Generations can connect through volunteering
Bridging the divide between seniors and youth, intergenerational volunteering offers benefits for both.
Cultures around the world hold their elders in high esteem for a reason — older generations are a source of insight and wisdom.
Some of the world’s most famous people were raised by grandparents: from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, to self-made billionaire Oprah Winfrey and three-time Oscar winner Jack Nicholson.
And being related isn’t a necessity. Greta Gerwig, a millennial who became the first woman to direct a billion-dollar-earning film, recently told the New York Times that she has three close friends who are in their 90s.
But how many of us spend time with society’s elders? Many first- and second-generation Canadians don’t have grandparents living in the same country — a disconnect from families, cultures and ancestry.
Generations can be brought together in volunteering, of course, and all the benefits of volunteering in general have an extra edge when different people work together. According to Volunteer Canada, “nowhere is connection more evident than in intergenerational volunteering.”
To that end, Volunteer Canada compiles information and resources about intergenerational volunteering, whether it’s opportunities for interested volunteers or organizations aiming to build programs.
Some programs aim specifically at bridging this divide, including CyberSeniors, which pairs older people with youth to work on technology and interpersonal skills, and Volunteer Grandparents, which matches up children with elder generations when a relative isn’t available.
In 2008, Sharon MacKenzie left her teaching job and founded the i2i Intergenerational Society, travelling across Canada to help build programs and increase awareness of the unique benefits of bringing generations together across the age spectrum.
“I had always had seniors in my life, growing up in a somewhat dysfunctional family,” MacKenzie says. “And if it hadn’t been for seniors, I’m not quite sure what (would have happened to me) — whether it was a neighbour, or friends of a friend. And so when I started teaching, it was just automatic for me to include seniors as part of our instructional unit.”
MacKenzie brought in older people to share stories and work on crafts, and she had her high school students interview seniors and write up their biographies.
“Every time I did something like that, I always walked away thinking, ‘Oh man, this is so rich, and we’re just scratching the surface.’”
MacKenzie’s experiences and interest culminated in the Meadows School Project. She partnered with a local assisted living facility, creating a classroom within the home, and students were bussed in for their full day of lessons and programming, overlapping their calendars with the facility’s residents.
Benefits for both generations abounded. The 10-year project inspired the documentary Whose Grandma Are You? by filmmaker Jim Elderton.
“It stands still as one of the leading bodies of research worldwide, because it was a long program, and I managed to get soft information from both the seniors and the kids, and the parents of the kids, and the community at large, and the people that work there, et cetera,” MacKenzie says.
The Meadows School Project, and her work since then with the i2i Intergenerational Society, solidified what MacKenzie already knew to be true — younger people and older people need more opportunities to spend time with each other.
“I think lots of times seniors and kids may be in the same room, or the same facility, or the same family reunion,” she says. “But no one really realizes the power of getting on a one-to-one basis … a focused conversation that can lead to friendships.”
Volunteering in general often brings together multiple generations, says Aleksandra Vasic, director of volunteerism for Volunteer Success, a recruitment platform.
“A lot of places where people volunteer, they are very intergenerational, because the two big groups that volunteer are young people (and seniors),” she says. “That’s why volunteering is so good, because it does break some of the silos that we tend to find ourselves in.”
“When I used to work at a clothing bank,” she adds, “we had a lot of retirees, and we had high school students, and it was just lovely to see them working together.”
Vasic also points to the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, which include “Big G” offerings for volunteers. As their website explains: “The ‘Big G’ demographic — individuals who are 55 years of age or older — present a wealth of knowledge and experience, making them the perfect group of people to engage in any of the mentorship programs” they offer.
With up to six generations alive today, intergenerational relationships reap big rewards — as MacKenzie’s research and advocacy has proved to her.
“It was like opening a treasure box just full of unbelievable benefits,” she says. “Health benefits, all sorts of mental, social, physical, economic benefits — it was just great.”