This year marks InCommon’s first full year as a registered charity - and we couldn’t be happier! Our legal structure reflects who we are, our social mission is more embedded and we have a fantastic new board of trustees.
As always, we have enjoyed bringing generations together. Since September, 200 older participants have volunteered their time to support the learning of 300 young people across London. You can read about what we got up to on our programmes below.
This year we’ve continued working on a new digital solution to enable community groups to deliver their own intergenerational activities. This is a project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the Healthy Ageing Challenge. We look forward to sharing more information soon!
Read on for some of this year’s highlights. We’d like to say a huge thank you to our partners that have made this year possible - we wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.
Intergenerational Innovation Award
Back in April, we were delighted to receive an Intergenerational Innovation Award from GrandNanny, an intergenerational childcare service.
It was an honour to be shortlisted alongside eight other fantastic organisations. You can find out more about them here.
InCommon’s first ever Intergenerational Panel
A highlight of the year has to be holding our first ever Intergenerational Panel. In June, younger and older participants were invited to feed into InCommon’s broader strategy and decision making. We asked participants what they like about InCommon’s sessions, what could be improved, and gathered their ideas for connecting generations. One older volunteer said the session left them feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
Connecting primary schools and retirement homes
Children and their older neighbours getting to know each other at an InCommon session
It’s been another great year for our Connect programme participants.
We started in September by getting to know each other, with primary school pupils interviewing older volunteers to learn about their life stories. Once friendships started to form, we explored identity and culture, with children and older volunteers discussing what makes them unique and sharing special objects. A highlight was older volunteer, Geoff, showing children a medal he received for playing football when he was younger.
In true InCommon fashion, we brought in the festive season with some celebrations. Participants exchanged Christmas cards and took part in festive quizzes. One older volunteer, George, wowed children from Jenny Hammond Primary School with an impromptu saxophone performance. Later in the year, older volunteers shared their skills. Children learned a lot, including how to do tai chi!
Intergenerational social action
Our Social Action programme ran for its third year in partnership with Clarion Futures and #iwill. Participants from schools, youth groups and retirement homes first met back in September to co-design their activities for the year. One group based in East London (made up of participants from Langdon Park School, Spotlight Centre and Gawthorne Court) ran their own cost of living campaign, #RaiseOurVoicesLowerPrices. Together, they made a powerful campaign video raising awareness of the impact of the cost of living crisis. They also raised over £200 for homeless charity Depaul UK by selling cards and baby blankets.
Intergenerational social action in Bow, where young people and older residents campaigned against the Cost of Living crisis.