We’re delighted to share this guest blog from Rosie, one of our brilliant Programme Officers.
Our intergenerational workshops create opportunities for younger and older neighbours to connect, build confidence and share meaningful experiences over the course of a year.
While it’s exciting to come together, it can also be nerve wracking meeting new people for the first time. For this reason, we build in time at the start of the year to meet with schools and groups of older people separately to talk about what they can expect from intergenerational workshops and what they might like to do together. One of the most common concerns I hear when visiting schools is: ‘What will I say? What if I don’t know what to do?’ This is a worry I’m sure most of us can relate to when meeting new groups of people!
Another aspect of our programme design is ensuring our workshops are adaptable and meet the different needs of participants. It’s really important to us that no one gets left out and we work hard to remove barriers so that everyone is able to take part as much as they can.
With this in mind, we held an additional learning session with a group of children in East London ahead of their first visit to the Sundial Centre, which provides a day service for older adults including those with dementia. Although some younger neighbours taking part in the programme told me they have family members living with dementia, most said they hadn’t heard of dementia before and weren’t confident on how to interact with older neighbours.
Using invaluable resources and information from Dementia Friends, the younger neighbours were introduced to the different ways dementia may show up in people’s lives. They also learnt some key principles to keep in mind at our workshops that could help someone living with dementia feel supported.
Some key takeaways from the learning session included:
Everyone is unique, we all need support to join in at different times and in different ways.
Not everyone who is older will develop dementia, but it’s valuable to keep in mind.
At an InCommon workshop, there is no ‘right way’ to join in or do an activity - enjoy each other’s company first and foremost and let people join in however they feel comfortable to.
Trying to approach everyone they meet with patience, an open mind and kindness will always be a positive approach - whether with their older neighbours at the Sundial Centre, with fellow pupils in school or anyone else they meet in their wider lives.
Since then, the children and their older neighbours have been meeting each month and are getting to know each other well. They have identified a shared love of music, crafts and movement so we’re making sure to fill our workshops with lots of these activities.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the group and I learn from each other in our second term - watch this space!