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. 

Introduction

Goals

• Learn about Generations Connect

• Learn about why an intergenerational approach

What is Generations Connect?

Generations Connect is a project of the Contra Costa Alliance to End Abuse in partnership with the Family Justice Center and The Black Neighborhood.

To start us all off let’s go through the goals of Generations Connect and what we hope to do in Contra Costa through the Generations Connect project.

Goals of Generations Connect

1. To increase intergenerational ties and help build social connections.

2. To focus on how to build healthy and safe relationships. 

3. To learn together and deepen skills as leaders and generations connectors to help strengthen community connectedness

In Generations Connect we will: 

• Strengthen the leadership capacity of multiple generations, developing opportunities for intergenerational interaction, and identifying how the skills covered in each module impact people differently at different phases of life

• Create opportunities to cultivate empathy across generations. Being able to empathize with the feelings and perspectives of others is a crucial element for all of the skills practiced in this training, i.e. connection, communication, teamwork and collective action.  

• Work from real-life experiences and apply learning directly to our everyday lives.

Why intergenerational?

• Intergenerational programs are those that intentionally connect young people and older adults in meaningful, purposeful activities together. 

• Intergenerational programs can help reduce social isolation that occurs most commonly in the younger and older generations. Social isolation is a big risk factor for interpersonal violence.

• Relationships are at the core of intergenerational programs. 

• Bringing generations together to support each other and address critical issues helps improve lives, build caring relationships, and strengthen the fabric of our society. 

Multigenerational Leadership  

Goals:

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Group Activity

If you are going through this training as a team or with others, it is helpful to develop some agreements for creating a safe space for everyone to participate.  

• Activity: Developing agreements. Creating a safe and supportive space (20 min) 

  • Break out into pairs. 

  • Share about a time when someone really listened to you and supported you to contribute your best. What specifically did that person do to make you feel listened to and supported. 

  • What other things can we do during our time together to support each other to feel safe and to participate? 

  • Come back together and report out. 

  • Discuss as a group. Why is creating a safe space for everyone to participate an important leadership skill?

Exploring concepts of leadership

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21st-century leaders face new challenges and opportunities. The very concept of community is defined in numerous ways. Our communities are more complex and more interconnected. Increasingly, diverse populations must find ways to share power and resources. Many groups have experienced discrimination and oppression and are, therefore, committed to social movements devoted to shifting that reality. When we understand our interdependence it can help us act effectively to create sustainable change that serves everyone in our communities. 

In today’s environment, community leaders must be capable of crossing many boundaries: those between individuals and groups, those among organizations, and those fostered by issues that divide the population. They need to bring people together in ways that heal old rifts and ruptures, they must know their own values as well as those of their culture, and they must be willing to challenge their assumptions—to unlearn and relearn. Effective leadership in the 21st century requires a collective, shared effort for the greater good. Collective Leadership Framework  - WK Kellogg Foundation

Activity

Activity: Supporting multigenerational leadership. What is leadership? (20 min)

1. Take a moment to reflect on your own definition of leadership. Jot down some notes.

2. What do the terms individual versus collective leadership mean to you?

   • When we understand our interdependence it helps us at 

     1. What does collective leadership mean to us? 

     2. What do we need from each other to support our leadership? 

     3. What do we need from other generations to support our leadership? 

     4. How can we support the leadership of other generations?  

Homework

Cross-Generational Commonalities and Differences - Have a conversation with someone of a different generation than you. Come up with three things you have in common and three things that are different. 

Cross-Generational Commonalities and Differences 

Goals 

• Build empathy and perspective-taking

• Build trust and connection

• Provide opportunities to examine how ageism may impact outside- and self-perception about leadership abilities

Perspective-taking and empathy

(ADD TEXT - Include something about how age is not the only factor that creates differences in our perspectives, but can be impacted by other experiences and our race/ethnicity, where we live, our gender and our economic status, etc. )

Activity

We are going to explore what you learned from your cross-generational conversations about commonalities and differences between generations (20 min)

• Think about:  

  • What did you learn from your cross-generational conversations homework?

    • From an older person's perspective, what did you learn? From a younger person’s perspective, what did you learn?

    • Think about an issue that is important to you. How might another generation experience, think about, feel, and approach this issue? How would you represent their perspective?

  • How can we help others’ understand the perspective of different generations? 

  • How did it feel putting yourself into another perspective? 

Game

Find a person who is a different age (generation) than you to play this Jeopardy game and learn more about your commonalities and differences.