TOY at the national intergenerational conference in Scotland

One of the last conferences to take place, before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled all large group gatherings, was the national conference organized by Scotland’s Generations Working Together, which took place on 4^th March 2020 in Glasgow.

Anne Fitzpatrick and Carmel Gallagher, members of the TOY Consortium from the Technological University Dublin, Ireland were fortunate to attend.  Read their report of the event here.

The conference, open to anyone interested in creating intergenerational communities was opened by the Minister for Equalities and Older People, Christina McKelvie MSP, a passionate supporter of intergenerational work across Scotland. The aim of the conference was to share experiences, to network and to inspire new intergenerational projects.

Delegates had the opportunity to network with practitioners, managers, volunteers, government officials, academics and researchers from Scotland and farther afield.

Workshops included intergenerational spaces and places, intergenerational volunteering, measuring impact and how to make intergenerational work successful. Talking lunch tables created opportunities to join a conversation of your choice such as climate change, intergenerational partnerships with childminders and intergenerational approaches with people approaching the end of life. A highlight of the first day was the group of younger and older people and teachers who shared their IGL experiences through informal conversations.  The afternoon session included a presentation by Lukas Hecke who shared his experiences of successfully matching younger and older people to share a home together in Austria. This was followed by an awards ceremony where delegates heard from practitioners about their inspiring intergenerational projects.

An international symposium was held the following day which brought together a small group of participants including managers, policy makers and researchers from a number of European countries to share information, build partnerships and develop research interests. Ben Dunn of St. Monica’s Trust made a presentation on the first national intergenerational week they were organising beginning March 23^rd 2020. A future national day or week to celebrate intergenerational work in the UK and possibly other European countries was one of the ideas discussed.

We would like to express our thanks to Alison Clyde, and the team at Generations Working Together for organising a stimulating and useful intergenerational conference. For more information and to read the conference presentations click here.