If youth is the season of hope,
it is often so only in the sense that
our elders are hopeful about us.
– George Eliot

Intergenerational Programming

I like to think I am in the process of living with loneliness’: Co-developing cross-generational letter-writing with higher education students and older people

Sixth-graders in a nursing home — an unlikely but ‘life-changing’ school year

Intergenerational programs: It takes a village to age optimally

Writing Exercise

It is useful to connect your life story with historical events in your town, region, nation, or the world. For example, you might comment on events during the year of your birth, or that have occurred over the years on your birth month and date. For example, my brother was born while my Dad was still in the US Army in the Aleutian Islands, everyone wondering whether World War II would be over by the time he reached his first birthday. My nephew shares a birthday with the grandmother who died before he was born – May 5th is a string that ties a tech-savvy young man in early 21st century Nova Scotia to a young woman raising 8 children in the 1940s/1950s/1960s on a farm in Ontario, with electricity installed only in 1952.

In an email message to a younger member of your family, connect an incident from your family story with local or world events or trends.

Book Review

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Intergenerational Connections

How to Live Forever:
The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations
Marc Freedman; PublicAffairs, 2018.

This book promotes the value – the enduring power – of facilitating connections between and among the generations.  The author Marc Freedman has worked in this field over several decades, personally involved in executing or evaluating important social programs to bring together the young and the old.  This depth of knowledge and experience stands strongly behind his contention that the survival of society depends on generativity, the old contributing to the development of the young. 

We have become accustomed to talking about traditional, old-fashioned societies as the ones dependent upon the wisdom and skills of the old.  Yet, Freedman claims that our current change-oriented North American society is no less dependent on the investment of elders on behalf of youth.  Generational interdependence will help us thrive in the-more-old-than-young world which we are entering where the members of the boomer generation have both their parents and grandchildren (4 generations).

Through multigenerational connections, society can interweave complimentary needs – young need time and experience which the old have to give, thereby experiencing meaning and The companies are supplying viagra without prescription canada that is an effective treatment for male impotence regardless of the cause or circumstance. It is a levitra cost of sales very good vajikara. 9.It helps to reduce menstrual pain – acai juice is especially beneficial to women. 12. The ease levitra professional to use this tool really makes it unique. The second and likely more convenient choice is to female viagra buy . happiness.  Freedman talks about living forever through the Fountain with Youth while presenting numerous compelling examples of programs to facilitate such connections.

Involved in evaluating the Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs and by interviewing successful individuals who overcame desperate childhood circumstances, he learned  that what’s needed most to save a child is one person who cares and mentors.  Old people have the resources kids need – time, talent, and accumulated experience.

Freedman has been involved in implementing Foster Grandparents and Experience Corps, two widespread programs. Foster Grandparents programs match older adult volunteers with low-income children to guide them academically and provide general mentorship.  Experience Corps expands on this notion by obtaining state grants to pay low-income seniors to tutor low-income schoolchildren – money that pays twice.  At the time of publication, 2300 older adults were helping 31,000 low-income children in 20+ states through Experience Corps.

Freedman highlights a number of geographically specific exemplars of intergenerational programming. Hope Meadows is a longterm intentional community founded in Illinois during the 1990s to support families with foster children.   In Cleveland, Ohio, the Intergenerational Schools, founded by Peter and Cathy Whitehouse, bring young and old together in many ways through the one-room schoolhouse reborn.  Relatedly in Cleveland, a nursing home called Judson Manor has opened its doors to students from the Cleveland Institute for Music, free rent in exchange for playing music for the residents and participating in meals and other community events.  Many of the older residents at Judson Manor volunteer at the Intergenerational School.  The Intergenerational Learning Center at Temple University has developed programs for mentoring, family support, and cross-age relationships in immigrant and refugee communities.  Decades ago Maggie Kuhn of the Grey Panthers argued for the mutual benefits of intentional multigenerational home sharing – a phenomenon becoming of serious interest with housing crises developing in many major cities.

The lists of Recommended Readings and Intergenerational Films as well as the detailed reference notes at the back of the book facilitate follow up on intergenerational issues.

Building multigenerational connections strengthens individual and societal capacity and counteracts the forces of ageism.   With Marc Freedman, I wish us all A LONG YOUTHFULNESS OF SPIRIT.

With this shadow photo of Grandma and Grandpa with our granddaughter Angela, I bid you adieu,

Ellen