Community Matters

Silo-busting: Three Ideas from Last Week's Call on Building Intergenerational Communities

There's a lot of talk about breaking down silos in community building, and it was the talk of the call last week. Communities almost always address youth issues and elder issues separately, and both of those separately from issues like housing, transportation, education, and volunteerism.

Allegany_township_silos

But it doesn't have to be that way, and in fact one of the best way to break down community silos overall may be to focus on building communities for all ages.

Our speakers on last week's call - Phil Stafford, Elissa Thomann Mitchell, and Nancy Henkin - had a number of ideas for busting out of those silos and starting to integrate the ages. Here are three to get you started:

  1. Don't overprescribe. If you have an idea in mind for effective intergenerational programming, consider abandoning it (even if it's great). Elissa found that in the Hope Meadows community it was more important to create the space (physical and philosophical) for younger and older adults to interact, and let them connect where they wan to - whether it's gardening, or computer lessons, or somethign else.
  2. Get off your turf. Once you get around to building institutional partnerships and asking organizations to work together on intergenerational issues, you'll probably come up against turf issues. Moving ahead toward collective impact will require organizations to put aside their egos and put the cause first. There are no magic solutions; Nancy noted that this is truly hard, and it's important to recognize that.
  3. Think long and hard. Phil noted that when Amish communities consider adopting a new technology, people think long and hard about all of the possible impacts. If we brought that approach to communities, it might mean we build fewer retirement neighborhoods in the middle of cornfields, where older residents can't possibly walk to necessary services and downtown neighborhoods.

Listen to the Podcast below for more of this great conversation, check out the call notes, and stay tuned for more calls in 2012!

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