Generation Connection: Bridging Age and Technology Gaps
What do you get when you combine high school students, older adults, social workers, and computers? No, this isn’t the start of a bad joke…it’s an intergenerational technology training and relationship building program called Generation Connection! This pilot program, in collaboration with GenerationTech and CircleTalk™, was created in response to the social isolation being experienced across generations due to COVID-19.
Earlier this year, JFS paired six older adults with six students from GenerationTech, an intergenerational technical support group run by students at Cherry Creek High School. The students provided technology training for Zoom, including how to join and create meetings, and foundational knowledge to access the video conferencing program, such as using email, Google search, and Google calendars, downloading apps, and more. JFS also provided conversation prompts to help the pairs build rapport while they talked two to three times over two weeks.
While the older adults and students were meeting by phone and Zoom, we held a CircleTalk facilitation training with three JFS staff, two students, and one older adult who had been previously trained as a facilitator. CircleTalk trains professionals, caregivers, and others who are interested in working with older adults to disrupt the loneliness epidemic. The training focused on their curriculum and general group facilitation skills to create leadership opportunities for students interested in learning how to facilitate group discussions.
Finally, everyone came together for a 12-week guided CircleTalk curriculum. We split the participants into two groups, ensuring that the partners were placed together in the same group. Groups had intergenerational facilitation; each group was co-facilitated by a student and either an older adult or JFS staff member.
This pilot program successfully met its three goals:
To build community resiliency among adults through technology skill development
To develop leadership among youth through experiential facilitator training
To overcome bias and ageism through long term relationship building between generations
One older adult participant shared, “I enjoyed spending time with my student during our one-on-one conversations and the Sunday CircleTalk meetings. Through this program, we started as strangers and became friends. The format gives everyone an opportunity to share personal events, and because of the small group size, we were able to carefully listen to each other and appreciate everyone’s uniqueness. My student was often stressed with high school assignments and extracurricular activities, which made it hard for her to meet for our scheduled time. I could relate to this stress since I also had a very busy high school curriculum with before- and after-school activities, and the responsibility of taking care of younger siblings and making meals!”
This program is made possible by LinkAGES, an intergenerational collaborative of agencies with the shared goal of reducing isolation and overcoming bias through intergenerational relationship building. They provide opportunities for feedback and collaboration, as well as funding through the Strear Family Foundation. Thank you also to the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work and Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging for providing program evaluation and support, guided by evidence-based practice.
The program will resume in the fall. If you are interested in learning how to better use technology to connect with loved ones remotely or want more information about Generation Connection, please contact Buffy Fox, program manager, at 720.248.4665.