What's prompted this? Wales wants to be an international leader in all things inter-generational. It claims to be the first country to incorporate the Madrid Declaration into a national policy.
Ah, the Madrid Declaration. Just remind me ...
It's an international plan of action from a conference in Madrid in 2002 looking at the challenges of an ageing population. It stressed the need for solidarity between generations. In 2003, the Welsh Assembly Government published a strategy for older people, then commissioned intergenerational charity the Beth Johnson Foundation to develop a wider understanding of intergenerational practice. It is now ready to move from "a programmatic to a strategic approach".
So what actions make up the strategy? Key things to address are ageism and equality. That should be done by introducing ageing into the personal, social and health education curriculum and by creating more opportunities for contact that can help the generations understand what they have in common - volunteering, by both age groups, will have a vital role. After that, it's about integrating the intergenerational approach into broader assembly government strategies.
Such as? The Communities Next initiative for community development, community-focused schools (the Welsh equivalent of extended schools), healthy-lifestyle projects and environmental work. There will be measures to ensure that participation work is not only in age-segmented groups but also involves younger and older people working together.
Isn't a lot of it the fault of the media? That was the view of the people who took part in the consultations for this strategy. They wanted to challenge negative stories with examples of positive ones. The strategy promises "we will work with partners from the media" to explore how to achieve more positive coverage.
FACT BOX
- Formal consultation runs until 2 August 2008. The Welsh Assembly Government hopes that groups will organise intergenerational events to consider their responses
- A pro forma response paper is being distributed to help groups structure their comments in response
- Copies of the Draft Intergenerational Practice Strategy for Wales and the response pro forma can be downloaded from http://new.wales.gov.uk/consultations.
