ARU Research Report 2019

The Up Project 9 Intergenerational programmes (IGPs) refer to initiatives which bring together children or young people and older adults. Although each IGP may have different motivations and aspired outcomes, the overarching aim is to deliberately create opportunities for interactions across generations which will be mutually beneficial. IGPs have received a lot of social, political and media attention within the last few years. The growing interest in the value of IGPs within the UK has also occurred against a backdrop of national policy objectives which seek to increase ‘character skills’ amongst children (DfE, 2017), reduce loneliness by improving social connections amongst the population (HM Government, 2018) and heal the purported ‘generational divide’ which exists throughout UK society (Dalton et al., 2019). Making sense of the intergenerational programme literature, and subsequently justifying them as something more than a ‘nice’ idea with tangible benefits can be difficult, This is due, in part, to the variety of different activities, settings and age groups which are classified under the umbrella term of an ‘intergenerational programme’. IGPs can range hugely: from active and independent older adults providing volunteer academic support in schools (Yasunaga et al., 2016); to virtual intergenerational contact between university students and older adults via e-mail (Chase, 2010); to those where school children visit older adults with dementia in care homes (DiBona et al., 2017). Such limits the transferability of each IGP’s findings and what we can establish they should include, What is Known about Intergenerational Programmes? and what meaningful benefits can be gleamed by those taking part. Moreover, there is also disparity between programmes in what they intend to achieve for each age group. Where some may seek to achieve the same goals for both older adults and children, for example to reduce negative attitudes towards different generations, others may intend for the IGP to induce equally as beneficial, yet different outcomes amongst each group. For example, in educationally focused IGPs they may aim to increase academic achievement in children and decrease loneliness amongst volunteer older adults (Yasunaga et al., 2016).