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News for Advocates of Children, Youth and Older Adults  

from Generations United

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 Volume 10, Issue 22
June 3, 2015
Illustration: Robert Neubecker for The Wall Street Journal.
Generations United in 
The Wall Street Journal
Thanks to our friend, Marc Freedman (founder and chief executive officer of Encore.org), for the shout out in  The Wall Street Journal. In his opinion piece, " How to Make the Most of Longer Lives," Marc states that it's not enough that we're living longer; we also need innovations that make our bonus years worth living. Read the full piece

Intergenerational Action on a Global Scale

Early Registration Deadline Extended to June 30th!

Register before the end of this month and save $100! Take advantage of our pre-conference events and intergenerational action projects as well as various poster and roundtable sessions. See the full conference schedule to learn more about other exciting conference events, which includes an opening reception, 5pm on Weds., July 22, at the Ala Moana Hotel-HonoluluRegister today! 

Generations United's Written Testimony for "No Place to Grow Up..."
Generations United submitted written testimony for the record following the Senate Finance Committee Hearing in May, "No Place to Grow Up: How to Safely Reduce Reliance on Foster Care Group Homes". The testimony speaks to the need to better identify, prioritize and support relatives to care for children who cannot remain with their birth parents. Learn more

Date and Theme of National Conference Announced

At last month's White House Council On Aging regional forum in Boston, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced that the 2015 national Conference will be held on July 13 at the White House and will be intergenerationalThe July event is part of a year-long effort to listen, learn, and share with older adults, their families, their caregivers, community leaders, and experts in the aging field on how to best address the changing landscape of aging in the coming decade. Learn more

A Huge Thanks to Our Members and Supporters
Generations United thanks our renewing member, Kind Kids, Inc.   Merci. Danke. Arigato. Asante. Gracias. Thank you.  You can also honor a friend or loved one with a Tribute Gift.  Donate to help us unleash the potential of an "age-amped" society.

Why It's Important to Invest in Kids

In our new Seniors4Kids video, our Seniors4Kids National Coordinator Yvonne T. Friend talks with Edith Appel, director of the Philadelphia-based Child Space - Mt. Airy, about the importance of investing in children and youth. Watch the video and, if you're 50 and older, join our movement!

Vote for Your Favorite Intergenerational Photos!
This year, we revived our annual intergenerational photo contest, and thought we would open the voting up to our friends and get your feedback on this year's best intergenerational photos. Visit our photo contest and pick your favorite three!

A Thought Leader Roundtable on Readiness & Schools:  Filling the Traps and Closing the Gaps

Join The Forum for Youth Investment's Co-founder, President and CEO Karen Pittman on Tues., June 9, at 2pm for a conference call and provocative discussion with two thought leaders about some of the big readiness traps found not only in schools, but in most of our public systems - traps that lead to too many young people "doing their time" but leaving with gaps in their readiness for college, work or life. Learn more and register
Click the image to enlarge.
New Infographic Shows How We Can Better Support Kinship Families 
The  Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky , which is coordinated by Kentucky Youth Advocates, released 
a new infographic describing the facts about kinship care in Kentucky. It also displays the inequity in supports for kinship care vs. foster care and offers some suggestions on how to better leverage the strengths of kinship families to ensure they are thriving.  Learn more
Seeking Atlanta-based Multigenerational Families
A documentary filmmaker is looking for a story in and around the greater Atlanta region, preferably Atlanta proper, of a multigenerational family - 3 or more generations - living together.  The filmmaker would love to learn about what led to the choices to live together, the benefits and challenges. This would be for a film project. If you know of any such family, please email Alan King, Generations United's communications specialist, so he can pass on the info to the filmmaker. 
New Video from the Intergenerational Council of North San Diego County
In a new videoSan Diego County , a MetLife Foundation/Generations United Best Intergenerational Communities Awards winner, highlights their intergenerational programs such as the intergenerational games, intergenerational garden club at Sunshine Care Assisted Living (a Generations United Program of Distinction) and more! Watch the video.

KinFirst: Making Relatives a First Choice for Children

Join Advocates for Families First - a collaboration of the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC), the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA), and Generations United - for a webinar tomorrow, June 4, 1pm to 2:15pm EDT. This webinar will highlight the District of Columbia's Child and Family Services Agency's innovative model of identifying, prioritizing, and supporting kinship families for children who come to the attention of the child welfare system. Learn more

Culture United

Dear Juno

Soyung Pak's Dear Juno, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats award, introduces the concept of foreign cultures and far-off lands. It also shows how the love between a grandmother and grandchild transcends language barriers. Juno's grandmother writes in Korean and Juno writes in drawings, but that doesn't mean they can't exchange letters. From the photo his grandmother sends him, Juno can tell that she has a new cat. From the picture he makes for her, Juno's grandmother can tell that he wants her to come for a visit. So she sends Juno a miniature plane to let him know she's on the way. 

 

Do you know of any films, books, music and TV shows with an intergenerational theme? Share them with us and we'll share in the weeks and months to come. Disclaimer: Inclusion in this section is not an endorsement from Generations United. Rather, it is a way of showing the multiplying impact when the arts and pop culture are age-advantaged.

Cool Ideas
Penacook Community Center's Buddy Bingo and Walking School Bus
This week's cool ideas are the New Hampshire-based  Penacook Community Center (PCC)'s Buddy Bingo and Walking School Bus programs, both of which allow older adults to pass on the importance of safety, while teaching children and youth to read and learn numbers.  T weet your cool intergenerational ideas  to   #cooligideas You can also p ost them  to our  Intergenerational 
Connections  Facebook  Group . We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter!  Share the inspiration . Learn more about 
Think Intergenerational - Funding Opportunities

Let's Play Rigamajig Grants. KaBOOM! offers 175-200 grants to nonprofits and municipalites that want to help communities take bold steps toward beginning or completing playspace projects. Deadline: Rolling. Learn more

 

James Irvine Foundation - Exploring Engagement Fund. The purpose of this program is to support arts organizations with innovative ideas and a readiness to take bold steps that will engage new and diverse populations. Proposed projects must represent an experiment intended to increase arts engagement in a new or deepened way. Projects can be brand new, or take a different approach with an existing project or practice. Deadline: December 28, 2015.Learn more


Family Literacy.  Awards ranging from $200 to $10,000 will be awarded to organizations that support family literacy. The program focuses on fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs, breaking the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy. Deadline: Rolling. Learn more

Generations United encourages you to submit intergenerational projects. If you have - or know of - any intergenerational funding opportunities, please send them to Alan King at [email protected]

Great Resources
Report

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Young Families: Two-Generation Policy Recommendations. The report identifies what needles need to be moved on federal, state, and local levels to help communities and families rebound from the recent economic downturn. Learn more

  

Resources  
Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards, Under One Roof
and Connecting Generations
These resources are available for the shipping and handling price - Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards - $4.50, Under One Roof - $4.50, Connecting Generations - $5.50.  Order your copies today!
Events
Conferences 
Intergenerational Action on a Global Scale.  Generations United, Seagull Schools, International Consortium of Intergenerational Programmes (ICIP), UNA-Hawaii and JANCA.  Honolulu, HI. July 21-24, 2015.   Learn more  
Quote  
"The young need to learn that aging is a continuum on the human journey, not a stop-and-go trip between discrete points that creates different types of human beings. Young people need to learn that elders are people like themselves, just later in life." ~ Julia T. Alvarez  Ambassador, Alternate Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations

Your Feedback Invited! 

We want Generations This Week to be a real resource for you. Please send us any national news on intergenerational issues in addition to upcoming conferences, funding opportunities, reports and webinars. Local and state events can be shared in our Facebook group. Please also let us know how we can improve! My email is [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you!

 

Best,       

 

Alan King 

Communications Specialist

Generations United 

 

  
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