Opinion: In My View - Young and old together
Steven Pettican
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Across Peterborough, there is a growing interest in intergenerational practice. In October 2008 three young people - Lee, Stephen and Tom - volunteered to serve meals at a Salvation Army lunch club for older people. The video of their story inspired Peterborough City Council's director of children's services, John Richards, to get behind the development of good practice.
The Peterborough Intergenerational Action Group met for the first timein May this year. This multi-agency group includes representatives fromhealth, education, Age Concern, Peterborough Council for VoluntaryServices and Peterborough Youth Council. The group is mapping currentintergenerational projects, sharing good practice and raising theprofile of this work to strategic leads within the city.
Another great example of generations coming together in a meaningful wayis at the Teddy Bears Inn day nursery, where staff ages range from 19 to78. 'Great gran' as all the children have taken to calling her, was inprimary teaching for over 40 years and brings a whole different set ofexperiences into the nursery.
Eighty-seven delegates attended our first city-wide intergenerationalconference on 13 November, in partnership with the Beth JohnsonFoundation, to learn and discuss how to develop this important work inthe city.
We are finding a real willingness by volunteers and communities to worktogether across the ages, to use the skills and knowledge of differentgenerations and to overcome barriers that divide our communities. Agreater sense of social responsibility can be seen and negativeperceptions of different ages are being changed.
Next year, we will reflect on the lessons learned so far and establish acity-wide strategy to underwrite this work, and continue to raiseawareness among professionals and communities of the importance ofdeveloping an 'all-age' approach.
- Steven Pettican, an operational manager in Peterborough City Council'schildren's services and chair of the Peterborough IntergenerationalAction Group.
