Today’s youth-obsessed culture leaves little room for positive intergenerational relationships, but United Generations Ontario (UGO) vows to promote equity in interaction between the youth and the elderly. This same culture is the main source of intergenerational conflict in homes and communities—where one side has a negative perception of the other, which results to prejudices and hostile relations.
UGO, through its website www.interugo.org, invites communities in Ontario to adapt intergenerational equity policies, which will help them provide a more pleasant and harmonious place for their residents to live in. Members of the older generation, as well as the youth, should work hand-in-hand to make this happen.
The award-winning organization Santropol Roulant, a meals-on-wheels group that delivers hot dinners to seniors every evening, is mainly composed of young people who are the proponents of amicable intergenerational relationships in their The Plateau neighborhood in Montreal. This service should be a primary example of how the rest of Canada should take care of its aging population.
PACE 2000 Programs for the Elderly and the Youth
Programs for Autonomy and Communication for the Elderly or PACE 2000 sits on the UGO Board of Directors in the hopes of effectively promoting its programs on a larger scale and provide Ontario intergenerational communities with support. PACE 2000 offers intergenerational bonding programs, professional mentoring and rehabilitation for the youth, as well as support for seniors so they can live with autonomy at the comfort of their own home.
Technological support includes 47 video-conferencing set-ups for seniors who find it hard to venture out of their homes. Services like these as provided by PACE 2000 helps the seniors to manage their health issues at home, all with the support of their intergenerational community.
The youth can also benefit from these programs, where they will have opportunities to develop social skills and professional contacts to foster cultural and linguistic exchanges.
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