

I'm Shirley Min.

Americans are living longer.

So navigating new challenges is now part of maintaining your independence while you age.

And Penn's Village is there to help.

(crowd chattering indistinctly) - I love the people.

They're bright, they love growing older.

We all have great stories to tell.

You know, we have great history and we share that.

And it's fun to be with people my own age who are happy to be alive and thrilled to be moving forward.

I had been sick for a long time and my daughter wanted to get me out of the house.

She discovered Penn's Village through a neighbor and he told her that they had a companion program.

She could get me a companion to come visit with me once a week.

We started to take walks and we started to sit in Rittenhouse Square and that's how I got out and started to move around.

On Mondays and Thursdays I started to play Mahjong.

So here I had been sitting in the house for years.

I had a walk from my house at 20th and spruce to 12th and Locust.

I was invigorated by the walk and then the Mahjong games and suddenly I began to feel alive.

- Mahjong.

- Huh nice.

And that's how it started.

Now I'm out every day.

I'm really active.

I go to art class once a week.

I do everything.

- The first village was formed in Beacon Hill in Boston, the community with a lot of folks aging, not wanting to move from their beloved community.

And they got together and said, "What can we do to support each other so we could remain in our own homes?"

And that started what we call The Village Movement.

A similar undertaking happened here in Society Hill.

A group of people got together, they knew about the village concept and said, "Let's see what we can do here."

The basic concept is helping people age in place.

They're grassroots, they're neighborhood based.

We're connected to a national body called Village to Village Network and is a resource to all of us.

- I've been a member of Penn's Village for about six years and when I retired I wanted to find something that would be volunteer activity.

So I thought that would be a good fit for me.

- [Jane] If it's something we can offer, we put it out to our volunteers who have signed up to do that and we deliver.

- [Mark] We provide people with social and educational programs that are helpful in their life as they age in place.

- Do you think I want to get us both hanged for murder?

- [Mark] The theater program is one of our programs that we do.

It's a dramatic read.

- The trouble with you is that you are so damnably stupid.

- [Mark] It provides an activity for the actors and it also provides an activity for the audience.

And it's one of those come and have fun social activities that people can participate in as an actor, but members can also enjoy as an audience member.

(audience applauding) - [Tina] I call 'em workshops, some people call them programs.

There are opportunities to hear speakers on current topics, on technology, on the arts, and lots on health.

And we're not afraid to approach topics that have to do with aging.

- [Tina] You know, most people do not look at their daily diet and count up the milligrams of calcium and say, I've got enough.

- What I find most rewarding is that I'm able to contribute at a level that represents, you know, some of my past work experience.

I like challenging my brain as part of my retirement repertoire.

So you know, I sort of collect resources and like to try to answer questions and solve problems.

- I organize the walking group, manage the health and wellness blog.

That was where the walking group came from that I was reading about the benefits of walking for older people, anything that is beneficial to us.

And it could be something as simple as the importance of laughing.

I'm in my 70s.

I didn't expect to be meeting lots of new friends and I have really good friends that I've met through Penn's Village.

We have a lot in common and a lot to share.

(Sandra laughing) - It just takes interest in wanting to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

What will happen if I'm alone and I need a ride to the doctor?

What will happen as it did during the pandemic?

When I am isolated how do I become a member so I can participate in all these wonderful Zoom programs?

There's different levels.

I'm at the contributor level and for that I can attend all the programs and two free services a year.

That not only was I able to contribute and add value to an organization based on my own interest and skills, but I gained skills.

So I gave a lot and I give a lot of time, but I got a lot back too.

(soft music) (old women chatting indistinctly) - Getting older doesn't mean you can't follow your dreams.

Upon retirement from the post office, James Fullan decided to swing for the fences.

(upbeat music) (Fullan family cheering) - Entering into it, I would tell my family and friends, I just wanna play baseball.

- When student athletes come to our program we ask 'em what their goals are and his goal was come here, get his degree and play collegiate baseball.

- And if anything comes of it, it could be something I can teach somebody or inspire somebody.

(upbeat music) 1984, I graduated from Bishop Eagen High School and I started a family right away, went into the military.

I was over in Germany in the army for two years and then when I got out I got into the post office and then I was taking classes at night and I remember walking on a campus and they had a game going on.

I was about 20, 21 years old and I just said it could have been and that's really cool what they're doing and you know, good for these guys and all.

And then it just fades away and then 36, 37 years later I retire.

But I wanted to get back in the ball because my grandkids started playing and the juices got flowing again.

So I started talking about it like wouldn't it be really cool if I went back to school and maybe played ball?

And then that June I'm playing in a league and I had a heart attack.

So then I had to recover from that and then everyone said, "It's a shame that you can't do it now."

And I said, "Oh no, this is gonna get me more inspiration to do this."

(soft music) Initially I would contact schools and they gracefully and gently said that this isn't for you.

And then I started getting responses.

Well we could really use a scorekeeper.

And then I was like, you know what, I'm done cold calling, I'm done emailing, I'm just gonna show up and talk to somebody.

I attended a game at Montgomery County Community College and I talked to one of the assistant coaches and he shook his head and he said, "Yeah, there's only one thing that's gonna hold you back."

I'm like, "Oh, now what's gonna hold me back?"

And he said, "That's you".

And then I was like, this is my school, this is where I want to be.

- So we had conversations and our coaches did a wonderful job kind of bringing him in and recruiting him in a sense to be part of the team.

So it was a surprise, but he still had to make the team.

- So I enrolled and then it was like an eight week tryout in the fall and I actually got hurt that year because here I'm recovering from a heart attack and then I had torn part of my ACL and then broke my finger taking a fastball during that bet.

This is ridiculous.

So then I remember telling my sister and she said, "If you don't do this, you have to live with it."

She said, "Just make sure you're right with it."

So I got through the fall and then I was talking to my coach and I said, "I have to go to school full time now if I'm gonna be on the spring roster and if I'm not gonna make it, just let me know.

No hard feelings."

I said, "I don't wanna be looking at one of those windows during class and seeing you guys practice."

And he said, "I'll see you in the spring."

(soft bright music) So spring of 23 rolls around and my first at bat where I went to pinch hit, I hit a line drive down the third base line and I thought I had a double.

I'm rounding first and it was fouled by like a couple inches.

It's a lot of work going school every day, then you have practice every day, was quite a challenge.

And then when we entered into the spring of 24, if there's one thing I need, I need a hit.

You're limited with your at bat.

So it turned out my last college at bat is when I hit a basis loaded line to left and scored two runs.

What a way to end it.

For my personal goal, I wanted to get a hit and I wanted to get on the dean's list so I was able to get both.

It's a great moment that creates memories that will last forever.

It's the experience and the life lessons that you learn and it's a little emotional actually.

- My dad is an inspiration to lots of friends and family.

It doesn't matter how old you are, you can follow your dreams and have fun.

- Do you know someone over 50 who decided to follow their dreams?

Tell us about them and we may feature their story on "You Oughta Know".

A critical tool for law enforcement helped New Castle County police officers safely locate an 89-year-old with dementia who wandered off.

They found her pretty quickly because she was enrolled in Project Lifesaver.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] For 15 years, the New Castle County Police Department has partnered with Project Lifesaver.

A program that helps officers quickly locate adults and children who might wander because of a cognitive disorder like dementia or autism.

- A pre-programmed transmitter that has a radio frequency specific to their loved one that they can wear 24/7.

And if they were to go missing again, we will respond out with the equipment to help locate their loved one.

- [Narrator] Officers use this handheld antenna to locate the individual.

- [Kristen] If you were out in a a wooded area, it may start out as a very faint signal, but as you get closer that chirping is gonna get louder.

- [Narrator] Master Corporal Kristen Hester says Project Lifesaver uses radio frequency because it's more reliable than GPS when it comes to signal strength.

- We're always looking for new ways to help safeguard and keep the community safe.

(device beeping) (upbeat music) - There is a cost to the program, but New Castle County PD can help families who can't afford it.

Project Lifesaver also partners with law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well.

While some say knowledge is power and for women learning self-defense, that saying runs true.

We checked out Strike It Strong, a South Jersey nonprofit which empowers women with confidence.

(upbeat music) - Nancy and I co-founded Strike It Strong because we wanted to do some kind of women's empowerment and raise money for women at risk.

Part of our mission with Strike It Strong is empowerment, enlightenment, education, charity, comradery.

- One of the reasons why we were both so excited about having Jamie Miller be a part of this is she really matches the message that we want to be able to send out to women.

That some women, as they're taking these self-defense workshops, they're discovering something about themselves.

- [Jamie] When I got introduced to the ladies at Strike It Strong, I just felt honored that they trust me to teach their self-defense classes and helping women to find their confidence, to find their worthiness and to just remind them that they're strong.

- [Narrator] Jamie has evolved from an abuse victim to a mixed martial arts champion.

She's now on a quest to teach other women how to defend themselves.

- All the things I had gone through and then walking into that fight as the the underdog and I ended up knocking out their champion in the fourth round.

It just validated everything that I questioned about myself.

Like you know, am I strong?

Am I worthy?

- [Commentator] Wow.

Just like that, lightning flash.

- When you know how to defend yourself, that cultivates confidence.

Perpetrators look for the weak person.

My instruction is rooted in situational awareness, boundary setting, threat recognition.

I believe that once you're empowered through understanding how to defend yourself, like you're more likely to carry out these skills that you've learned.

- [Narrator] Each instructor at Strike It Strong encourages women to always be aware of their surroundings.

- So be aware of your surroundings, right?

If you do things like wear headphones, understand you might not hear somebody coming at you, right?

- [Jamie] Teaching them to get to a safe place without being harmed.

It's important to incorporate and remember a lot of like these smaller fundamentals like establishing a strong base.

- Keeping that one foot in front of me.

- [Jamie] We talk about verbal commands, which I think is really powerful for women because we feel like we don't have a voice in a lot of situations.

- The class is great.

Just makes you feel a little more confident for the unknown.

- I work in Center City Philadelphia.

I feel like it prepared me with the proper tools to protect myself.

- [Cheryl] There is really something magical that happens when you put a group of women together in a room and we're hoping that that's what people will experience when they come to these workshops.

Either they made a new connection or it points them in the direction of where they wanna go next.

- [Narrator] Here are the top five defense tips.

Be aware of your surroundings.

Trust your instincts.

Practice your skills.

Stand tall.

Keep your space with strangers.

- The future looks bright for Kensington High Schools' award-winning Skills USA students.

That's because when they graduate, they'll be ready to join the job force.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to our career and technical education programs.

- At Kensington High School.

There's amazing students here, students that wanna learn, they wanna do something and they do that through our programs and through competing in Skills USA.

The main goals are workforce development skills.

So we have our CTE programs, we have our computer system repair program with Ms Lockhart.

- Okay boys and girls remember that the objective is for you to create a industry cable, working of course, and it should be by the B standards.

Today's instruction involved the students making networking cables, which is basically your wifi, but being plugged up.

So they were learning the color combination, how to actually use the tools effectively and just get the RJ45 on the cable.

Cut, strip, print.

And they did amazing.

- For my engineering program, I teach them mostly design work so they learn how to do technical drawing.

They get into electronics and robotics, some drone technology.

A heavy focus on 3D modeling and 3D printing.

(upbeat music) What I have in my hands is the circuit that we're gonna construct.

In terms of the soft skills, getting to work on time, making sure you're following safety regulations and being a good team player.

This is the tricky part.

- We teach them communication, basic interviewing, learning how to speak, how to present themselves, just everything they need to know to be ready for the workforce.

- The skills that I learned in Ms. Lockhart's class will follow up with me in life, teamwork and leadership.

- [Eric] And the students create presentations and do community project where they take their skills and apply it in a positive way in the community.

- [Ms Lockhart] We would go to the Boys and Girls Club three days a week and we train these young people how to do ethernet cords, take computers completely apart, put 'em back together.

- [Eric] So our Skills USA program here at Kensington High School inspires our students to be tech-centric and motivated to getting their skills developed.

- Do you see the vision?

- I see the vision.

- Okay.

- Y'all did really good today.

- Alright, run with that.

I think that's a winner.

All the CTE programs offer certifications.

Students that graduate with certifications go straight through the workforce.

- It's fun, it's entertaining, and it's technical.

It's hands on.

It's something different.

It's not a book.

It's physically getting in and learning a skill that they can take with them outside of here.

- Skills USA is the number one workforce development organization in the country.

Our first year of competing in Skills USA, it was the first time any school district of Philadelphia school won.

We won gold at states.

(upbeat music) And then this past summer, winning the silver medal was the first time any school district of Philadelphia school won any recognition for Skills USA nationally.

It's a great feeling to say it, like we're national champs.

(upbeat music) Teaching here has been a dream, I love it.

The students are amazing and I have had a lot of fun with Skills USA and anyone interested in a STEM subject, computers or engineering, just pursue it.

(upbeat music) - You don't need a ticket to catch Apple TV's thriller "Disclaimer".

Patrick Stoner sat down with the director and the star of the show to learn more about it.

(soft tense music) - [Speaker 1] They say the destiny knocks at the door.

That is not true.

(soft music) Destiny doesn't knock on any door.

It crashes in without permission and grabs you mercilessly by your soul.

- [Speaker 2] This is a series created by people who have succeeded admirably in films.

Alfonso Cuaron has gotten an Oscar for being a director.

Cate Blanchett, of course, has gotten an Oscar for being an actress.

This is a psychological thriller about a woman who's hiding things.

But what is the truth?

- By setting your own agenda aside and being alive to having your own point of view challenged.

I think truth is a collective understanding that is made up of many, many different perspectives.

And that sort of truth being the hub of the wheel spokes in "Disclaimer" I think was really foundational in the experience of watching it.

- We're constructing, and truths depend on our perception of reality.

And the way that we interpret perception of reality is through narratives.

The narratives that we create of different things.

Science is a narrative of an understanding of certain facts and certain phenomenon that they are sometimes turning into numbers and formulas and stuff.

But that's another way of elaborating a digital narrative.

- Even visually, we can't be sure of what's going on.

- I think that if you see it for the second time, everything is revealed.

We're not withholding information and the thing is that we're allowing ourselves to be carried away by our own judgment of the situation.

And so that is tainting every single scene that we're seeing, even the way in which each narrative line is told.

- To what extent was it a temptation and a pleasure to have a guy like Alfonso who wants you to do this very complex part.

- A very complex part and a very complex series.

I knew it was going to be, it was all about the audience and it was all about what you know, response that we were hoping to elicit in an audience.

And of course Alfonzo is a director that I've long wanted to work with.

Bringing sort of a hybrid between cinema and serialized storytelling, you know.

- It really is.

- I found it really amazing, amazing.

- Thank you both very much.

- Thank you so much.

- [Cate] Thank you.

- It's a pleasure to be in the presence of such talent.

- Oh come again.

(Alfonso and Cate laughing) - WHYY is celebrating its 70th anniversary with beer.

In honor of this milestone, we partnered with a local brewery to brew our very own beer called This Is Fresh Ale.

(upbeat music) Hey everyone, I am in Germantown inside the Attic Brewing Company and I'm sitting beside co-owner and brewery boss, Laura Lacy.

Laura, thank you so much for having me.

- Thank you for coming.

I'm excited to have you here.

- WHYY partnered with Attic Brewing and we wanted to commemorate the station's 70th anniversary.

And so you created This Is Fresh Ale.

Which I love the name.

Tell me about the beer.

- So This Is Fresh Ale is a 70 shilling Scottish ale.

It's 3.9% alcohol.

So really light, easy drinking.

We brew it with some beautiful dark malts, (indistinct), crystal malt, chocolate malt to create some beautiful roasty biscuity flavors and that beautiful amber color.

We use just a little bit of Willamette hops for some floral balance, but it's a beautiful, great tasting beer.

Perfect for celebrating 70 years with WHYY.

- And how did you guys create the recipe?

Was there a lot of research that went into it?

- So we brew a lot of classic beers at Attic Brewing Company, but we had never brewed a Scottish style ale.

So it was definitely some research into what malts to use.

It is a low ABV beer, but we wanted to get a nice full flavor.

So that took some time and effort creating what malts we were gonna use.

But overall, our brewer (indistinct) is amazing.

The beer turned out great so we're really proud of it.

- How much did you make of this?

- We brew on a 10 barrel brew house, which is about 20 commercial kegs.

We kegged about half of it, canned about half of it, so you can find it on draft in our tap room and then at bottle shops around Philadelphia.

- [Shirley] I love that.

How much longer can we get cans of This is Fresh Ale?

- So we do still have cans available now and hopefully, you know, we'll have some for the next few weeks.

If it sells really well, we're gonna brew it again for the holidays so it'll be the perfect gift for the holidays.

- I love it.

Okay I'm gonna give it a try.

- Yeah.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

(upbeat music) Mhhm.

It is easy to drink.

Cheers guys.

(upbeat music) And cheers to you all at home.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope you have a good week and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music)