Our programme

Creating Intergenerational Communities (#CICNLCF) is a UK pilot programme to develop potential indicators of intergenerational good practice. The pilot is taking place in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and runs from January 2023 to July 2025.

Over the course of the Creating Intergenerational Communities Programme we aim to create and trial a set of draft indicators with 30 pilot projects – from various settings, in various fields, (care, education, youth work, and third sector organisations) with different generations.   

The CIC partners involved in developing this pilot, along with other organisations, are increasingly convinced of the value of developing intergenerational quality assurance guidance, to better support the intergenerational work developing in local communities in a very practical way. We believe that to build good practice, the way in which intergenerational work is planned and implemented should meet certain standards of quality, keeping in mind basic core intergenerational principles. If you follow these principles, the chances are your intergenerational project will have a greater impact.

The partnership

A formal partnership between Generations Working Together, Apples and Honey Nightingale, and Linking Generations Northern Ireland, building upon years of working closely together, forms the partnership overseeing Creating Intergenerational Communities programme.

Pilot Projects

Below is a map of the current projects who are testing quality indicators to help create intergenerational communities. Hover over the map to find more detail of each of the pilot projects.

One Spanish Pilot at Three Different Sites

We are excited to have the Macrosad Chair in Intergenerational Studies at the University of Granada, in Spain, trial the Quality Indicator Guidance Toolkit, to provide a European perspective.

One Spanish intergenerational centre and two intergenerational projects are participating in the piloting phase of quality indicators within the framework of “Creating Intergenerational Communities”.

The centre is the Macrosad Intergenerational Reference Centre located in Albolote (close to Granada), which brings together, under the same roof, an older adult day centre and a nursery school for 0–3-year-olds. This centre, founded in 2018, is the only one in Spain that works in collaboration with a research and knowledge transfer team, that from the Macrosad Chair in Intergenerational Studies at the University of Granada. Actually, this Chair is providing overall monitoring of the CIC pilot.

Harmonía is the name of one of the participating intergenerational projects. Launched in 2020, in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, this project connects older and younger people through weekly telephone conversations that often also include face-to-face meetings. The idea is to facilitate relationships between people from different generations that who would otherwise have little chance of meeting and bonding.

In addition, Padre Manjón Primary and Secondary school has joined through their long-lasting intergenerational project involving older people at Macrosad’s care home in Las Gabias. This second project consists of older and younger pairs completing intergenerational diaries to encourage them to get to know each other more deeply and for a longer period of time. These diaries are based on a series of key questions emerged and tested in previous intergenerational initiatives. Participants gradually establish stronger and deeper links as they conversate and interact to feed their diaries.

Training

By training and upskilling communities, the programme will foster a sustainable legacy of effective intergenerational activities, reduce social isolation and improve wellbeing. 

Want to find out more?

Find out more about Creating Intergenerational Communities programme from each of the respective partner organisations based in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

In England and Wales, please email Marilia Pavlou.

In Scotland, please email Louisa Turner.

In Northern Ireland, please email Elaine Brownlee.