How our intergenerational excellence awards made a difference

As part of intergenerational week (7-12 March 2021), Mearns after school care service (MACS) were presented with the Generations Working Together excellence award 2021 for “Creative ways to connect after Covid-19”.

MACS are an out of school care organisation with 12 services caring for over 1500 children throughout the East Renfrewshire and Glasgow area. During the first lock down Penny Anderson, head of centre and human resources director, achieved a diploma in intergenerational practice offered by Generations Working Together and the University of Granada.

Although MACS had already established intergenerational relationships with local care homes, Penny was able to share practice and collaborate with colleagues to find creative ways to connect with communities after Covid.

Linda MacKenzie, Area Manager said: “The training Penny shared with the staff team has enabled our services to extend our approach to enable us to bridge the gap between generations, not only with care homes and nurseries but to support social isolation through sharing gardening plots and befrienders organisations using social media throughout covid to stay in touch. This community approach has been mutually beneficial for all generations, building mutual respect as generations share ideas and experiences.”

A special recognition award was given to five care homes whose staff have shown an outstanding contribution and dedication towards keeping their residents connected with different generations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Durnhythe care home in Portsoy was one of the award winners.

Generations Working Together followed up this award with an offer of part-funding for an interactive activity table, which will be the first care home in Scotland to receive the second generation of the device.

Anuj Dawar, care home manager said “I see it being really useful for intergenerational video-conferencing with the school and/or nursery kids due to it being a large screen and being quite mobile. It would be wonderful for video-calling families and for using various apps and games with other residents on a large screen, even something simple like colour by numbers would be easy to use and produce some really vivid results. Its design makes it wheelchair accessible and the new height adjustability adds a significant amount of versatility of use for the residents. During the demo, one of our residents just could not have enough of it. It was so pleasing to see her curiosity and interest in the new device. It definitely broke all stereotypes we often have about older people being technology averse. We have now received the device and are really looking forward to exploring all of it’s capabilities with our residents.”