Intergenerational Program Database

For 10 consecutive weeks, students from the Dedham Middle School come to the Hebrew SeniorLife campus at NewBridge on the Charles to engage in activities with residents in the Memory Support (dementia) unit of our Health Care Center. This program is modeled after a similar initiative with the Rashi School, a K-8 Jewish Day School that shares a campus with NewBridge on the Charles. With both school communities, students are trained to work with Alzheimer's and dementia patients, and help lead weekly activities to stimulate residents' bodies and minds. Keyword: Shared Site

The Dance Generators are a group of dancers in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's who come together through a shared commitment to innovative theater making. The Dance Generators give both dancers and spectators the opportunity to see and understand that dance need not be limited to young people. Through their creative process, the company reclaims dance as an art form for diverse bodies. Keyword: Shared Site

Habitat Intergenerational Program (HIP) promotes awareness and conservation of the natural environment through educational programs and community service projects coordinated by Massachusetts Audubon’s Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. Community service and educational activities take place within the 84-acre sanctuary and out in the surrounding communities. HIP activities bring people of all ages together to work on a variety of environmental service projects: removing invasive species, helping to rejuvenate a pond, restoring walking trails, and creating wildlife habitat areas at schools using only native plants. HIP programs and partnerships include Cherney Middle School, Herb Study Group, Pulling Partners, Just For You, Winter Senior Project, HIP Family Bird Walks, HIP Spring and Fall Trails Days, and the HIP Steering Committee.

Swampscott High School and Council on Aging share a physical location. High school students occasionally volunteer at the COA, but an annual pen pal/book exchange program with the elementary school children is established.

Generations Incorporated engages older adults (ages 50+) as literacy volunteers to children in kindergarten through grade three. We serve in 17 public elementary schools and after-school programs (called partner sites) in low-income communities. Our highly trained volunteers provide one-on-one and small group literacy support to students – all are at-risk of school failure and 80% are low-income. Our results-driven programs generate strong intergenerational relationships that get results and improve lives.

Jumpstart Community Corps creates meaningful intergenerational relationships between preschool-age children and older adults living in low-income communities. These relationships help children gain essential language, literacy, and social emotional skills, while simultaneously transforming the lives of the older adult volunteers who work with them. Jumpstart Community Corps facilitates the creation of these relationships by recruiting and training teams of six to ten older adult volunteers, called Corps members, to deliver Jumpstart’s research-based language and literacy curriculum to children in pre-kindergarten classrooms throughout a school year.

K-State Grandparents University is an opportunity for grandparents and grandchildren (ages 8-12) to come together for a three-day educational experience while spending time together on the KSU campus. K-State GPU gives multi-generational families the opportunity to experience college life together during the summer.

Residents volunteer to be matched with a student from an immigrant family, and the group meets monthly throughout the school year. Many of the children don’t have the opportunity to see their grandparents frequently, and this program gives them an opportunity to interact with a caring older adult. The resident volunteers also help the children learn more about Midwestern culture as they share how times have changed since they were kids. The year ends with a joint quilting project with the students making quilt squares depicting what they’d like to do when they grow up.

The Foster Grandparent Program provides mentoring opportunities to children and youth to help them develop the academic and life skills that are critical to thier development and future successes.

A shared site with various older adult living services (assisted and independent) and a pediatric daycare. Keyword: Shared Sites