Global Intergenerational Week

Spreading the message of CCF

I am very much looking forward to participating in an event on Monday 28th organised by Generations Working Together. We worked with Bella from GWT on an event for our training and learning programme last year, so it is great to be able to collaborate again.

This event will look at how connecting generations can bring benefits to communities, something we have seen time and again as part of CCF. In particular, I think of the work that Rebecca has done with her Future Spa project, and the work that Elena did around the Big Gorbals Fair - but there have been loads more examples.

One thing we have observed, which I’m sure will come up in the event, is the idea of the “squeezed middle.” Kids are to some extent “climate natives” - it is part of the school curriculum, and they have grown up caring about the environment. Older people may have grown up in an era of “waste not, want not” and will raise an eyebrow at the concept of reusing materials as it’s what they have done their whole lives. Are we missing the generation in the middle - who perhaps grew up in the 80s and 90s when everything seemed to be going so well (we fixed the ozone layer!), and who now find themselves taking the blame for what seems - in hindsight - to have been a time of unbridled consumption?

There are so many fascinating tangents around this discussion - I am really looking forward to taking part.