Silver Kite

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

This week's cool idea is Silver Kite, an intergenerational theatre company and arts program that’s connecting Washington state’s teens and older adults.

(Check our archives for parts 1-61.)

Silver Kite specializes in intergenerational drama curricula and program facilitation which unite generations by harnessing life stories as a basis for art-making, using creative play, storytelling, movement, and visual arts to share experiences, boost self-esteem, foster empathy and strengthen connections to self and community.

As an intergenerational theatre company, Silver Kite is a resident partner at the George Center for Community, where they offer family arts workshops, arts happy hours, storytelling open mic events, and classes for both teens and older adults.

Silver Kite also develops and facilitates programs in the community, partnering with K-12 schools, retirement communities, community centers, NGOs, and other organizations.

Their intergenerational theatre company is currently on tour with their original production of "A String."

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group. We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter! Share the inspiration.

The Resounding Resiliency of Grandfamilies: Generations United's Statement

Approximately 2.7 million grandparents in the United States are responsible for raising their grandchildren. More than one in five of these grandparents live below the poverty line. Yet their circumstances are often overlooked when trying to strengthen the financial lives of families in lower-income communities.

Despite these hardships, grandfamily households are a better alternative to placing children in non-relative care. Children raised in kinship care, or what are commonly referred to as grandfamilies, fare better than those placed in the care of non-relatives. They are more likely to report feeling loved, achieve stability, stay connected to their brothers and sisters and understand their roots and culture. They are also more likely to have a couch to crash on when they’re too old to stay in the foster care system.

And even though these grandparent caregivers are skilled money managers, they just don’t have enough to stretch when they take on raising their grandchildren.

We partnered with CFED and Citi Community Development to get a better understanding of grandfamilies, their financial lives and how the available resources can better serve them. The findings are included in our report, The Resounding Resilience of Grandfamilies: Financial Stories from Older Relatives Care for Children in Lower-Income Communities.

The report, based on interviews from 20 grandparent caregivers in Chicago and Trenton, NJ, includes stories of sacrifice. For many caregivers, sacrificing for the children meant giving up a life they envisioned. For others, these sacrifices meant giving up on thinking about the future (retirement, etc.).

These caregivers keep families together and save taxpayers $4 billion a year by keeping their grandchildren out of the foster care system.

Through our National Center on Grandfamilies, we work to enact policies and promote programs, like kinship navigators and respite care, which help grandfamilies address challenges. Research shows that programs like these can reduce costs and increase permanency, while resulting in fewer days in child welfare custody and lower rates of foster care reentry.

The Resounding Resiliency of Grandfamilies also highlights opportunities to help improve the financial situation of grandfamilies – from empowering caregivers to reach their financial goals, to seeking ways to build the capacities of caregivers’ social and family networks to financially support grandfamilies, to continuing to learn more about the financial lives of grandfamilies.

To learn more about the financial lives of the 2.7 million grandfamily caregivers in America, download The Resounding Resilience of Grandfamilies. To contribute to our knowledge about grandfamilies, share a story with us about a grandfamily in your community.

The Human Services Academy

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

This week’s cool idea is the Human Services Academy, the first intergenerational career-based program in Wisconsin, annually enrolling over one-hundred students.

(Check our archives for parts 1-60.)

Human Services Academy is unique in its opportunities for student involvement in the daily activities of community non-profit agencies.

The mission of the Academy is to create a lasting bond between generations while providing an education to youth in a quality intergenerational learning environment.

This hands-on classroom is located in a building shared with Child Care Centers of Marshfield-Tiny Tiger and Companion Day Services.

In the Marshfield Human Services Academy, education is a shared responsibility among students, teachers, parents, and the community.

Alliances have been created with individuals and agencies in our community using the talents, resources and expertise of many to create rigorous and relevant learning experiences for students.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group. We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter! Share the inspiration.

The Intergenerational Outreach Choir

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we feature intergenerational program ideas that were tried and successful. This series is a tool to highlight various age-optimized programs and practices. The program descriptions are provided by representatives of the programs. Inclusion in this series does not imply Generations United’s endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.

This week’s cool idea is the Intergenerational Outreach Choir (IOCC), which is based in several locations in Oregon. IOCC's mission is connecting generations through song.

(Check our archives for parts 1-59.)

They strive to bring together intergenerational members of community through the formation of community choirs, to empower people to develop and value their own voices, to foster mutual understanding and respect among people of all ages and backgrounds, and to be a service to the public through the sharing of music and song.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas? You can also post them to our Intergenerational Connections Facebook Group. We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter! Share the inspiration.

A Grandparents Day Tribute: Paul and Muriel Horansky

written by Emily Duda

“Are we there yet?” We’d start whining as soon as our loaded minivan started the mountainous incline to Grammy and Grandpa’s house. Our family’s 10-hour drive from Virginia to New Hampshire was usually bearable until those last thirty minutes of anticipation.

When we’d finally pull into the driveway, the car was hardly in park before my siblings and I were barreling to the front door. Those of us still tiny enough would line up and beg for our turn to be lifted into Grandpa’s arms. “Up the stairs… went the bears… up, up, up!” he’d sing as he carried us around the house, one-by-one, exploring every room. Being one of 24 cousins, what a treat it was to have my special time with Grandpa- just us.

On summer trips, we’d spend our days at Lake Winnipesauke. Grammy would pack lunch and Grandpa would meet us in the afternoon, always stubbornly refusing to take off his sneakers in the sand. On other days, we’d join Grandpa in his element at the blueberry farm. The owners knew him by name and were excited to see which of us kiddos he had in tow. Our pickings would go straight back to Grammy, patiently waiting in the kitchen to whip up her famous blueberry buckle. I would watch in awe as she’d resist the urge to taste the sweet batter, scraping the bowl to the very last drop. When it was finally time to eat dessert, we’d always make them retell the story about the time our aunt had a blueberry stuck in her nose, laughing until milk came out of ours.

In the winter, the snowcapped mountains were Grandpa’s playground- the reason retirement lured them to New Hampshire in the first place. We’d join him on the slopes and watch as he whizzed by skiers half his age. Grammy would wait for us down at the lodge, eager to press her warm rosy cheeks against our cold ones as soon as we were ready to hang up our hats for the day. When we made it back to their house, we could count on a cozy night’s sleep, followed by a big bowl of Fruity Pebbles in the morning. The sweet cereal was Grandpa’s guilty pleasure- and his secret to aging in style. “Chin over your dish”, he’d warn as I’d scarf down a second bowl.

Nearly twenty years later, I can still smell, and hear, and taste those childhood trips to New Hampshire. Grammy and Grandpa have since let go of mountain life to move back to Virginia, giving trips to their house new meaning. Our action-packed visits have turned to more peaceful quality time; soaking up stories from their past and relishing in the legacy they’ve created with our growing family. At age 27, it’s hard to imagine my 90-year-old self; but if I’m lucky, I will be embracing elderhood with the wisdom, persistence, and enthusiasm of my grandparents. Until then, please pass the Fruity Pebbles.