A new initiative in six Winnipeg care homes is bringing together older adults and youth in hopes of strengthening intergenerational relationships and bridging the social gaps widened in recent years.
“Bridging Generations Program is an intergenerational project,” says Gladys Hrabi, the CEO of the Catholic Health Association of Manitoba. “We believe that there is room for older adults and the younger generation to connect and bond, and that it will benefit our society to have this connection.”
Hrabi says that there has been a loss in relationships between seniors and young people for multiple reasons. Part of it is because of technology, and the biases each has, as well as the pandemic and how it separated everyone.
“We really wanted [this project] to be codesigned by the people who benefit from it. Out of that advisory group, we’re able to have four themes for the four months that we’ll be running the program.”
The initiative got started this month, and the theme for November is music. The program is currently running in six different care homes across Winnipeg.
“Yesterday, we had our first intergenerational jazz connections. We brought together youth under the age of 25, and we have these older adults in an event where they talked about music, with jazz in the background. The point of this connection was to get to know each other through music. We believe that music is the language of the soul.”
Hrabi was on location during the first event, and she could see the program living up to what she hoped it would offer all those involved.
“I thought the young ones wouldn’t connect with the music, but we were playing the Sound of Music. We had some volunteers as young as 16 who were tapping, listening and singing along. It was something like, ‘Oh, everybody knows this music.’ They also get some wisdom from the older adults about what it was like back in the day.”
The program will continue until the end of November, before they take a break for December. The initiative will start back up for the first three months of 2026.
“In January, we’ll have intergenerational trivia,” says Hrabi. “It’s good to understand what kids are talking about and what makes them feel alive. So the point of the exercise is to get to know each other. Then we have a human library where they talk about things they’re passionate about. For example, maybe the older adults would understand what TikTok is, like, why is everybody talking about this? The last one will be arts and crafts.”
Hrabi is still looking for teenagers and young adults to volunteer between January and March, committing to just one hour at the place and topic they’d like. Anyone interested can volunteer by emailing Hrabi at [email protected].
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