Join the US Kick-off of Global Intergenerational Week 2024!

Now in its fourth year, Global Intergenerational Week is a growing international celebration of intergenerational connections and programs. Join the U.S. country leads from Generations United and The Eisner Foundation on Thursday, February 15, 11am PT / 2pm ET for an overview of the week and the many ways individuals and organizations can get involved. Register today!

GRAND Voices in the News

Last month two of Generations United GRAND Voices, Bob Ruble and Kathy Coleman, were featured in their local press. Bob was quoted in The Orange County Register's article “Older relatives answer need, step in as later-in-life parents.” Kathy's letter to the editor was published in Baton Rouge Advocate/New Orleans Times-Picayune/nola.com “Letters: With settlement, let’s help grandparents who are paying the price for opioid crisis” 

Concerts in Motion

Concerts in Motion, based in New York City, relieves social isolation through music. They present socially engaging concerts to those who would not otherwise have access, for geographic, socioeconomic, or mobility reasons. Their primary audience is older adults, including immigrant communities, older adults with disabilities or cognitive decline, and the homebound. They apply a uniquely intergenerational approach to all their programs; they provide concerts that unite youth and older adults, and concerts by professional musicians who are often multiple generations younger than the recipients. The experiences foster cross-generational understanding that strengthens relationships within communities, as well as between them.

High-quality data is critical for seeking funding and informing changes to policy and practice that meaningfully improve the experiences and well-being of kinship/grandfamilies. Researchers from Child Trends will provide an overview of how existing data sources can be used and combined in innovative and creative ways to provide meaningful information about kinship/grandfamilies. Learn More and Register

As always, the Network is accepting individual requests for assistance from professionals who work in systems or organizations that serve kinship/grandfamilies. Fill out the request assistance form to receive support from our team. Learn more and sign up to access our resources!

Helene Block Fields, an intergenerational pioneer, Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education, and grandparenting specialist, passed away on January 24, 2024, at the age of 91. A stalwart champion of intergenerational relationships and Generations United, Helene was the author of Don’t Cheat the Children: Connecting Generations through Grandfriendships, about the critical importance of intergenerational relationships to children’s development. Helene was a fixture at our conferences, commanding a standing-room-only session at our 2017 conference in Milwaukee, WI where she presented A Practical Intergenerational Approach to Death and Dying. She shared this research with us to share with you. Her passion is wonderfully illustrated in a poem she wrote: Build Bond-fires, dedicated to the 2023 Class of Erikson Alumni and shared in Erickson's tribute to Helene.

Helene was loved and admired not only by the intergenerational community in her native Chicago but also by those of us who had the good fortune to know her.

- Sheri Steinig, Generations United