We're passionate about having a positive impact on all of our participants.
Stories from our participants
Click on the links below to read about the experiences of some of our older volunteers who have taken part in our programmes.
Robin
Robin lives in South London and has been taking part in our programmes since 2019. Here he reflects on teaching the children about how we communicated before the iPhone!
Kenneth
Kenneth started volunteering with InCommon during the pandemic. He likes hearing about the children’s hopes and ambitions for the future, as well as reflecting on kindness together.
Linda
Linda lives in Basingstoke. She felt that speaking to the children during lockdown gave her a window onto the outside world, while supporting the children to grow in confidence.
Evaluating our impact
Impact Report 2022/2023
Our latest impact report reviews our first full year as a registered charity. In the report, you can read about the impact of our on programmes connecting younger and older people across 10 London boroughs. We also provide an update on our digital platform project.
Impact Report 2021/2022
Our third impact report reviewed our work as we emerged from the pandemic. The report covers the progress of our annual programmes, as well as the development of a digital platform enabling groups across the country to run their own intergenerational projects.
Impact Report 2020/2021
In 2021, we released our second annual impact report, detailing the outcomes of our flagship Connect programme, our intergenerational social action strand, our digital inclusion work and our anti-prejudice projects.
Impact Report 2019/2020
During 2019/20, we were lucky to work with Dr Ali Somers, an expert in intergenerational evaluation and practice, to measure the impact of our programmes – read her full report here.
Here's what some of our participants have said:
“It just really makes my day knowing some more people, you are so kind and I’ve learnt new things with you all.”
“I’ve learnt what old people go through, like losing somebody they love. They told us about the olden days and what they think of the newer days.”
“I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s to do with education, you see. I wanted to teach when I was young. But I had two babies to support and it was difficult in my day to get help with that. I couldn’t make it happen. So I’ve loved doing this project because I feel like a teacher to these children. It’s been lovely at my time of life to have this.”
“We’ve seen a real improvement in the children that have been coming here. Before their first session, they were a bit nervous. But they really love coming here. Especially the shyer ones, they speak up so much more when they’re here; their confidence has definitely grown. And it’s really changed how they see older age.”
“Thank you for allowing my son to take part in these calls. It was definitely a proud moment hearing his confidence shining through during the last call. It has been our pleasure to be a part of this amazing project.”
Awards
In April 2023, 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.
