Member's statement: Global Intergenerational Week

Member's statement by Mr Nick Mathison on 28 April 2025.

MLA

Mr Nick Mathison

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

28 April 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Global Intergenerational Week

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4913798

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I take the opportunity to highlight Global Intergenerational Week, a campaign that runs every year and aims to inspire us to embrace intergenerational practice and learn more about the benefits of connecting people of all ages. This year, it runs from 24 to 30 April, and, no doubt, there will be events taking place across many constituencies. Linking Generations Northern Ireland is a local charity based in my constituency. It does fantastic work in connecting generations and communities across Northern Ireland. Vicki, the charity's director, whom many Members will have engaged with, is incredibly passionate about the work that she does. She recently gave an excellent presentation at one of the Education Committee's informal stakeholder briefings. It covered, in particular, the multiple linkages that intergenerational practice has across the Northern Ireland curriculum. The charity offers continuing professional development (CPD)-accredited training in intergenerational practice and has a range of resources that can be used with primary, secondary and FE students. It can also provide training to care homes on developing intergenerational approaches alongside bespoke training sessions and workshops that are tailored to meet the needs of each specific audience. A great example of its work locally, which shows why we should take the time to acknowledge Global Intergenerational Week, comes when we see it working out practically on the ground. Little Stars Preschool in Killyleagh and Beechvale Nursing Home in Killinchy in the Strangford constituency regularly engage in a range of activities in the nursing home. The feedback, spanning the generations, from those engagements is that they are really positive experiences for young and old alike. As Global Intergenerational Week will come to a close on Wednesday, I pay tribute to the work of Linking Generations NI, which runs on a shoestring budget. It has extremely limited funding to deliver its work. Crucially, I also call on all Departments, particularly the Executive Office, to engage seriously with the value of intergenerational work, facilitate collaboration across the Executive and come together to ensure that the work is funded adequately, appropriately and sustainably. Organisations such as Linking Generations cannot exist on goodwill alone. An element of what they do needs to be funded if we want it to be delivered and to confirm that we value it. The work benefits our education system, our health settings and a range of key Executive strategies. Last year, a motion to support the progression of the loneliness strategy was passed unanimously in the Assembly, and intergenerational work is absolutely vital for that. If we are serious about the issue, we need to make sure that intergenerational practice is properly supported across all Executive Departments.

438 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:27 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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