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News for Advocates of Children, Youth and Older Adults  

from Generations United

Featured Articles
Advocates for Families First
Start Planning for Grandparents Day
Our Thanks
Cool Intergenerational Ideas
Gray Panthers' Smile Campaign
Summer Learning
REFRAME
LGBT Pride Month
Join Us on Instagram!
Become a Senior Fellow
Request for Multigenerational Families
Publications for Sale
Funding Opportunities
Great Resources
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 Volume 9, Issue 24
June 18, 2014

National Coalition Makes the Case for Supported Kinship, Foster or Adoptive Families

Today, Advocates for Families First, an alliance between Generations United, the National Foster Parent Association and the North American Council on Adoptable Children, released its first policy agenda with recommendations to help ensure successful outcomes for kinship, foster or adoptive families. The policy ideas include providing caregivers training and preparation to help them meet the needs of children in their homes as well as prioritizing family care when removal from the birth family is necessary and providing kids at risk of neglect or abuse with permanency in a family setting. The mission of Advocates for Families First is to build a unified national movement to support kin, foster, and adoptive families who care for children and youth, promote their healing and help them thrive. Learn more 

Start Planning Now for Grandparents Day, Sept. 7    
Grandparents day is coming up. Are you going to Do Something Grand? Let us know, so we can highlight creative ideas through our blog, social media and Generations This Week e-newsletter before the holiday. Learn more 
A Huge Thanks to Our Members and Supporters

Generations United thanks our long time friends and supporters Austin Heyman and Lenora Poe for their recent gifts. Also, a very special thanks to renewing member Alliance for Children and Families and new member  Hebrew Rehabilitation Center. Merci. Danke. Arigato. Asante. Gracias. Thank you. You can donate as a Tribute Gift in honor or memory of someone. Click & help us unleash the potential of an "age-amped" society.

Micah's Backpack for Senior Adults - Cool Intergenerational Ideas

In part six, we feature Micah's Backpack for Senior Adults, a project idea of 14-year-old Olivia Hodge with the assistance of St. Michael Lutheran Church in Blacksburg, Virginia.. Tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas, post them to our Facebook Group, Intergenerational Connections (if you're a Youth Jumpstart Grantee, share your ideas here) or text us through Facebook's Messenger app (friend me to join our Cool Intergenerational Ideas group discussion). We want to highlight innovative age-optimized programs and practices through our blog, social media and weekly e-newsletter!  Disclaimer: Spotlighting ideas does not imply Generations United's endorsement or recommendation, but rather encourages ideas to inspire other programs.  Share the inspiration.  Learn more about Micah's Backpack for Senior Adults

Gray Panthers Call for Happiness Ambassadors

Sometimes it's easy to take everything too seriously, especially when we're dedicated to our work, our passions and our lives. But the Gray Panthers has an opportunity for us to express some happiness. Let's join them in redefining age with some joy and happiness. Let's help them make this happiness campaign a success. Learn more

Summer Learning Day 2014

According to The Campaign for Grade-level Reading, a third grader's reading proficiency is what predicts if that child will graduate from high school and be successful in his/her career. And with more than 80 percent of low-income children missing this crucial milestone, The Campaign is launching its summer campaign, challenging communities to make an investment in summer learning for children from low-income families. Learn how you can help, then take the summer learning pledge

REFRAME

Our summer intern, Tomesha, had a blast at a recent art showing in which D.C.'s Public School students defined themselves through photos. In her blog, she not only reflected on the event's highlights, but she also considered how an intergenerational approach might've helped the artists get their message to the intended audience. Learn more

LGBT Pride Month

Last week, we highlighted the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging's toolkit. Today, we share an article by Fairley Parson, manager of community engagement at Openhouse in San Francisco, which focuses on how intergenerational programs disrupt ageism and helps younger and older generations of the LGBT community find common ground. Learn more

Generations United on Instagram
We're excited to capture and share our intergenerational moments. What about you? Here's a fast, beautiful  and  fun way to learn about, and stay updated on, our initiatives. Stay tuned for upcoming intergenerational photo contests and more. Follow us

Become a Generations United Senior Fellow

Are you a senior professional in the Washington area who has expertise, energy and wisdom to share? Then we're looking to recruit you as a Senior Fellow. The program is an opportunity to apply your skills to new areas of interest, gain a better understanding of Generations United and our impact, approach, strategies, opportunities, and challenges. Consider contributing to our mission. Learn more

Request for Multigenerational Families 

A reporter with a national publication is seeking multigenerational families, preferably a family member between the ages of 45 and 60 years old, to possibly interview for a story on multigenerational living. If you know of any such family and could pass along their name and contact information to Generations United's Communications Specialist Alan King, so we can share them with the reporter, he would be very grateful.

Publications for Sale

Under One Roof and Connecting Generations are available for the shipping and handling price. At $4.50, Under One Roof is an invaluable guide on starting and strengthening intergenerational shared site programs, where children/youth and older adults participate in ongoing services and/or programming concurrently at the same site. Connecting Generations, a user-friendly guide to creating meaningful intergenerational programs, is available for $5.50. Order your copies today!

Funding Opportunities

Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. The Drucker Institute will award a first-place prize of $100,000 to a nonprofit organization that best demonstrates Druckerʼs definition of innovation: "change that creates a new dimension of performance." Deadline: July 1, 2014. Learn more

 

Youth Grants. YSA's Summer of Service Awards is offering grants of $1,000 to young change-makers, ages 5-18, who are creating positive change through volunteering and service.Deadline: July 31, 2014. Learn more

 

If you have - or know of - any intergenerational funding opportunities, please send them to Alan King at aking@gu.org

Great Resources

If you have reports on issues that help young and old, please send them to Alan King at aking@gu.org.

 

Online Resources 

Policy Basics: Introduction to SNAPPolicy Basics is a brief background on SNAP, how it works, and how it helps more than 47 million low-income Americans (see Chart Book and State Fact Sheets) to afford a nutritionally adequate diet in a typical month. Learn more


Webinars 

Advocates for Families First Policy Agenda. Advocates for Families First. Weds., June 25, 1pm eastern (12pm central, 11am mountain and 10am pacific).Learn more 

Events
Conferences 
n4a Answers on Aging Conference. National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. Dallas, TX. July 12-16, 2014. Learn more

 

Aging in America Conference. American Society on Aging. Chicago, IL. March 23-27, 2015. Learn more

In the News                
Houses for families who agree to adopt children? The idea might sound too good to be true, but Bridge Meadows pulled it off in Portland, Oregon. Read "PJ Bremier: Fine Living - Multigenerational living catches on".
Quote

"Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven't thought of yet." ~Gene Perret


Your Feedback Invited! 

We want Generations This Week to be a real resource for you. Please send 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 aking@gu.org. I'd love to hear from you!

 

Best,       

 

Alan King 

Communications Specialist

Generations United 

 

  
Grand Magazine Cover Grand Magazine Cover

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