Intergenerational Program Database

A service learning program for youth ages 11 to 15, the Buddy Program is an educational mentoring project aimed at strengthening intergenerational relations and increasing respect for diversity. Run in collaboration with the Milwaukee County Department on Aging and local schools, the program connects youth with older adults and people with disabilities in Milwaukee area senior centers. The youth are involved in activities designed to re-enforce compassion and create a caring, peaceful community. The youth practice skills needed for future jobs, enhance their self-esteem, develop social skills and break down generational barriers through mutual respect and understanding. Intergenerational activities include assisting with lunch, reading stories, playing games, creating art, sharing life stories and participating in spiritual formation. Keyword: Shared Site

Hope & A Future currently operate a licensed Adult Family Home for frail seniors with live in interegenerational staff. We sponsor activities open to the surrounding community--including a monthly pot-luck and house concerts, quilting and exercise groups. Attendee age range is infants to 100 year olds. Grounds, garden and construction volunteer opportunities brought over 300 people of all ages in 2015. We are activily working on plans to build housing for independent seniors and young families interested in mentoring and support. This development is for people interested in intentional community and includes shared green space and a community building offering intergenerational services and fun! Here everyone helps and is helped while living, playing, working and dying in community. Keyword: Shared Site

Clement Avenue students interacted with talented seniors at the spring Intergenerational Fair woodworking, staining…Milwaukee Public Schools.

Intergenerational Multi-Arts Program (IMAP) brings together students from Milwaukee schools and older adults from assisted living and adult day programs. The focus is to build community between intergenerational groups through the creative arts. The IMAP curriculum approaches intergenerational relationship-building from the theory that communities that share traditions and communicate through positive creative expression will be stronger and more connected.

St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care provides community-based health and educational services for children and frail adults, and serves as a resource and support for caregivers. The goal is to form a community of people from all walks of life, all ages, and all abilities that love, honor, and respect each other. Our intergenerational program forms partnerships between children's classrooms and adult unites by schedule at least three small group experiences per day such as paling instruments, singing, painting, ceramics, swimming, exercise, cooking, eating snacks and meals together, storytelling, and visiting. Facility wide events like the monthly intergenerational birthday party occur in the atrium. In addition to the pre-school program, they have a buddy program that pairs central city teens with adult clients. Keyword: Shared Site

Companion Day Services is part of the Tiny Tiger Intergenerational Center focused on bridging the gap between generations. The Tiny Tiger Intergenerational Center provides three interacting services under one roof including Child Care, Adult Care and a Human Service Academy public charter school. The Human Services Academy is the first intergenerational career-based program in Wisconsin, and possibly the nation, annually enrolling over one-hundred students. Keyword: Shared Site

The Lutheran Home offers NAYCE-accredited childcare, adult day services, dementia-specific memory care, and skilled nursing. The Lutheran Home's intergenerational program highlights the importance of creating and nurturing a community that loves, supports, and guides each other through play, creativity, and frequent interactions. The older participants, affectionately known as “Grand Friends,” children, and staff play and learn together, which builds meaningful relationships that enrich our lives and our community. The Lutheran Home community is known for consistently engaging participants, both young and old, to express themselves artistically, join in creative collaboration, and form new friendships across generations. Keyword: Shared Site

This program recruits, trains, and coordinates undergraduate students to facilitate creative storytelling sessions with elders with cognitive disabilities in care communities affiliated with the Creative Trusts in Milwaukee. Students commit to a semester of storytelling but commonly continue for the full year. At year’s end, the stories are shared publicly to inspire others to use creative engagement to nurture relationships with people with cognitive disabilities. TimeSlips is used in service-learning around the country, but the Creative Trusts offers stable, shared governance of the program that is a national model for collaboration in this important area of need.

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities has launched a network-wide intergenerational initiative, Second Acts for Strong Communities, in partnership with Encore.org, to strengthen the ability of human-serving organizations to meet the needs of our nation’s children and youth. This initiative will provide opportunities for experienced adults, age 50 years and older, to use their unique skills, experiences, and wisdom to improve outcomes for children/youth and strengthen the organizations that serve them. We believe that bringing generations together in community-based programs and the workplace will inspire new solutions, improve outcomes for youth, and fuel a new approach for promoting social change. Keyword: Shared Site

LINK-ages consists of school and community people committed to expanding intergenerational activities in the DeForest area since 1992. Its mission is to develop and support programs and activities in the schools and community that mutually benefit students, families, and older adults. Programs include Meals on Wheels, Senior Prom, reading programs and an annual bingo party.