What are the steps to developing impactful, long-lasting intergenerational programming?
All settlement houses are so different, and are responding to vastly different needs in their neighborhoods. That means there is no one right way to develop intergenerational work at your organization.
That said, we do believe there is a basic process you can follow.
1. Get Inspired About Intergenerational Work
2. Educate Yourself
3. Start Some Programming
4. Engage Staff and Participants in Planning
5. Is It Working? How To Keep It Going?
We developed this process over the course of three years, by working with a group of settlement houses across the country to help them create intergenerational programming. Below is the suite of tools we made to share what we learned through those collaborations.
1. Get Inspired About Intergenerational Work
Connecting Communities Across Age: The Power of Intergenerational Work
Generations Connect created this video to inspire people to take on intergenerational work. The 9-minute video highlights intergenerational initiatives at Sunnyside Community Services, BronxWorks, and Queens Community House (QCH), showing real-world examples of why intergenerational work is so powerful.
Why Are Settlement Houses Perfect for Intergenerational Work?
This one-pager explores the shared principles and goals of settlement houses and intergenerational work, and explains how they both work towards the same outcomes.
Intergenerational Impacts
This diagram lays out the impacts of community-based intergenerational programs on older people, younger people, and the organization.
Making the Case for Intergenerational Work
This report from Generations United is a comprehensive review of the literature on intergenerational programs and highlights evidence-based findings on the impacts of intergenerational programming. It can help you make the case for running intergenerational initiatives at your settlement house.
Is Your Organization Ready To Be An Intergenerational Community Center?
This survey highlights what it takes for your organization to be ready to become an intergenerational community center. Filling it out helps you reflect on your current practices and areas where you can improve. Thanks to Dr. Nancy Henkin and Generations United who developed the original assessment this tool is based on.
2. Educate Yourself
What Does Intergenerational Mean?
This one-pager breaks down the definitions of "Intergenerational," "Intergenerational Programming," and "Intergenerational Community Centers."
Getting Started: How To Build Your Intergenerational Community Center
Are you interested in bringing different generations together at your settlement house? It can be hard to know where to start! This booklet can help.
Intergenerational Best Practices: Seven Guideposts to Impactful Intergenerational Work at Settlement Houses
This set of cards shares what Generations Connect has learned about what makes truly impactful intergenerational programs at settlement houses. These can be used to onboard new staff, educate staff across departments, or can be shared with participants who are part of planning and shaping intergenerational work at your center, to help them understand how you plan to do intergenerational work.
Is It Intergenerational?
This set of cards shares what Generations Connect has learned about truly impactful intergenerational programs at settlement houses. These can be used to onboard new staff, educate staff across departments, or can be shared with participants who are part of planning and shaping intergenerational work at your center.
Is It Intergenerational? Facilitator's Guide
The Facilitator's Guide helps staff understand how they can use the "Is It Intergenerational?" Tool to facilitate conversations about activities and programs. It also offers real-world examples of activities that embody each value.
Case Studies
Shares three case studies to inspire and educate, sharing key insights from direct service staff about the implementation and impact of intergenerational work.
Building a Strong Leadership Team For Your Intergenerational Work
To create intergenerational programming and start developing your intergenerational community center, you need a well-oiled and effective cross-departmental team of staff members leading the work. This tool provides some tips on how to build a strong team of staff that communicates well and gets things done.
Team-Building Guide
This resource offers a suite of activities designed to develop and strengthen groups who are working together on a specific project. Originally written for groups of older adults, it can be adapted to help intergenerational groups get to know each other better and work together more effectively.
3. Start Some Programming
Designing Programs Based On What You're Already Doing
You don't need to start a whole new program to bring intergenerational work to your center. This worksheet helps you design a program or an activity based on what you're already doing.
Neighborhood Pen Pals, Across Generations: A Ready-To-Use Intergenerational Program
This program connects older adults with younger folks living in the same neighborhood through letter writing. This program helps combat age-specific stereotypes and builds relationships between older adults and younger folks who otherwise might not have opportunities to connect.
Living Room Conversations: A Ready-To-Use Intergenerational Program
Living Room Conversations are a way of bringing people together to connect across divides. Designed for small groups, this program focuses on getting participants to learn to listen through conversations built around a specific topic. The Living Room Conversations website provides guides to facilitate discussions around a wide variety of topics and prompting questions.
PhotoVoice: A Ready-To-Use Intergenerational Program
PhotoVoice is a tool for developing, sharing and building support for community change. It is a creative, empowering and flexible process that combines photography with grassroots action, using photography for community members to share their experiences and views in order to create change.
PhotoVoice Full Guide
This resource provides a more extensive step-by-step guide to launching a PhotoVoice project.
4. Engage Staff and Participants in Planning
Involve Your Community in Planning
Are you developing a new intergenerational program? Or trying to figure out what first steps to take to bring generations together? Maybe there is an issue or conflict that has bubbled up in your community center that you are hoping to address? Use this worksheet before you get started to figure out how to involve your community as you tackle these questions.
Elevator Pitch Worksheet
Elevator pitches are useful tools to keep in your back pocket when you're thinking about recruitment and promotion of your project. Having one prepared ahead of time means you're ready to take any opportunity that arises to spread the word about what your team is doing! Use this tool to develop your elevator pitch for your intergenerational initiative.
Contact Sheet
Use this contact sheet anytime you interact with potential participants to find out how they prefer to be contacted and to get a sense of their interests so you can follow up effectively.
5. Is It Working? How To Keep It Going?
Intergenerational Event/Program Feedback Form
You can use this feedback form at the end of any intergenerational program. Feel free to turn it into an online form (for example, using Google forms, or Survey Monkey), or just print it out and have folks fill it out on paper. Download the Spanish version here.
Running a Visioning Session
All-ages community centers are ambitious projects and can take years to develop. As you work towards your goal, visioning sessions – at any point in the process - can inspire and help build ownership among staff and participants for the future center. This activity brings a group of people together to imagine what a successful future could look like and what they might do to start to get closer to their vision.
Youth Post-Survey for Intergenerational Programs
You can use these surveys with youth participating in your intergenerational programs. There are three versions, each for different age ranges.
How To Grow Roots
This tool helps you make intergenerational work part of your organization's culture and DNA, so that it can continue to exist through staff turnover.
