We’re less than three weeks away from honoring the 2014
Best Intergenerational Community Award winners: The
Greater Phoenix Region, Arizona; City
of Parkland, Florida; Reston,
Virginia and Village
of Shorewood, Wisconsin.
These four winners are examples of communities across America
that are developing innovative practices, programs and policies to solve
challenges that benefit people of all ages.
Intergenerational communities thrive because they build
strong, supportive communities with fresh solutions to challenges that help
people of all ages. They advance policies and practices that both acknowledge
and promote intergenerational interdependence.
Last week, we highlighted a few of our inaugural winners from 2012. In the weeks leading up to our March
25 event, we’ll continue sharing stories from our past winners’ stories.
This is the second in a three-part series that shows why age-intentional
strategies are important.
Introducing…San
Diego County, California (2012 winner); Virginia Planning District 10 (2012 winner) and Dunedin, Florida (2013 winner).
With three million residents to serve, San Diego County absolutely believes in
the need to support intergenerational connections
Today, all types of county services and programs have an
intergenerational aspect. Libraries and Parks and Recreation offer
intergenerational art, math, reading and jazz programs. Older adults take part
in a Workforce Academy for Youth, mentoring foster youth for six months as they
get ready to leave the foster system and join the work world.
Young people
have the opportunity to join the Legacy Corps Program where they serve
caregivers and learn about the aging process. The county also works with
providers that serve older adults and youth to sponsor Resident and Youth
Leadership Academies. These academies train older adults and youth in
leadership, and primarily focus on community planning principles and
environmental prevention strategies. The list goes on.
Covering the City of Charlottesville and sprawling
counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson, Virginia’s Planning District 10 was
until fairly recently as divided in its approach to serving multiple generations
as in its geography.
Today, all eight community centers have active
intergenerational programs, and adult care centers interact on a daily basis
with co-located child care centers.
In addition, there are intergenerational song-writing/performance
programs, tutoring opportunities, vocational education programs, nutrition
initiatives, and high school student representation on JABA’s volunteer board
as well as many other intergenerational activities.Community gardens yield
locally grown food that is used to feed elderly residents at the local
community and senior centers.
Dunedin, home
to over 35,000 residents, formalized its efforts to connect generations 1992.
That’s when the community’s Committee on Aging formed an Intergenerational
Subcommittee “to bring public awareness to the value of intergenerational
relationships by supporting and promoting recreational, educational and service
projects that bring together people of all ages.”
Today, intergenerational awareness in Dunedin is
free-flowing and seamless. This mindset resonates from the city leaders through
staff and into the community. Each year
since 2006, the mayor has issued a formal proclamation to bring awareness and
commitment to the community’s celebration of Intergenerational Week.
During that week – the first full week in December – the
city celebrates activities to cap off all the events and programs that brought
generations together throughout the year.
Yearly, there are 29 events in the city that bring
together multiple generations, along with ongoing programs, ranging from
teenagers visiting nursing homes, intergenerational activities at senior
centers and holiday festivals.
Read the full community profiles here. Stay tuned for next week, when we introduce Itta Bena, Mississippi; Montgomery County, Maryland and Westchester County, New York.
