A Successful Intergenerational Housing Symposium

Thank you to this incredible group of experts who gathered to work with us to create a blueprint to increase intergenerational housing and communities in the United States. A special thank you to our partners, Jennifer Molinsky from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and Robyn Stone from LeadingAge, for working with us to make the symposium possible.

Stay tuned for the upcoming blueprint!

Generations United's Latest Blog Post

Check out our latest blog post, titled "Grandparents Show Up-Will We?," which was written by Generations United Executive Director Donna Butts. It highlights the new U.S. Census Bureau report on co-resident grandparents and grandchildren, which includes families in which the grandparents are responsible for the grandchildren. Read the story here.

Play For All Ages Webinar Recording Available

Generations United hosted a webinar on March 7, 2024, on how to develop joyful intergenerational spaces that foster playful learning, creativity, and meaningful cross-age connections. This webinar featured presentations by Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Professor of Psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, and Stephanie Firestone, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor with AARP International. Access the recording here.

The National Council on Aging's Older Adult Mental Health Awareness Day Symposium

Registration is now open for the 7th Annual Older Adult Mental Health Awareness Day (OAMHAD) Symposium, which will be held on Thursday, May 2, 2024. In one of several sessions at the symposium, Generations United's Jamarl D. Clark, Assistant Director for the National Center on Grandfamilies, GRAND Voices Keith Lowhorne and Mercedes Bristol, and Larry Cooper, Executive Vice President of Innovation at the Children’s Home Network, will discuss supporting grandfamilies to build resilience. Learn more.

Promoting Peer Support in Child Welfare

Peer support programs help ensure children and caregivers in kinship/grandfamilies can navigate the child welfare and related systems and connect with existing services alongside individuals who truly understand what they are going through.

Have you or someone you know benefitted from peer support? Share your story with us so we can uplift the power of peers! Click here to share!

As part of our effort to encourage all government systems and nonprofits that interact with kinship/grandfamilies to coordinate with each other to better serve the families, we have been creating system-specific outreach brochures. Each brochure briefly introduces kinship/grandfamilies, explains how the families interact with the named system, and describes why cross-system collaboration would be beneficial. The idea is to raise awareness and educate individuals who are new to this topic. You can share these pieces with colleagues and potential partners in the named system to help make the case for targeted support and collaboration for kinship/grandfamilies. The brochures for aging, nutrition, and Family Resource Centers are currently available, and more are on the way. Please reach out to us at info@gksnetwork.org if you would like printed copies of the existing brochures or access to the professional printing files.

Access the Aging brochure here.

Access the Nutrition brochure here.

Access the Family Resource Centers brochure here.

As always, the Network is accepting individual requests for assistance from professionals who work in systems or organizations that serve kinship/grandfamilies. Fill out the request assistance form to receive support from our team. Learn more and sign up to access our resources!

The Centenarian Portrait Project

The Centenarian Portrait Project by Teenagers is a five-year intergenerational project that connected 465 hundred-year-olds with 465 teenage artists across Australia. Coordinated by Embraced, Inc., the project was designed to combat ageism, reduce loneliness, and foster understanding across ages. Pairs of teen artists and older adults developed meaningful relationships through multiple in-person visits, video calls, letter writing, and sharing family photos. The teenage artists then created portraits that were given to their older partners. The project culminated in a national Finale in Canberra May-July 2023 that included 100 portraits of centenarians. Read more about the Centenarian Portrait Project here.

New Report Released by CoGenerate

CoGenerate released a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies, summarizing what 31 Gen Z and Millennial leaders have to say about working with older people to solve pressing problems — aka “cogeneration” — and how it can be improved. It includes 8 key insights that stretch far beyond predictable stereotypes, dozens of quotes and 9 concrete recommendations for older leaders, colleagues and allies. Access CoGenerate's report here.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Latest Report

The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently released its new report, which is titled "Family Ties: Analysis From a State-By-State Survey of Kinship Care Policies." The report identifies efforts by states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to promote kinship care and support kinship caregivers. It highlights progress made at reducing barriers to foster care licensing, long-standing inequities in financial assistance for kinship caregivers, and new opportunities to address their needs. Access the Annie E. Casey Foundation's report here.