Bringing generations together in April

With Global Intergenerational Week coming to an end, we’re reflecting on this month’s workshops where we’ve brought generations together in Hackney, Sutton, Wandsworth and more. At intergenerational workshops groups of older people and children have been crafting sock puppets, helping each other with sewing skills and dreaming up characters. We’ve also embraced the spring sunshine by playing boules and exploring the garden spaces at retirement schemes.

A younger neighbour and an older neighbour creating sock puppets

 

An older neighbour with their sock puppet

 

As we’re coming to a close at InCommon, our focus is on supporting schools and retirement settings so they can continue to meet without our involvement. This has always been a key principle when setting up our programmes, and we deliberately pair schools and retirement schemes that are no more than a 15 minute walk away to ensure ease and to create local connections. We’d like to thank our partners for their enthusiasm in continuing to support these friendships between older and younger neighbours.

Our latest impact report (2024/2025)

We are delighted to launch our latest Impact Report. Read it in full here.

From September 2024 to July 2025, we brought together over 500 younger and older neighbours in London and across the UK at 128 intergenerational workshops, partnering with 40 retirement homes and schools to make this happen. 

Our flagship Connect programme - now in its sixth year - offered a space for primary school children and their older neighbours to learn and build friendships together. Older neighbours shared their diverse skills and knowledge at workshops, from delivering tours around Greenwich to teaching children how to build miniature scenes out of everyday objects.

We also partnered with The Advocacy Academy, Brixton-based youth organisers, to develop a brand new intergenerational changemaking course in Brixton. Open to people of all ages (0-100+), it ran for 10 months and included sessions on a variety of topics including power, how to run good meetings and conflict resolution.

We continued to deliver our Empower programme in partnership with housing associations and schools across the UK, supporting intergenerational projects in Buckinghamshire, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Sussex, benefitting more than 300 older people and young people.

We also brought people together during Global Intergenerational Week for the third Age-Friendly Awards, where we celebrated champions of intergenerational connection in communities across England. A huge congratulations to the 12 award winners, all of whom were selected by the Intergenerational Social Action Board (ISAB).

We hope you enjoy reading the stories of connection in this report. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved this year. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the enthusiasm of our participants and the support of schools, housing partners and funders. Thank you for helping us bring generations together.

Important announcement: InCommon is closing

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of InCommon. After 9 years as an organisation, and almost 4 as a registered charity, the Trustees have made the difficult decision to permanently close the charity, effective on the 31st May 2026. Like many small charities, we have found ourselves facing an increasingly challenging fundraising landscape. Despite the passionate efforts of our team and the generosity of our supporters, InCommon is unfortunately no longer financially sustainable.

We will continue to deliver scheduled intergenerational workshops up until 28th May. This gives us the opportunity to celebrate the connections older and younger participants have made thus far. We will also signpost our participants to other intergenerational organisations and activities in their area, where possible.

We are proud of what we have achieved over the past 9 years, connecting more than 3,500 people from different generations. We will shortly be publishing our impact report for the previous year (2024/25) and we hope that you enjoy reading about the stories of connection.

We want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who has donated time, money, or support to InCommon. While this chapter may be ending, we have no doubt that the impact of your support will be felt for a long time in our communities.

If you are looking for other organisations that are delivering or supporting intergenerational activities, we’d recommend checking out the following:

If you have any questions about this process, please contact us at hello@incommon.org.uk.

Photos and video by BGA photography.