A preschool housed within a retirement home is changing the lives of seniors and toddlers alike. Providence Mount St. Vincent in Seattle, WA, houses over 400 elderly residents; The Intergenerational Learning Center (ILC) is a childcare facility that allows infants-to-5-year-olds interact with these residents through structured and unstructured activities.
The broad purpose of the ILC is to help children learn about the elderly. Specifically, the program aims to have kids learn about the normal aging process, accept people with disabilities, help them reduce their fear of older adults, and to receive and give unconditional and unbounded love and attention. A documentary about the initiative is presently in the works.
43% of older adults experience social isolation
So this program put a preschool into a nursing home
It allows children to learn and interact with 400+ elderly residents at the assisted-living center
“The children and residents come together in a variety of planned activities such as music, dancing, art, lunch, storytelling or just visiting”
“This enhances the opportunities for children and people of all ages to have frequent interaction”
Children at the center have to the opportunity to learn from their elders
To accept people with disabilities
To be involved with people who are two or three generations apart
To become part of an extended family
To help them reduce their fear of older adults
To receive and give unconditional and unbounded love and attention
Participants benefit from frequent interaction with children throughout their day
They engage in physical activity playing with the children
There are opportunities to play, laugh and enjoy the spirit and joy that children bring to their home environment
Participants have a renewed sense of self-worth
An opportunity to transfer knowledge
And the ability to serve as role models
“There is only one time to be happy, and that time is now”
