Worcestershire

Twelve projects across England, including a successful bid from Worcestershire, have been awarded grants as part of a £5.5 million cross-Government scheme to promote intergenerational volunteering and encourage meaningful interaction between young and old generations.

Across Worcestershire, £386,800 was made available for the ‘Transferable Skills’ project. The aim of the project is to provide community project volunteers, both young and old, with additional skills to encourage greater understanding between older and younger age groups, challenge negative stereotypes and increase confidence in interacting with people from other groups and the wider community.

Overviews of the seven major projects are given below. For more information, please contact the projects directly.

‘Transferable Skills’ project

Generations Together into Employment

Volunteers from the older age group will be trained to assist those aged 16-19 in looking for work by job coaching, assisting with basic qualifications and becoming mentors during the interview period and the first few weeks of work. At the same time they will also develop their own computer skills and work towards C&G Learning Power Certificates.

WCVYS
Contact: Phil Street
phil.wcvys@googlemail.com

Breaking Down Barriers Intergenerational Arts Project

“ My Perfect Day “

Breaking Down Barriers is an arts project that brings together volunteers aged between 11 - 25 and over 50 together to share skills in art / crafts and produce artwork to be shown at Worcester Festival 2011 and other showcase opportunities across Worcestershire.

Volunteers choose a variety of art mediums i.e. poetry, painting, traditional crafts, graffiti etc… and work to make artwork together. They would support each other through this process, following the theme of “My Perfect Day”.

Volunteers consider what their “My Perfect Day” would be like: would it be with friends and family enjoying a meal together, would it be making something creative, would it be on holiday? Was their perfect day the day they got married or had their child? Is it in the past, present or future? The choice is theirs.
The aims are to promote intergenerational discussion, to find common ground and help break down negative social stereotypes that can otherwise cause animosity and fear between the age groups and to aid community cohesion through connecting older and younger people through shared ownership of their work / project.

Worcester Volunteer Centre
Contact: Lisa Buckley
lisa@wvc.org.uk

Harvesting the Rural Past

This project focuses on the fact that 64% of Worcestershire is rural. Young and older volunteers from around the county will come together to interview and capture on film and CD-Rom the differences between farming in the past and the present day. The film, recordings, photographs and artefacts will be displayed in local community hubs/ history pods.

Worcestershire County Council
Contact: Justin Hughes
jhughes@worcestershire.gov.uk

Tales of the Credit Crunch

"Tales of the Credit Crunch" aims to provide a cinematic forum for Worcestershire's Older and Younger people to discuss the impact of economic downturn on their communities in urban and rural areas across Worcestershire. Through the making of this film it is hoped to encourage and increase the positive interaction between younger and older people in Worcestershire and to reinforce community cohesion.
In the course of capturing the historical and educational value of local residents' experiences and memories, we aspire to increase individual's sense of well being and their ability to make a positive contribution to the community. This will be achieved by interviewing individuals and existing community groups about their experiences, leading to the formation of two intergenerational focus groups (representing urban and rural) which will discuss the effects of economic downturn upon Worcestershire.

Information about the project is on the website: www,ageukhw.org.uk and film footage is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CreditCrunchTales

Age Concern
Contact: Charlotte Williams
cwilliams@achw.org.uk

Bringing People Together

"Bringing People Together" aims to encourage younger and older people to take part in shared activities rather than separate ones, which is often seen as being the norm. These activities include sharing cooking skills, arts and crafts etc.

Worcestershire County Council
Contact: Paul Finnemore
pfinnemore@worcestershire.gov.uk

Multi Media Inclusion Project

The skills of younger volunteers are utilised to provide shared computer learning and internet usage, particularly on web-cam training and accessing global information e.g. energy saving, healthy eating tips.

Rooftop Housing Group
Contact: Kim Skipsey
kim.skipsey@rooftopgroup.org

See It My Way

Sighted younger volunteers are trained to visit older partially sighted and blind people to assist them with daily tasks and technology. Also younger blind or partially sighted volunteers visit older people who are losing their sight in order to support and reassure them.

Sight Concern
Contact: Caroline Hughes
caroline@sightconcern.co.uk