INTERGENERATIONAL CENTERS

From 2002 till today Anton Trstenjak Institute is developing a concept and model of intergenerational centres and its implementation in practice. The aim of the programme is to provide all public care for quality ageing and solidarity between generations with synergic link of public, civil and private resources in community.

Purpose

The local intergenerational center model has stemmed from the ever clearer anthropological, social, and political realization that the problems which the aging of the population is about to create in the near future cannot be fought without simultaneously promoting a solidary coexistence of generations.

Description of the model

The local intergenerational center is a complex model of community management for synergetically combining all political, civic and other programs, services, organizations and other subjects that provide for two vital areas of coexistence in a community: the quality aging and the solidarity between the young, middle and old generations.

• a synergetic systemic engagement of all the agents relevant in the local community to quality aging and to solidarity between the young, middle and old generations; and of all political, civil, and other programs, services, organizations, etc. – these include, first and foremost, the local political authorities, civil service, public institutions of education and of social and health care, civil organizations, and committed individuals;
• sustained informing, edifying and educating of the responsible agents, families, organizations, and the entire community about what must and can be done in the area of quality aging and intergenerational solidarity in the community;
• basic research of the needs and capacities of the community population in this field;
• introduction and conduct of new programs on the basis of the needs and capacities ascertained, particularly of programs prolonging independent living of the elderly in their environment, programs assisting informal caregiving, and programs maintaining a wide network of intergenerational volunteer work.

1. The local principle. An intergenerational center is intended for the entire population of a coherent local community, such as the majority of the current municipalities in Slovenia. Other principles are possible: an intergenerational center can, for instance, be intended for a religious or ethnic community in a specific locality.
2. The intergenerational principle. An intergenerational center incorporates all three generations, but not as a linear sum total of the organizations or programs for the young, middle, or older generation: rather, it is a hub of their active cooperation, association and interrelation, and of their complementing one another, overriding the tensions between individuals, groups, organizations, and programs of any of the three generations.
3. The synergetic pursuance of surplus social capital by purposive integration of the needs and capacities of all three generations, civil and social services, and programs and organizations in the community, wherein the intergenerational center must not have the characteristics of a circle’s motionless center, but of a dynamic center of a spiral of development, whereat the entire community and its professional staff incessantly look for the right answers to the needs of quality aging and solidary coexistence of all three generations in the community.

A suitable form of organization for an intergenerational center is an institution founded on the principle of public-private partnership by the local government (the municipality) and appropriate civil organizations of the old, middle, and young generations. The intergenerational center should be run by a professional team specialized in organizing intergenerational social networks in a community.