KX News ran a story on the joys and challenges of grandparents raising grandchildren in North Dakota. The article quoted our friend, AARP Family and Caregiving Expert Amy Goyer, and listed Generations United among key resources for grandfamilies. Read the article.

In 2020, Generations United—with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation—released two racial equity toolkits designed to help organizations provide culturally appropriate services to grandfamilies. Later this year, we will release a third resource focused on working with Latinx grandfamilies. We are currently evaluating our existing toolkits’ impact and efficacy. Please read them and complete the following relevant survey. We encourage you to also share them with your networks.

Learn more about the winners. Check out our feed.

Each week, we'll be highlighting a program from our resource, Staying Connected While Staying Apart: Intergenerational Programs and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Next up is Zoomers to Boomers.

This intergenerational grocery delivery service was started by a 17-year-old in Santa Barbara, California, who assembled teams of young people looking to help local communities and deliver groceries to older neighbors and those immunocompromised. The program is currently in 38 cities. Learn more.

Got something cool you tried that was successful? Why not tweet your cool intergenerational ideas to #cooligideas. You can also post 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.

Ramadan Ramsey begins in 1999 with the moving (and funny) teenage love story of Alicia Ramsey, a native New Orleans African American young woman, and Mustafa Totah, a Syrian immigrant who works in her neighborhood at his uncle’s convenience store. When the baby is born, Alicia names their son Ramadan and raises him with the help of her mother, Mama Joon. But tragedy strikes when the epochal hurricane of 2005 barrels into New Orleans, shattering both the Ramsey and Totah families. Learn more.

Culture United highlights films, books, music, and TV shows with an intergenerational theme. Do you have any suggestions? Share them with us, and we'll share in the weeks and months to come. We welcome responses or reactions. We'll possibly feature them on our blog. See disclaimer.

A Seat at the Table: Piloting Continuous Learning to Engage Fathers and Parental Relatives in Child Welfare. This new report from Mathematica and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families highlights a methodology by the Fathers and Continuous Learning (FCL) in Child Welfare project. This method known as the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) was tested to improve placement stability and permanency outcomes for children by engaging their fathers and paternal relatives. Learn more.

New Intergenerational Resources. This latest set of free resources, developed by Generations United with support from the RRF Foundation for Aging, aims to strengthen and expand intergenerational programs. The new publications—Making the Case for Intergenerational Programs, Fact Sheet: Intergenerational Programs Benefit Everyone, and Staying Connected While Staying Apart: Intergenerational Programs & the COVID-19 Pandemic—support the growing field of practice by increasing the knowledge and skills of people working to connect and support older adults, children, and youth. Learn more.

Sharing Our Space: A Toolkit for Developing and Enhancing Intergenerational Shared Sites is designed for individuals and organizations interested in creating an intergenerational shared site or enhancing services at their current site. Divided into 10 sections, the toolkit details every step of the development and operation process, from initial planning to sustaining long-term shared site programs. Each section includes effective practices, challenges, tips, examples, and concrete tools gathered from researchers and practitioners from across the field, organized towards the goal of assisting readers in planning and implementing high-quality shared sites. Learn more.

Federal Funding Opportunities for Intergenerational Shared Sites Chart is designed to share some federal funding sources that include—or could include—support for intergenerational shared sites. Learn more.

Generations United's 2020 State of Grandfamilies Report—Facing a Pandemic: Grandfamilies Living Together During COVID-19 and Thriving Beyond. Grandfamily caregivers are the first line of defense for children during the pandemic, having stepped in when parents cannot raise them for many reasons, including cases where children's parents have died from the COVID-19 virus. Download the full report, watch Senator Sherrod Brown's award acceptance speech, and listen to stories of grandfamilies impacted by COVID-19. Learn more.

Staying Healthy Across Generations: Vaccines are Essential for All Ages. Generations United's new infographic illustrates that vaccines aren't just for kids-they protect all generations- especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staying up to date on vaccines for the flu, pneumonia and whooping cough is important to protect both older adults and children. Check it out.