JCA Heyman Interages Center - Intergenerational Bridges

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.

Courtesy of JCA Heyman Interage Center

This week’s cool ideas is JCA Heyman Interages Center - Intergenerational Bridges in Maryland that builds relationships between older adult volunteers and at-risk immigrant students through a weekly after school mentoring program in elementary, middle and high schools.

(Check our archives for parts 1-69.)

The JCA Heyman Interages® Center intergenerational programs have brought children and older adults together for 30 years.

Since 1986, thousands of children from hundreds of schools and hundreds of isolated older adults from senior facilities have benefited from participation in our programs.

Over the years hundreds of dedicated and caring older adult volunteers, who are the heart of Interages, have made a significant difference in the lives of children.

Student outcomes include improved English communication and language skills, strengthened academic success strategies, enhanced transition to life in the United States, and increased self-confidence.

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.

Carlisle, MA Intergenerational Road Races

This guest post appears courtesy of Patti Russo of Carlisle, Massachusetts. All photos courtesy of The Carlisle Mosquito.

Walk or Run! Just Have Fun!

On a cold and rainy Veterans Day in Carlisle, MA, over 160 runners and walkers toed the starting line for the town’s first intergenerational road races. Participants ranged in age from 4-91.

This event “for all ages” is one of many intergenerational events sponsored by the Carlisle Council on Aging (COA).

With all ages in mind, the race committee chose to make the race a “run/walk” instead of only a run to make it accessible to older adults. Both races included winning age group categories of 80-89 and 90+ in order to recognize older participants.

Several grandparents participated with their grandchildren.

Charlie Rubel, 6, with his grandfather
Kevin Smith. (Photo by Ellen Huber)

Among them was Kevin Smith who ran the one-mile race with 6-year-old grandson, Charlie. Charlie earned a medal for the 10 and under age group. Kevin, who won in the 60-69 age group, said that he and Charlie had a wonderful time together and hoped to run again next year. 

The Reid/Plante family also had a multigenerational showing. 

Kate and Mark Reid ran the one-mile race with their 6-year-old grandson, Roland Plante, while Alison and Doug Plante, Roland’s parents, ran the 5K.

There was a lot of positive energy and a great intergenerational vibe throughout the morning. 

It was cool to see all ages pin on a bib and bond over this shared experience of running a race together. Seventy doesn’t seem all that different from 17 when everyone’s out there finishing a race in the rain.

I know I speak for the entire race committee when I say how pleased we are with the way the day unfolded. 

In one morning, we honored veterans and shattered (or at least cracked) a few stereotypes about what it means to be an older adult, we supported nationwide public health initiatives to sit less and move more, and we provided an opportunity for the community to gather and connect. 

Click here to view enlarged image. (Left Photo by Beth Clarke) Gertrud Behn, left, and Jean Sain
finish the race with Sain first in her age category (80-89) and Behn one second behind in the same age
group. (Center Photo by Ellen Huber) Tahleen Shamlian, left, (20-29) and Patti Russo (50-59) both
won their respective age groups in the 5K race. (Right Photo by Beth Clarke) Angela Smith and
Santo Pullara cross the one-mile finish line. Pullara, 91, was the oldest finisher.

Everyone’s asking for more, so it looks like the Carlisle Intergenerational Road Races will be an annual event.

Read the Carlisle Mosquito's story on the Carlisle Intergenerational Road races.

Patti Russo, race committee member, is a Certified Poetry Therapist and a strong advocate of intergenerational programs and policies. She lives and runs in Carlisle, MA.

Urban Warriors

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 ideas is Urban Warriors, a program of the YMCA of Metro Chicago and the Adler School of Professional Psychology, that pairs youth from Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods with military veterans.

(Check our archives for parts 1-68.)

The program was featured in a July 11, 2014 Chicago Tribune article. According to that piece, some of the program’s young participants were referred by their schools or the justice system.

The program is part of the Y’s broader “focus on treating mental and emotional wounds that youths growing up in Chicago’s more fractured communities suffer.”

The Tribune article shed light on the hard lives of Alex (who was 18 at the time of the article) and Sammy (who was 15).

“I’ve seen people get shot,” Alex told the Tribune reporter, Annie Sweeney. “It does...mess my head up. But I’m living it every day. So, like, I guess I put up with it.”

“Right when I walked outside they shot someone at the corner,” recalled Sammy, who the Tribune noted is not in a gang. “Then they started chasing me and shooting. ...I got away. Again. That was my second time.”

Luckily for the young men, the vets chosen for the Urban Warrior project could relate.

Many of them not only suffered stress from their experiences in combat, but, like Alex and Sammy, they also grew up in Little Village and knew the dangers youth faced on the streets.

Read the full Chicago Tribune article.

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.

Road Scholar Intergenerational Programs

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 ideas is Road Scholar Intergenerational Programs, which were designed for adults (grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, or authorized family friends) to participate in a learning adventure with their young relatives or friends.

(Check our archives for parts 1-67.)

These programs allow older adults to get to know their younger generations better. Programs exist throughout the country.

Nancy Nathan, a Washington-based television news journalist and freelance travel writer, recounted her experience in a Washington Post article.

“We chose the Grand Canyon trip from a list of more than 60 very reasonably-priced grandparent-grandchild possibilities, from Hawaii to Yellowstone, Chicago to Chincoteague,” she wrote.

“Road Scholar — the “lifelong learning” tour group formerly known as Elderhostel and mostly aimed at older adults — expands its intergenerational tour listings by 10 percent each year.”

Learn more from Nancy’s article.

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.

Collaborating Across Generations

This post appears courtesy of Meaghan McMahon, a former Generations United intern.

If there’s anything I enjoy while serving as Aging2.0 DC’s director of Outreach and Communication, it’s accelerating innovation and improving the lives of older adults around the world.

It’s an exciting and engaging vision no matter your age. And it’s a mission our community members can get behind.

We saw that this past summer, when our volunteer team hosted an Intergenerational Innovations event at 1776, a global incubator and seed fund helping startups transform industries.

The standing-room only audience listened carefully as a panel of entrepreneurs, aging industry experts, community leaders and a representative from the DC Office on Aging shared their thoughts on collaborating across generations and business sectors to build age-friendly cities.

Click the image to enlarge.

Among them was Jeremy Dabor, chief production officer of the Toronto-based startup Sensassure, which developed and fine-tuned their incontinence sensor solution, the Smart Patch, by temporarily living in an assisted living community in Columbia, MD.

The experience gave Jeremy’s team first-hand insight and input from consumers and care partners.

“It is one thing to design a product,” the 23-year-old noted, “and quite another to build it while living with your consumers.”

Jeremy’s comments echoed the sentiments of keynote speaker Donna Butts, who spoke on the importance of well-designed, intentional and purposeful intergenerational programs.

This past summer’s event was an attempt to answer one question that unifies 35 Aging2.0 chapters in 14 different countries: how can technology empower healthy aging?

Another attempt was developing a consumer panel made up of those over the age of 50, caregivers for that population, and professionals working to serve seniors in that demographic.

Entrepreneurs, according to IDEO designer Barbara Beskind, 91, must “design with, not for” their consumers.

That comment, delivered at the 2015 White House Conference on Aging, alluded to the vision of Katy Fike, Ph.D., who established Aging2.0 in 2012 with Stephen Johnston.

Today, the global innovation platform and business accelerator works for aging and senior care with a dedication to involving the 50-plus consumer population in evaluating and designing technology products.

The consumer panel has since grown to over 500 people globally, but with your help we can engage hundreds of thousands of people 50-plus in improving aging services and supports by educating and supporting innovators in the field through intergenerational design and collaboration.

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Meaghan McMahon is the director of Outreach and Communication for the Aging2.0 Washington DC Chapter, where she directs the group’s social media campaign to increase local partnerships and identify sponsors. She assists with planning and hosting quarterly chapter community events. Read her full bio.

Interested in having a global impact? Learn more about the Aging2.0 consumer panel.

Don’t miss the Aging2.0 AgeTech Expo November 19-20 in San Francisco where aging services providers and tech companies will join together to share cross-sector innovation insights and collaboration opportunities.

Grandparents University

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.

(PHOTO: SSEC) A Granddaughter shows off the satellite model
she constructed with her Grandfather.

This week’s cool ideas is Grandparents University, a summer camp that brings grandparents and their grandkids together for three days of fun on the campus of a college.

(Check our archives for parts 1-66.)

A variety of schools have this program, including Kansas State, Wisconsin-Madison, Oklahoma State, Western Washington, and West Chester.

This experience includes hands-on educational sessions conducted by faculty members along with other fun activities for grandparents and children ages 8 to 12.

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.