BANGOR – Children need hugs and people who will listen and talk to them. And so do senior citizens.

Penquis Community Action Program’s Foster Grandparent Program can now help more children and older citizens because of a grant from the Program of National Significance for $80,000.

The Foster Grandparent Program places low-income seniors, age 60 and older, into schools, day care centers and Head Start programs to work with children. The children who are given foster grandparents tend to be disadvantaged and need help socially or academically, according to the organization.

Penquis CAP serves all counties in Maine, except Cumberland and York counties. According to Penquis CAP program manager Gary Dorman, there are 88 foster grandparents in the program located in 53 different sites throughout the state. About 350 to 400 children have foster grandparents.

“The biggest thing we hear back from them is that this [program] renews their self-value – they still have something to contribute to society,” Dorman said Wednesday.

Gloria Furrow of Stetson has been a foster grandmother for nearly seven years.

“It has helped me greatly,” said Furrow, who works at the Hilltop School in Bangor. “I miss my [own] children and they all have families of their own and this [program] gives me four hours out of the home to do what I love to do.”

Furrow, who is in her 70s, said when she’s with the children, she doesn’t act her age.

“I’m very active with them,” she said. “I go out in the sandbox with them and make castles and play on the swings with them. I feel younger.”

The grant money will be used to hire a part-time recruiter, Dorman said. He said the recruiter would go out to senior citizen housing units and try to recruit low-income seniors to be part of the program.

Penquis CAP plans on targeting the Dover-Milo and Lincoln-Millinocket areas. They hope to recruit 10 grandparents from each area.

“We feel we have a need there once people find out about the program,” Dorman said.

In addition to helping senior citizens, the children reap many of the benefits, Dorman said.

“These kids are happy to have a person there to listen and someone to give them reassuring hugs,” he said. “A lot of these kids come from broken homes or there are no grandparents around. A lot of children are now getting to know the benefit of intergenerational bonds that they don’t get in their regular lives.”

To be chosen for the program, seniors must complete an application process, prove that they have a low income and pass a background check.

Seniors are required to work 20 hours a week but are compensated with a stipend, which the grant will help pay for, Dorman said.

“It’s great when you need the extra money when you’re on a fixed income.” Furrow said. “If I could afford to do it for nothing, I would.”

For more information, call the Penquis CAP office at 973-3611 or 973-3684.