Prevention Institute is researching and planning how to integrate intergenerational partnerships into our health equity efforts. For example, we are collaborating with community-based partners to position young leaders as subject matter experts at national conferences. This improves our work, honors young people’s wisdom, and strengthens the health equity field. We will continue to post new projects to this page as they develop.
Prevention Institute’s intent to improve intergenerational partnerships arose in response to two common beliefs our organization has heard from our learning communities in the past several years:
- Young people are the future.
- Young people are visionaries.
In 2020 we created the Young Organizers Circles to answer the question, “what would it look like to share power across generations, incorporating young people’s voices and expertise into health equity work?”
Recent efforts to deepen this inquiry led to two discussion group series—one group hosted young leaders, and another hosted supportive adults (or “space holders”)—and these series were inspired by the Making Connections initiative. In these monthly Young Organizers and Space Holders sessions, participants discussed how intergenerational partnerships can transform our communities. Topics included grassroots movements and organizing, storytelling to create change, and putting passion in action. The first set of Young Organizers Circles was hosted in summer 2020 when shelter-in-place due to COVID-19 and racial justice protests impacted us all.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the first series:
For more information, contact williamc@preventioninstitute.org