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What is Linking Generations?

Created in 2004 as a charitable organization, Linking Generations provides mentored and structured visits aimed at building relationships between seniors and youth in our community. The program brings the generations together so they can share their knowledge and life experiences, and encourages volunteering and social responsibility in youth.

Linking Generations creates connections between seniors and youth by nurturing friendships built through volunteering and structured mentorship – Mission Statement

Awards and Acknowledgments

Linking Generations Executive Director, Debbie Sinclair, awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal 2023
Duncan and Craig Laurel Award 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Received Rogers Hometown Hockey Award 2018
Received Pride of Strathcona 2019 Award – Outstanding Community Organization
Nominated for the Ministers Seniors Service Award in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Field Law Community Awards 2016, 2020
Received the 2021 County of Strathcona Award of Excellence, Service to Seniors
Received the 2021 Ministers Seniors Service Award

Donate Now & Support our Program!

Linking Generations is a Canadian Registered Charity in good standing. We are currently looking for donations to expand our program. If you are interested in making a donation directly to us, or would like to learn more about how you can help, please contact us for more information.

We appreciate the amazing support of our community! Donations can be made through Canada Helps:

Addressing and Navigating COVID-19

This has been a challenging year for our seniors. As Linking Generations navigated a new world created by this challenging COVID global pandemic, the need for intergenerational connections between seniors and youth became more evident than ever before. The past months reinforced how critical it is that our community seniors be connected to family and to friends. With severe visiting restrictions placed at all senior facilities, many seniors have had little or no contact with the outside world. Beginning in March of 2020, Linking Generations created a letter writing program, where all program participating students wrote weekly letters to their “linked” seniors. Each week, LG Program Coordinators would forward these special letters to the senior facilities so that they could be delivered like regular mail. Seniors even undertook with writing back to the students! We are proud to share that over 250 letters/emails have been shared between the linked students and seniors! Some of the participating LG seniors and students also connected virtually through Skype or Zoom. LG helped our seniors remain cared for, valued and connected.

In the wake of COVID-19 and the start of moving towards a new normal, Linking Generations has spent the summer months in preparation for our 2020-2021 Program re-start. It has been even more evident that our seniors are isolated, lonely and withdrawn. It is critical that we keep seniors connected to youth. Although no-one can determine at this time what each of the next months will bring, we have our programs ready to go. We are committed to providing programs to help seniors better cope through the pandemic and day to day life in general.

Students and seniors will be able to visit while in their classroom cohorts with a senior in one of our senior facility partnerships, by a virtual platform. Together they can talk and get to know each other, and begin to share life stories and even do activities together virtually. We shall also continue with our letter writing program since we know seniors love to receive unexpected ‘mail’ deliveries. Visiting on a virtual platform may be difficult for some of our seniors, however we are confident that we can ease their fears and make it seamless for them to continue to visit with our students. – Debbie Sinclair, Executive Director

Volunteer Grandparent Program

Created in 2018, Linking Generations is pleased to offer the Volunteer Grandparent Program, This initiative which offers seniors imore opportunities to help bridge the multi-generational gap. The Volunteer Grandparent Program was created in response to a lack of opportunities for young and older generations to relate in an increasingly age-segregated society. Schools on board… Continue reading Volunteer Grandparent Program

Donate

Donate Now & Support our Program! Linking Generations is a Canadian Registered Charity in good standing. We are currently looking for donations to expand our program. If you are interested in making a donation directly to us, or would like to learn more about how you can help, please contact us for more information. We… Continue reading Donate

Community Partners

Linking Generations Society of Alberta relies on community partnerships to create positive intergenerational impact. Each partner is critical to the success of our programs, helping with identifying and supporting students and seniors, supporting programs, and developing innovative solutions together. To all of our valuable community partners, We can only do what we do because of… Continue reading Community Partners

I have been with the linking generations program for 5 years now. Five years is just about a third of the time I’ve lived. Through this program, I can recognize now that five years is not that long of a time.

Some seniors in this program are over 100 years old! Despite being in the program from grade seven to grade 12, I really only feel I’ve experienced a fraction of what any of these seniors could impart on me. I could spend every day just talking with any senior in the room and I would never hear all of their stories.

I also feel that I’ve gained a greater depth about how they live. Sometimes, when I’m in class at school, I find myself thinking “I can’t wait until Thursday!” and just a couple weeks ago it struck me: Some of our seniors feel like this all week, every week. Once I realized this, I finally fully realized this program’s impact on both us as students and our seniors: —- for us, it has increased our compassion and has also given us a greater understanding of other ways of life. For the seniors, it has given them someone they see often, someone they can talk to and share experiences with.

I could never give enough thanks to this program for helping me develop these skills that I will have for the rest of my life, and I think I speak for the seniors when I say they’d thank us for giving being a friend.

A Participating Student

Linking Young and Old

I really enjoy being with young people. Their energy is contagious. Our energy level seems to drop as we age, but a few hours with teenagers can rejuvenate eighty and ninety year olds.

We have been given the privilege by schools here in Sherwood Park to take part in a visit once a week with an organization called Linking Generations. It has been the source of many happy hours for myself and others, as a senior residing in Chartwell Country Cottage Residence. The youth arrive just before 4:00 pm, and a buzz of conversation breaks out as they drop their backpacks to wrap their arms around “their” senior, amid hugs and kisses, and hoots of “Hi!”

No matter what stage of old age, deafness, or inability we are at, they empathize, laugh with us, and share their weekly experiences. We count the days in between visits and look forward to Tuesdays as a group. We roll up our sleeves, young and old, and jump in with paste or paint to participate in the next activity or project.

This camaraderie certainly gives me a sense of being valued. What a great gift to be given from the heart by these kids. Any of the letters to the editor complaining about teenagers can be refuted. The unanimous opinion of the seniors is that these students are our friends.

In the last six years, I have been active and enjoyed these young people from grades eight, ten, and twelve. The pleasant time I have spent with them has been reciprocated, but I feel I have been the winner. I smile and remember good times. The youth have been at different ages and developmental stages, but have harbored a special place in their heart for seniors.

The dedicated people who run the program should be proud of the results from the many hours spent in preparation for each session.

Quality time spent with someone you enjoy is a gift for us older people. The giggles, breaking into songs in a spontaneous manner, and enthusiastic hugs given and received really fill the bill. Let’s hear it for all young people who care about the infirm, poor, and elderly among us, and raise our voices to sing praises of our future generations!

Editor’s Note: Linking Generations, a non-profit organization based out of Sherwood Park, is aimed at building relationships between youth and seniors in the community. The program brings the generations together in order for youth and seniors to share knowledge and life experiences.

For more information on the Linking Generations program, visit the Linking Generations Society of Alberta website at http://www.linkinggenerations.ca.

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