Connecting the generations through crochet, conversation and community
Senior livingGuest Columnist

Connecting the generations through crochet, conversation and community

"Ideal intergenerational environments support and inspire intentional connections between the generations, maximizing engagement between participants."

Residents, staff, and children from Vincentian Child Discovery Center: McCandless participate in an intergenerational gardening program at Vincentian Terrace Place. (Photo courtesy of Vincentian)
Residents, staff, and children from Vincentian Child Discovery Center: McCandless participate in an intergenerational gardening program at Vincentian Terrace Place. (Photo courtesy of Vincentian)

I’d like to introduce you to Julie and Audrey. The pair quickly became easy friends. They were neighbors in the same apartment building, where happenstance conversations about their mutual love of animals and crocheting hobbies created a bond. They visited each other regularly, and their time together quickly became less about crochet and more about a budding friendship.

Over hours of conversations about their lives, sharing laughs and challenges, exchanging advice and crafts, Julie and Audrey crocheted more than the stuffed animals that they gave to fellow residents, their families and the building’s staff for birthdays or milestones.

Together, they crafted a meaningful relationship.

Julie’s presence often encouraged Audrey, a natural introvert, to join gatherings she might have otherwise skipped. And Julie loved her regular visits with Audrey’s cat, Smokey. Their relationship benefited each of them unexpectedly, neither imagining that sharing a street address led to a lifelong relationship.

Audrey and Julie just happened to be born six decades apart.

They met through an intergenerational living program at Vincentian Terrace Place, an independent living community for older adults 55-plus, where Audrey is a resident. Julie, an undergraduate student at La Roche University, also had an apartment there for two years. The Students in Residence program started in 2019, after Vincentian approached the university to embark on this unique partnership.

Encouraging connections between community members is integral to the program’s success. Spaces and programming are designed to bring students and residents together. Some interactions are unplanned, like Julie and Audrey’s connection, and some are intentional, like intergenerational gardening, cooking classes, book club or mindfulness yoga.

Ideal intergenerational environments support and inspire intentional connections between the generations, maximizing engagement between participants, instead of involvement or simply participating in activities together. There are a number of organizations and experts in the intergenerational field, such as Generations United, The Eisner Foundation and the Penn State Intergenerational Program, whose work focuses on the value of connections between people of different generations and how to create them…meaningfully.

Why is it important? Research shows that we’re in the midst of a national epidemic of loneliness and isolation. In 2023, as Vincentian’s intergenerational living program at Terrace Place was entering its fourth year, the U.S. Surgeon General released a groundbreaking advisory, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” shining a national spotlight on the multifaceted negative impact of social isolation and decades of research to support this groundbreaking public health advisory.

In the advisory, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy cited multiple studies correlating the physical impact of social isolation on individual and societal health outcomes, including increasing the risk of premature death by at least 25%. Lack of social connection is more widespread than other major health issues like smoking, diabetes and obesity. More than half of America’s adults experience loneliness, and some of the highest rates of loneliness are reported by young adults.

The advisory also included a national strategy with a number of recommendations. One of the key tenets is that with every level of increase in social connection, many health conditions can be reduced. Social connections literally impact our bodies physically — whether negatively by being isolated, or positively by engaging with others.

Particularly vulnerable to isolation and its effects are older adults in congregate care settings. At Vincentian Schenley Gardens in Oakland, a personal care community, a similar intergenerational living program exists in partnership with Chatham University. There, graduate health sciences students live alongside the personal care residents. Like at Terrace Place, the students design and participate in programming with the older adults. These students also use their research skills to improve community life.

This year at Schenley Gardens, students are working on capstone projects including hands-on training for staff to better understand residents who have vision impairment, the creation of an ambassador program for existing residents to welcome new residents into the community and a project aimed at helping residents increase their mobility through research-based approaches for activities of daily living. Vincentian is also seeking funding partners to help it bring a childcare center to Schenley Gardens, further connecting the generations and providing a much-needed resource in Oakland.

Practitioners across industries that intersect the generations must design programming and spaces that empower individuals to contribute to their own and others’ well-being, focusing on each individual’s strengths and abilities. This will act as an antidote to the loneliness epidemic. PJC

Patricia Embree is chief operating officer of Vincentian.

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