Episode 19: Mary O'Donnell and Ernest Gonzales on the Benefits of Intergenerational Programs

A few months ago, Generations United released our latest set of free resources—developed with support from RRF Foundation for Aging—aimed to strengthen and expand intergenerational programs. The 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.

Mary O'Donnell, president of RRF, joined our Executive Director Donna Butts and Ernest Gonzales, Ph.D., who led the development of Generations United's new resources. Dr. Gonzales is also an associate professor and director of the MSW Program at NYU Silver School of Social Work. 

This episode focuses on how the RRF Foundation for Aging came to include intergenerational programs in their funding priorities and what the Foundation has learned about intergenerational programs. The episode also explores what Dr. Gonzales and his research team learned while creating the intergenerational tools. 

Other resources mentioned during this interview include:

• Encore.org's The Power of Connecting the Generations
• Generations United's Stronger Together: Funders Call to Innovation
• Grantmakers in Aging's Intergenerational Strategies 
• Ohio State University's College of Social Work's Implementation of Evidence-Base Practices in Intergenerational Programming: A Scoping Review
• Visit gu.org for additional resources.