Bridging Generations, Sparking Innovation:
An Intergenerational
Co-Lab
Wisdom + Innovation + Real-World Challenges
Bringing together youngers, olders, and local organizations to co-create solutions to “wicked problems” — issues that require creativity, empathy, and collaboration to tackle.
We are living in a time of profound transition and uncertainty. Among the most pressing challenges our communities face are rising youth anxiety and growing loneliness across all ages.
Coming together through this project offers an antidote.
This pilot project represents innovative, community-based education that:
Fosters a sense of belonging and solidarity between generations by reimagining and co-creating a shared future.
Connects youth and elders to their community through lived experiences of meaningful civic participation and volunteerism.
Teaches students and older adults problem-solving, leadership, and collaboration skills that position difference in opinion as useful to the decision-making process, rather than something to be avoided or feared.
Contributes to collective well-being by reducing isolation, loneliness, and disengagement.
Increases visibility for local participating organizations and businesses, while proposing solutions for their real problems.
Strengthens the relationship between schools and their wider communities, opening new channels for dialogue and connection.
Frameworks Guiding The Co-Lab
We use a combination of human-centered and relational tools to approach the presented wicked problems:
Human-Centred Design: A relational approach to problem-solving that begins with empathy and lived experience rather than assumptions or expert authority.
Restorative Practices: A way of being that reduces polarization by focusing on what we share in common and offering tools to support us when we see things differently.
Art of Hosting: Participatory leadership in action — emphasizing co-creation, shared ownership, and collective intelligence.
Nonviolent Communication: A needs-based lens that helps us identify what truly matters and express it with clarity and compassion.
FAQ’s:
Supporting Partner Logos go here
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein
