Intergenerational Cross-border Seminar Dundalk Institute of
Technology
25th May 2011
A North/South seminar was organised by Youthnet in partnership with Linking
Generations NI to share learning and practice on intergenerational work and provide an
opportunity for practitioners to link and partner with other organisations interested in work
between the younger and older generations
Background
What is intergenerational Practice?
Intergenerational Practice provides structured opportunities to bring different generations
together with the aim of improving understanding and increasing the mutual support they
can provide. This contributes to the building of age friendly communities where everyone
respects one another, has a voice and a role to play.
Bringing generations together can counter the negative perceptions each group may
have of the other and build positive relationships based on trust and mutual
understanding.
Youthnet
Youthnet is the Voluntary Network for Northern Ireland – an independent agency, which
represents the interests and aspirations of more than 70 voluntary youth organisations.
Youthnet works with and for the voluntary youth sector in Northern Ireland by
representing the views of the sector to Government and policy makers and by providing a
range of information and support to member organisations.
Linking Generations NI
LGNI is an Intergenerational Initiative creating opportunities for younger and older people
to meet and learn from each other. It promotes the development of Intergenerational
Practice across Northern Ireland by:

Raising awareness of the nature and purpose of IP;

Managing small grant schemes;

Providing training and support;

Working in partnership with organisations to promote IP;

Providing advice and guidance
Intergenerational Practice – A North/South Conversation
May 2011
Introduction
Dr Lucia Carragher from the Netwell centre, based at Dundalk Institute of Technology,
provided a short input on the concept of an ‘Age-friendly’ society and the role that
Intergenerational practice plays in achieving this (Dundalk is designated an ‘Age-friendly’
City by the World Health Organisation and County Louth is promoting itself as an Age
Friendly County).
The Netwell Centre is a research centre for ageing and later life that explores how
we as a society can support a growing older population. The emphasis of Dr
Carragher’s input was on challenging negative perceptions of older people and
encouraging a discussion on how to be inclusive of an ageing population.
An in-depth context for how this is envisaged within Louth County Council was
presented. Of particular interest was the cross-sectoral partnership approach that
had been adopted within Louth.
For the Netwell Centre Intergenerational Work provided a number of challenges and
opportunities that largely emerged from the issues highlighted in consultations with
older people. One example of this was community safety. The Netwell Centre also
had a number of initiatives set up where young people were encouraged to support
older people through a befriending network.
One of the key tensions that emerged from this presentation was the question over
resources; is there a conflict between growing care demands and youth
development funds?
Dr David McConnell from Linking Generations provided an overview of its work on
intergenerational practice and provided a number of challenges to the ‘age agenda’.
Linking generations has supported over 50 projects through a small grant scheme
and organises regular consultations between young and older people on a range of
issues. Funded through The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Community Safety Unit
their work focuses on generational equity, building age friendly communities,
tackling social justice, consolidating the peace process and building safer, shared
and more confident communities.
The focus of its work is on creating dialogue across the generations that results in
shared learning and mutual respect.
David McConnell questioned whether there is the capacity within an age focused
agenda to adequately support work with young people? He suggested that
oftentimes dialogue happens on an unequal footing and that there needs to be an
equal relationship between both generations in any dialogue on building an ‘Agefriendly’ society.
Intergenerational Practice – A North/South Conversation
May 2011
Summary of Discussions
Support for Intergenerational Work
There was some discussion on the types of support needed to encourage organisations
and communities to carry out intergenerational work.
One suggestion was to provide greater access for organisations and practitioners to
information on intergenerational work. For example, having a place to go for information
on:
- What is happening in your area?
- What types of programmes have worked well?
- Who is providing support/ resources to support this work?
- Who can I contact about training/ support for delivering a project?
Two websites were suggested as a starting point for this:
http://www.centreforip.org.uk/
http://www.emil-network.eu/
Other issues highlighted by participants were:
- the need for a coordinated policy framework within which to drive the work and;
- Access to core funding to develop good practice and support small grants for
intergenerational projects
A number of examples of funding were identified by participants. These ranged from
small grants schemes awarding extra value to bids that incorporated an intergenerational
element to a life long learning funding stream within the Department of Education (ROI).
There was also some discussion on developing a structure or framework under which
intergenerational work could sit. One suggestion was to link it in with the ‘Age friendly
county structure’ that Louth had adopted. However, it was highlighted that care needs to
be taken that intergenerational work isn’t dissipated into other agendas.
Some suggestions for practice
A number of participants highlighted the value and impact of work they had been involved
in. For instance, peace-building initiatives have begun to see the value of work between
the generations and Irish Peace Centres have recently produced a report highlighting
this. Log on learn was another programme identified, running in the ROI that is well
structured and effective.
Intergenerational Practice – A North/South Conversation
May 2011
It was suggested that creating links with organisations that had a level of expertise and
knowledge of intergenerational practice was invaluable to delivering a programme. It
could provide organisations wanting to deliver intergenerational work with training
opportunities, examples of good practice and structured support for developing a project.
Participants suggested that building links with both older people’s organisations and
youth organisations was crucial to a successful project. Having both partners represent
the older and younger generations ensured an equal relationship between both. Each
sector has its own emphasis and a consensus needed to be found between the partners
involved in any project. Working in a partnership approach also allowed for the sharing of
resources, for example, venue or refreshments costs.
Participants also made reference to the issue of disability and the intergenerational
practice taking place organically between young and old who are disabled.
Next Steps
A discussion took place on what opportunities there were for North/ South initiatives
particularly in light of the ‘European Year of Active Ageing and Intergenerational
Solidarity, 2012’.
Ideas included:
-
A campaign, awareness raising initiative that highlighted a strong message of
intergenerational solidarity
-
A large cross-border event to mark the year
-
A series of smaller scale events over a defined period
-
A logo/ branding exercise to which events can be linked
Linking Generations NI agreed to provide a North/ South E-zine with key pieces of
information on intergenerational practice relevant across the island of Ireland.
Intergenerational Practice – A North/South Conversation
May 2011
CONTACTS
Name
Keelin McCarthy
Cathrina Murphy
Jen Ashton
Stephanie Burns
David McConnell
Vicki Titterington
Lucia Carragher
Joanne McAteer
Nwabisa Maqubela
Ben Ewan
Sisa Potelwa
Nicola Gunn
Laura Doherty
Geraldine Lennon
Organisation
Age Action Ireland
DKIT
Springboard Opportunities
Irish Peace Centres
Linking Generations NI
Linking Generations NI
Netwell Centre, DKIT
Irish Centre for Social
Gerontology
Newry and Mourne District
Council
Threeways Youth Committee
Individual
Youthnet
Individual
Springboard Opportunities
IWA Drogheda
IWA Drogheda
Anne McKeown
IWA Drogheda
Caroline Finn
Sean McKevitt
Intergenerational Practice – A North/South Conversation
Email
keelin.mccarthy@agenaction.ie
Cathrina.murphy@mydit.ie
jen@springboard-opps.org
sburns@cooperationireland.org
dwmac77@hotmail.co.uk
vicki@bjf.org.uk
lucia.carragher@dkit.ie
caroline.finn@nuigalway.ie
sean.mckevitt@newryandmourne.gov.
uk
our.1@live.co.uk
nwabisamaqubela@yahoo.ie
bewan@youthnet.co.uk
geraldine.lennon@iwa.ie
May 2011