Intergenerational Program Database

Affordable, Intergenerational Housing to ensure that all children and youth who experienced foster care are rooted in family and community. Our intentionally designed communities empower community members of all ages who live in 12 affordable rental cottages/apartments for foster, adoptive and kinship families; 8 studios for youth aging out of foster care, and 46 affordable rental 1 BR cottages/apartments for older adults.

Audivi helps individuals save and play back memories in a personalized memory bank. Optimized for individuals with memory loss, Audivi’s platform is designed to ensure ongoing access to memories, offer a tool for caregivers and provide a mechanism to increase connection and reduce loneliness. As an app-based product, Audivi offers a wonderful opportunity for youth to connect with the older adults in their lives, share their curiosity and technical skills with them, while also creating a lasting gift and resource.

Partners in Rhyme (PIR) is a six-week intergenerational poetry program where older adults and teens gather in small groups to read, discuss, and write poetry. The program is held in high school English classes or community centers in the greater Boston area. Each session consults works from contemporary and classic poets on wellness and social-emotional learning themes such as gratitude, mindfulness, resilience, and personal refuges. After a guided discussion that focuses on personal responses to poems, everyone does some reflective and creative writing. There is a poetry reading at the end of the program open to the public. The goals include: PIR Goals: (1) Bring generations together using poetry to facilitate meaningful discussions and develop deep connections. In the process, reduce social isolation, shed stereotypes that each age group have for the other, and cultivate compassion in teens for older adults. (2) Expand social and emotional learning (SEL) by selecting poems to explore various SEL topics. Help participants develop empathy and communication skills as they engage with people outside their typical peer- and age-groups. (3) Provide a novel experience with poetry allowing poetry-phobic participants to develop an appreciation for the art. Keyword: Program of Merit

The mission of CitySites is to build connections across the generations through regular and ongoing social engagement between older and younger program participants. CitySites offers weekly intergenerational events in senior housing and senior centers throughout Boston. Service-learning and community-engagement college students are matched with sites where they organize and host activities, which are directed by older and younger participants. CitySites activities include language exchanges/ESL assistance, Tech Cafes, creative writing, story shares, games, adult coloring, and arts and crafts. Our intergenerational programs are multicultural and frequently multilingual. In bringing older and younger people together, we strengthen the social connections of program participants as well as the larger community by building bridges across generational, educational, cultural, economic, and linguistic differences. Keyword: Program of Distinction

Learning through Creative Play and Intergenerational Programming Keyword: Shared Site

Learning through Creative Play and Intergenerational Programming Keyword: Shared Site

Our intergenerational programs pair middle school students ages 11-14 and adults in an intimate group setting in school classrooms, eldercare centers and museums. The programs meet weekly and over the course of six weeks, participants together explore and create art, music, poetry and/or movement as they discover each other. Sessions are led by a trained facilitator with a customized Sweet Readers curriculum. Our programs foster a warm, inclusive feeling of community during which everyone has a vital purpose.

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts serves more than 108,000 individuals facing food insecurity, 33 percent of whom are children under the age of 18. Not eating enough healthy foods can have devastating effects on a child’s health, growth and development—both physical and mental. Intergenerational Community Meals is a healthy cooking workshop series targeted at families with members of all ages. The workshops cover topics related to nutrition, healthy eating habits, cooking at home, shopping on a budget, and physical activity. During each class, a meal is prepared, and everyone is involved in its preparation. At the end of each class, participating families get to take home a bag of groceries so they can replicate the recipe at home.

Members of Grace Church, students from Garden Gate preschool, and residents of Havenside Elderly Housing tend the garden together. Keyword: Shared Site