Intergenerational Event- By Sharon Harvey Lewis
We created an event co-produced with our young people purely to celebrate Intergenerational Week. The two suggestions were to have some form of competition involving games and the second was to provide a pamper session for those who wanted to relax and take time out.
The challenge evolved into having two teams, one being our young people from the Mental Health Manifesto project in Swansea and the other team we had the privilege to collaborate with were our ‘Young at Hearts’ who through some previous partnership working joined us from the Age Well project and the Chinese In Wales Association.
The amazing venue was the Collaboration Station right in the City Centre, and we had the added bonus that our young people had been there before and the older generation were also familiar with the venue so everyone felt comfortable and knew what to expect.
After all the organising the big day arrived, both teams were selected and all was to play for — the Single Parents Wellbeing Intergenerational Event Trophy and medal (No pressure!)
The competition was real, everyone invested. Most wanted to practice their darts before we officially started to warm up — this competition just got serious. Amongst all of this there were plenty of tactical team talks, encouragement, and a whole lot of nervous laughter.
Round 1 - Darts!
Young people who had never thrown a dart in their lives were scoring really high scores and on the other side there were members of the older generation who play darts regularly and were just having an off day. Suffice to say, the young people won the darts.
Round 2 - Pool!
The game faces came out, banter was a bare minimum, however the concentration was intense. First round ‘Young at Hearts’ won — it was all to play for. And with a stroke of luck (and the older generation going easy on our young people), the SPW Intergenerational Event Trophy went to our amazing young people!
Pamper Corner
A very different ambiance in our Pamper Corner — our super talented hairdresser Kate and our fabulous beautician Amy worked their magic to create an environment like a Spa Day. Both generations, laughing and conversing whilst having their nails painted & hands massaged, or a hair transformation or maybe some cute curls — all who participated left with the biggest smiles and a huge amount of gratitude to have this little moment of luxury in the midst of our Intergenerational event.
For our SPW staff, all of these interactions were a joy to observe — seeing over 50 people coming together from all ages, all walks of life and just enjoying was priceless. Time to start planning next year's Intergenerational event — however, this will be a hard one to beat.
Our next events in Swansea are all on our website
Book early to avoid disappointment. We look forward to seeing you there!