Creating an Intergenerational Ripple Around the World

Warm regards to all our Intergens~

My name is Joshua and currently I'm working on a project called Generation Waking Up.  Over the past few months I've been researching a bit into the emerging intergenerational field.  While intergenerational work has a long history, there seems to be a renewed interest in this topic awakening at forefront of human consciousness, and many of us who keep the pulse of what is emerging on the evolutionary edge are beginning to bring this into greater focus, awareness, and practice.

I'm writing to share a few threads that I have discovered over the past few months, not all riding the conscious evolutionary wave, but each holding an important part of the emergent whole:

Creating An Intergenerational Ripple Around the World: (one that many of you are familiar with) This is the title of an article by Lyn Hartley about an intergenerational conference that took place at the Shambhala Institute in the summer of 2004.  A leading supporter of this gathering was Juanita Brown of the World Cafe, who states in this article "We are convening a new reality when we invite the generations to sit down together to apply their collective intelligence to issues of common concern."  The article goes on to talk about intergenerational events that were a result of this initial conference.

Passing the Torch: An Intergenerational Collaboration to Empower Emerging Leaders is a mentoring program that has been envisioned and developed by a woman named Marianne Weidlein who is based in Ashland, Oregon.  Currently this project is waiting to find the right people and organization to carry it forward.

Transgenerational Dialogue: A video of Dominic Allamano speaking at an intergenerational dialogue that took place at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. 

It Takes a Village: Intergenerational Programs that Work is a one-day conference on November 12th, 2007 hosted by Intergenerational Strategies.  Their keynote speaker will be Donna Butts, Executive Director of Generations United, who will speak about best practices in the growing intergenerational field.  Generations United is a national coalition of intergenerational groups in the US.

Intergenerational Movement-Building: A recent article in Yes! magazine titled Not Your Grandfather's SDS by Joshua Kahn Russell talks about a successful example of intergenerational movement-building in the early 21st century. 

World Cafe 2.0 Multi-Generational: I recently attended a small gathering at Juanita Brown's and David Isaacs' house, the birthing place of the World Cafe, for an inspiring exploration into the questions and issues surrounding the intergenerational field, along with looking into the potential of a World Cafe 2.0.  Plans are underway for future events of a similar nature.

Intergen: An Intergenerational Collaboration For Co-Creating A Brilliant New World is a conference taking place Dec. 7-9, 2007 in Ojai, California.  One of the long-term goals for this gathering is to develop a pilot model for hosting intergenerational gatherings in local communities starting in 2008.

These are just a few of threads that have come my way in the recent months.  There are of course many others from the past and many that are still emerging today.

Hearing about the upcoming plans for an Intergenerational Pioneers of Change conference is another sign that an intergenerational ripple is truly spreading around the world.

Inspired to be collectively stepping forward into this rapidly emerging intergenerational field!

 co-generativity~

    ....joshua

"What is budding from all these intergenerational seeds? The collective intelligence that flowers when you bring together people with unique perspectives to contribute in any system. The spirit of multigenerational gathering appears to be building momentum as a potential social movement that can foster intergenerational collaboration on issues of common passionate concern."   ~Lyn Hartley, "Creating An Intergenerational Ripple Around the World"