News

To mark National Intergenerational Week in the UK (8-14 March), the interdisciplinary Generations Network led by academics at Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Surrey, has produced a guide to ‘Talking about Generations’. The guide presents 5 key questions to be considered by those working with the concept of generations, and 3 suggestions for avoiding the pitfalls of ‘generation talk’.

The guide is the result of a year-long project funded by the Wellcome Trust, designed to transform the ways that generation is discussed among scholars, and between academics and policy-facing organisations. It further aimed to transform the way that ‘generation’ is used in media and public policy discussions, promoting a more nuanced and constructive understanding. The TOY Programme was represented in one of the project workshops.

Dr Jennie Bristow, Senior Lecturer in the School of Law, Policing and Social Sciences at the University, said: “There is increasing use of the concept of generation in media, political, and social policy discussions, particularly with regard to anxieties about generational conflict. “Such debates are often inaccurate and divisive. We wanted to redress this by clarifying what is meant when scholars and policy-makers talk about generations, and to encourage a more precise and temperate rhetoric in this area.”

More information about the Generations Network is available here.

Ever heard of returnment? This is an alternative term for retirement and it is very much in line with the idea of active ageing that TOY promotes. Returnment encourages older adults to work after work, to use their skills and knowledge to benefit the greater good.

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Care Home Friends and Neighbours is a programme run by My Home Life England. It helps care homes connect with their local communities and vice versa by encouraging Friendships and Neighbourliness. According to one of the instigators of this great initiative, Julienne Meyer,  ‘for too long, care homes for older people have been seen as ‘islands of the old’. Collectively, we wish to change this by creating opportunities for older people living in care homes to once again feel connected to the local people, places and passions that make up community life’.

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At the beginning of July, The Storytellers Project has started its period of prototyping in the city of Empoli.

The project, initiated by the Italian designer Laura Boffi in collaboration with TOY and other actors, wants to create an innovative library service, which connects a community of senior readers to young children (4-6 years old) and their families for remote reading aloud sessions.

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