Uniting young and older people in Reading
On 5 March 2010.I attended the public launch of Generation's together at Blessed Hugh Faringdon School. Generations Together is a new community programme funded by the Government with the key aim of developing new and innovative ways of promoting positive relations between young and old people alike. Reading has been chosen as one of only twelve areas in England to be successful in its bid for funding and as a result, Generations Together has secured £125,000 to be spent across Reading’s local communities over an eighteen month period.
Our partners include Reading Borough Council, Central Berkshire Education Business Partnership (CBEBP), Street Games UK and Age Concern Berkshire. Throughout 2010 we will be forging closer links with local community groups, giving them a greater platform and financial resources to develop projects within their communities. We want to help young and old people to overcome age barriers, to learn to trust and relate to each other better and to identify and develop their respective talents and strengths. Best of all, we want to give them a real sense of community spirit by supporting at least twenty intergenerational projects in Reading. These will cover areas of interest to both young and old groups, to include:
Arts and Music
Learning Together - participants will receive a recognized qualification
Sports and Leisure
Local Community Development and Democracy
Amongst the many projects now underway, the partners have approved a number of excellent community projects that go live from this month. These include Chants Community Enterprise, Action Against Burglary, John Madejski Academy, Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC), South Street Arts Centre and the Indian Community Association’s intergenerational work. Please see attached newsletter for further details about each specific campaign or contact the Generations Team on 0118 902 3598.
Lorna Southwood, Project Leader, Generations Together commented “the first wave of projects are set to go live from this month so this is an exciting time for us! The positive response from our project partners has been immensely encouraging. Together, we are creating real opportunities for young and older people across Reading to get involved in enjoyable, positive experiences; whatever their interests.”
Richard Stowell, Director Age Concern Berkshire said “Access to information and advice is crucial to people of all ages, particularly so for older people in Reading. Age Concern Berkshire provides a number of important services for people over 50. As a key partner in Generations Together, we will be instrumental in developing intergenerational work that targets older age group. One example is Action Against Burglary workshops that are taking place this week in West Reading and Whitley. The response from the young and older audiences has been extremely positive and we look forward to the forthcoming events.”
Beverley Graves, Joint Managing Director of CBEBP said: ‘The Generations Together project offers Reading so many opportunities to celebrate the skills and talents that both younger and older people contribute to our community. An exciting range of events will bring together volunteers and participants in sport, music, technology and the arts across the whole borough. We can look forward to sharing the benefits of these innovative activities.’
The Generations Together team is busy recruiting young and older people to participate in the community projects. As the campaign builds momentum the time and skills offered by participants will be invaluable - they are at the heart of the intergenerational campaign. Please refer to the recruitment leaflet for reference.
Festival of Ages in October 2010
The Festival of Ages launch event will take place on Saturday 2nd October at Reading Town Hall, where Generations Together will showcase the best of the Generations Together projects. All the successful project partners will be invited to attend, along with volunteers and participants. Events will roll out across the community. Watch this space for more details!
This project, launched in Southcote is ideal in bringing together different communities of ages that have a lot in common with each other.
Good to see this being talked about. I was one of the Adults who worked with these two girls (and one boy who was not at the launch) on the original drawing that lead to the final design you saw at the launch.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting project and great to work with three such enthusiastic children.