Generations Connect action Modules

Goals

The following are the goals of the Generations Connect action modules:

• Cultivate collective and individual leadership skills

• Create opportunities to cultivate empathy across generations

• Work from real-life experiences

• Encourage intergenerational interaction

• Reflect and evaluate

Who are the action modules for? 

The Generations Connect action modules were designed to support the Contra Costa Call to Action Goal 3 - Encouraging Community Connectedness through Intergenerational Community Building. These modules are for anyone interested in engaging intergenerational strategies in their work or community efforts. They have been designed for the following:

• To support organizations serving or wanting to serve multiple generations in their work

• To build the skills of community members of all ages who are currently working on an existing community effort or who want to be more involved in community efforts.

Purpose

Often leadership trainings only focus on a specific age group. There are some great leadership trainings for older adults as well as for young people, but they rarely join forces and work together. This reflects a larger tendency for organizations to deal with people of different ages very separately. The reality, however, is that we live side by side with people of all different ages in our community and knowing how to work collaboratively with different age groups could have a big impact on our ability to create change in our community. This training is unique as it intentionally works to bring different generations together to identify commonalities and differences, identify shared issues, build trust and increase interaction across generations. When you complete this training, you will be uniquely prepared to help build networks and connections across generations, a leadership skill that is deeply important and needed. 

This training is based on the belief that everyone at every age can help build communities that are good for growing up and growing older.  In these action modules, we focus on building our leadership skills and how to better understand the resources and challenges of people of different generations. We will also have an opportunity to reflect on our community, the types of changes we would like to see, and how to work with people of different ages to tackle important community issues.  

Acknowledgment

These action modules were adapted from the curriculum - Leadership for All Ages: Generations Working Together to Strengthen Communities - developed by Dr. Corita Brown and Dr. Nancy Henkin. Our appreciation goes to Corita and Nancy for their leadership. Dr. Nancy Henkin also reviewed and gave input to these action modules.