We sit down with Arielle Galinsky, CEO and co-founder of The Legacy Project Incorporated. Arielle is not only a dual-degree graduate student at Yale Law and Harvard's Kennedy School, but she’s also a passionate advocate for intergenerational connections and storytelling.

The Legacy Project, which now spans 25 college campuses, began from Arielle’s personal drive to preserve the life stories of older adults—a mission fueled by loss in her own family and a desire to bridge the gap between generations.

In our conversation, Arielle shares how the Legacy Project grew from high school interviews to a fast-growing nonprofit, the challenges of launching a student-led organization, and the critical importance of including young people in conversations about aging.

Together, we explore the power of sharing life stories across generations, how college students are building bonds with seniors, and why these connections matter more than ever in today’s world. You'll hear inspiring insights, learn practical ways to get involved, and gain a vision for the future of intergenerational engagement in communities everywhere.

If you like this episode, please let us know. We appreciate the feed back, and your support of offset costs of producing the podcast!

Here are 3 key takeaways:

Intergenerational Connections are Powerful: The Legacy Project is growing across 25+ college campuses, pairing students with seniors to record life stories. Both seniors and students consistently find value in these relationships, breaking down age-related stereotypes and fostering mutual learning.

Storytelling as Civic Engagement: Arielle emphasized that sharing stories isn't just "feel good" work—it's a tool for combating social isolation, reducing ageism, and even driving community change. The project is now launching an Intergenerational Changemakers fellowship to encourage civic collaborations across ages.

Opportunities & Resources Abound: From forming campus chapters to collaborating with local senior communities and national organizations like Generations United, there are so many ways to get involved. Whether you're a student, educator, or community member, resources and guidance are available to help you create or join an intergenerational initiative.

Moments

00:00 Shaping Long-Term Care Policy

04:44 "Intergenerational Storytelling Legacy Project"

08:24 Legacy Project Integration in Coursework

11:55 Conference Sparks Growth in Aging Services

15:05 "Mutual Benefits of Generational Ties"

18:36 Growing Industry: Services for Seniors

20:02 Shift from Recruitment to Expansion

24:37 Podcast Resource on Legacy Project

25:54 Youth Caregivers Face Unique Challenges

30:27 "Intergenerational Change Makers" Initiative

32:17 "Fostering Multigenerational Community Dialogue"

38:21 Live an Intergenerational Lifestyle

39:21 "Embrace Life's Stories"

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And of course, everything can be found on our website, Looking Forward Our Way.

Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants.

Copyright 2026 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Mentioned in this episode:

Listener Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the experts interviewed on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcast hosts or any affiliated organizations. The information provided in these interviews is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with qualified professionals for specific advice or information related to their individual circumstances. The podcast host and producers do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information provided by the experts interviewed. Listener discretion is advised.

We are Looking Forward Our Way. Hi, this is Brett. How often have we talked with older relatives to discover some hidden history? And how many times have we wished we'd ask the right questions to those who have passed from our lives? Well, today we're going to discover an incredible program created by a group of college students that's focused on preserving the stories of our elders. I'm going to welcome our guest, Arielle Galinsky. She is the CEO and co founder of the Legacy Project Incorporated. Arielle is pursuing a dual degree, a J.D. at Yale Law and a master's master's in Public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School. Arielle, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you for having me. Brett and Carol.

Well, it, it's really wonderful to meet you. We've read about you. I've listened to the other podcasts and, and interviews you've done. So thank you so much for giving us your time today. And we're pretty excited about, about talking about your project. You know, it, it's really growing. The Legacy Project is now encompasses 25 college campuses, including Kent State here in Ohio, which is sort of how it drew us into the conversation. You know, Brett and I have been supporting senior services in our community for many years, but this is a completely new experience for us.

However, we always ask our guests before we dive into the topic. We want to know more about you. Tell us about your background and your goals for your graduate program in law school.

It's wonderful to be here today and I'm looking forward to the conversation A little bit about me. So I'm pursuing a joint public policy and law degree as Brett mentioned. My desire, my driving force is to shape the United States long term care system as well as the state long term care system in Massachusetts, which is where I grew up. I strongly believe that the policy levers to be able to get there is both going to take a kind of the policy approach which I'm getting my graduate program, as well as the legal approach and an intergenerational perspective. So a lot of my work, it's at the intersectionality of policy advocacy efforts as well as trying to get more young people to get into this movement, given that it's not a sexy topic to talk about aging. So my, my career is going to be focused on in both nonprofit spaces and in state and federal government working to build better systems for aging populations and keeping in mind how critical it is to have that intergenerational intersectionality and making sure that young people are also included in that conversation. That's my pathway.

This reminds me of a project we have going here in Columbus called the Age Friendly Columbus Franklin County Project. And one of the things they do is have little buttons, buttons that you could wear. And one of them sort of their theme is aging. So cool. Everybody's doing it. And so that's really sort of where you're going, is to get younger folks to realize not only is it an important area to participate, but we're all doing it.

You know, you're aging and this is a universal thing. If we're lucky, right?

Yes, exactly. Exactly. Take care of our, of our elders today, it's going to take care of us tomorrow.

Correct.

Very good. Thank you.

Yeah.

While you're in high school, you had the opportunity to volunteer in a senior community and began documenting their stories. This initial exercise led you to a similar project. As an undergraduate at Tufts University, you met two classmates also interested in this golden opportunity, preserving the stories of local seniors. And thus the Legacy Project began. So talk about the creation of the Legacy Project and the challenges you faced. Obviously, I'm sure it was not smooth sailing the whole way.

Still not smooth sailing, no. Yeah. So, I mean, for me, it began as, as you mentioned, a passion initiative in high school. A lot of it was born from the fact that I lost both of my grandfathers around the age of 10 years old, who are my rock stars and my role models. And I didn't have the foresight at that age to ask them about their life histories. And when I started, I've always had an epiphany to working with older population. When I was in high school, I started working in a senior community where the Legacy Project kind of came to be naturally because I had conversations with some of the older adults in the community, got glimpses of their life stories, and just was yearning to hear more. And so that, that led me to create a full blown project where I did nearly 20 interviews, long form interviews, and the whole.

The purpose of it was to provide an opportunity to share those stories, but also then to convene everyone and their families at the end of the project to share stories. And then Covid hit. Well, we weren't able to do that. And so I ended up taking the stories and writing a book. And that created the model for the Legacy Project. And so when I came to Tufts during my freshman year, I found two others, Wanda and Katie, who are my co founders, who are also really passionate about this work, cared about intergenerational connections, cared about storytelling as a mechanism for creating those opportunities. And we created a chapter at Tufts and brought other students from Tufts and Medford and Somerville, older adults, which is the host communities where Tufts is situated, and just started doing interviews over the course of an academic year. Then it caught fire that this was something, an opportunity at Tufts and that other schools didn't have these same opportunities for intergenerational storytelling engagement.

And so that's when we became a nonprofit founded in Massachusetts and started growing chapters in other colleges and universities.

I've got to ask you, so you have this idea and you find these other two young ladies who have the same idea. I mean, how did, how did you find each other?

I mean, that's such a good question.

Because it, because it's not really going to a coffee house and say, hey, I want to talk about this, you know, so, so how. Because I'm sure everybody that's listening to this podcast has that same. I have this great idea, but it's like I'm in a bubble. I don't know who to talk to.

Yeah, I mean, that's a fair question, Brett. Yeah, no, it was honestly a stroke of luck. I, I, There was, I, I've never been fearful of talking about my interests and have always just about, you know, spotted my, my belief in this, in the intergenerational connectedness and its power to, to bring people together. I was speaking to a peer at Tufts my freshman year about it, and they were like, you have to talk to Katie. She's also interested in this. So it just happens that we both talk a lot, I guess. Well, as the answer, and talked to a bunch of different people. So we got connected when we started the chapter, Wanda joined us right from the start because she was interested in this space, and we were promoting it through posters and through communication channels at school.

So that's how the three of us found each other. But it was pretty lucky that someone told me to reach out to Katie originally.

Well, but, but it's, it's a networking situation, though. You just have to, you have to talk about it, knowing you're going to get the dead stairs, possibly, but, but also going, I know a person. Oh, my gosh. You just said something I heard last week, somebody else mentioned. It's that, you know, and we talk, we talk about that all the time on this podcast about, you've got to take advantage of the people around you and just talk it up as, ask.

The questions over and over and over again, and eventually you're going to hear the information or the right answers that you're looking for. Absolutely. When when you were. When you were first doing this and working with faculty, and we're going to get into the sort of the gist of this in a minute, but did you have to also go through channels within the university, like create a club or something or.

Yeah, yeah. So we. We create the general pipeline for starting a chapter. And what we did at Tufts was to form the Legacy Project as a student organization at the school, like another. Any other club would occur. Right. Has a lot of benefits because by doing so you can have access to funding, you have to institutional support, and you're recognized by the school as an official club, which is wonderful. And, you know, once we.

Some word got out, I think, actually at our Kent State chapter and a professor found us. And so another model that was kind of born from that initial pilot at Kent State was embedding the Legacy Project in a classroom environment. So having it be part of a seminar or having it be part of typeface, some type of like, capstone project is what ended up happening. And other. Since then, other professors have reached out to us with an interest of embedding the Legacy Project into their coursework. So that. And there's some benefits to that too, right. Because as a student organization, it's a volunteer opportunity.

Students can engage kind of when they want, but we look for students who are obviously engaged and excited about the work. But in a classroom environment, it's kind of a different setup. It's. It's expected, it's routine, it's very consistent, and students will be there to ensure the kind of the fulfillment of the entire project. So those are the two models in which we have utilized thus far to get into different school environments.

And as you said, that is really critical because being an official group within the university or college is not just funding, but literally free marketing. They're letting people know about this opportunity. And so that's great.

Good.

I hadn't thought of that in all of the. That I was looking at the information about the Legacy Project, it just hit me like, if you go through the university, I remember our students would create clubs because we had a contract with Coca Cola. And so if the students had little events, they could put in a request for money and get free Coke products. So everybody wanted to do that because they got free goodies, you know, for their. For their activity.

So that works partnership so available or.

Yeah, I don't know. I was just gonna say, I think you need to check into that, so. Oh, absolutely. And Coke is. They. They got. They got a lot of money. They.

You Never know. So. So as Brett said, starting a nonprofit is not easy. I was running a nonprofit that had been around for 40 years and I can't even imagine doing it from scratch. And you and your co founders were three full time students doing this. This is a lot of work. When you sit back and think about all that was required, this is an intensive program. You're looking at scheduling and volunteers and publishing and fundraising and the whole nine yards.

In all of that that you have done and all the challenges you've met, what do you think was the greatest or most successful step that you reached to get the organization launched?

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think there's two things there. I think the, the tool that we relied on most and what we would have not been able to. To your point, like we were, we still are three. I mean, two of us are still in full time grad programs. My Katie is a full time employee at a, at a law firm in Boston. We, you know, we still are doing this with our studies and whatnot. And yes, it is, it's been interesting because none of the three of us had never started an organization before and we had no one in our families that did either. So what we relied on so heavily was the mentors and via networking, what we talked about before, the people in this space who've already been doing this work and who could guide us.

And so we went to a conference, the American Society on Aging Conference, that really served as I see it, as a pivotal point because it helped us form so many imperative connections with people in the aging services field, with other senior communities, and with a partner that we have now called Kim Capsule, which basically is a digital time capsule program. And we are, we work together in applying for grants and supporting one another. And so I see that those opportunities for connection and networking as critical for our development. I will also say some of those same people that we met originally and which continue to help us to this day, is the advisory board that we formed. So we have a wonderful advisory board filled with just impactful non profit leaders and storytellers and really just giants in the aging field that, you know, are consistently a resource for us to ask questions for growth, growth and who are cheering us on along the way. So I see that as a really kind of bedrock for why we've been able to get to where we have. I will also say that I think, you know, actually just gaining legitimacy. You know, at first we were operating and just starting to circulate the idea and then as soon as we were able to become a nonprofit and then finally get a 501C3 status this year.

That opened the gateways for opportunities to apply to grants and whatnot. That, of course, is critical for growth. And so all of those things, I think, have led us to where we are today. And we're still growing and still learning. And it's been fun to build a business.

It really is building a business. And folks don't realize that nonprofit is building a very complicated business because there are so many moving parts other than just the widget that you create and sell. There's a lot of other things going on. So. Yeah, good for you. Congratulations on this. This is. This is an amazing growth for the three of you, let alone what you're doing to help everybody else.

So that's. That's wonderful, right?

Well, you know. Yeah. As Carol's, you know, alluding to, I mean, there's incredible value in allowing individuals to convey their story. I mean, for this project, seniors are preserving their history, possibly cultural heritage. Students hopefully learn to better understand the differences and similarities between themselves and older adults. What have you discovered in the interaction of these generations? I mean, what lessons have been learned by both the seniors and the younger volunteers?

Yeah, you know, it's funny. I think a lot of people, I think both seniors and students alike, when they first join the program, they have this perception as to how it's going to be. They think that for the older adults, I think there's this. This idea that I'm going to bestow my wisdom to the younger participants. For a lot of the younger adults, I mean, they have some type of drawing force towards this. Otherwise they wouldn't volunteer their time during a busy, solid schedule. But a lot of them see it as an opportunity for maybe personal development, an opportunity to build a relationship with an older adult if they didn't have one in their life. And maybe some.

For some, it's even like they want to go to medical school and put it on their resume. You know, it's a. It's a mix of factors. What I think is consistently the most surprising one of the lessons is that both parties find that it's a mutually beneficial relationship and that it's different than when they originally thought. And that's kind of the whole goal of the legacy project. We try to aim to demonstrate that connecting generations is not for the benefit of one party, it's for the benefit of both. And that by sharing younger people sharing stories with older adults and vice versa, we're able to effectively create this tie and that there's other opportunities, too. Like, it's not just, you know, uplifting stories, although that's a big formal part of it.

It's not just creating these intergenerational generational connections. It's about combating these sentiments of social isolation and loneliness that so many of these younger and older participants feel. And it's about combating sentiments of ageism on both sides. Right. That is often preconceived without even knowing, just because of what we're exposed to on the media, in the media, and through other forms. And so I think those are some of the lessons that we've gained and just how close some of these pairs have gotten, that the relationships don't just end when the formal program ends at the academic year. But a lot of them, like I have, I. Anecdotally, I know a lot of our.

Our pairs still meet up or call every so often so that they can stay engaged with their. With their matches. Yeah.

Yeah. It's almost your. The antithesis of. Okay, Boomer. I mean, it just. It's then. And that's good because we talk a lot about ageism on this podcast, and it's. But when you finally get to sit down and understand where both generations are coming from, all of a sudden you just.

They're both generations kind of get it. It's you, you, you. You get rid of this mythology around both. That they're really kind of going on the same journey. Have gone on the same journey. Or seeing, like, wait a minute. Your life is really not a whole lot different than mine other than it just was 50 years ago. Yeah.

And. And although situations are different, the critical nature of them could be the same and the impact could be the same. It just hit me when you were talking about this notion of intergenerational communications and relationships. It does. It not only doesn't end with the student and their. Their connected older adult, but when that student goes off to start their career, it also gives them a much better platform of working in an intergenerational workplace for the first time. We've got five generations in our workplace, and it's amazing how many young folks don't have anyone older in their sphere.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I think kind of a byproduct of what we hope the Legacy Project does is encourage more young people to go into the field of gerontology. Whether that's in the medical field, whether that's a journalist talking about aging issues, whether that's a direct services provider. We are just hoping that this opens their eyes to other opportunities. That they might not have otherwise considered in the gerontology space. And we try to facilitate that a little bit through workshops that we do with students and bringing different thought leaders into offer virtual spaces to talk about these topics. Right.

I. I think I mentioned to you that I did career counseling at Ohio State, and then I was at a nonprofit helping people find jobs. And I kept saying to these folks, you know, the one industry that we have that is going to continue to grow for a long time is anything that works that serves older adults. And to. There's no shortage, absolutely no shortage. And to ignore that, whatever that industry may be, whether you're getting an accounting degree or a marketing degree or whatever, to ignore that because you're not familiar with working with an older adult is shortsighted.

So.

Yeah, yeah, Very good, Very good. So let's talk about the actual process of the Legacy project. We sort of danced around this a little bit. You created a chapter on a campus. What are the steps that you take to find volunteers who are willing to work with seniors as well as finding those seniors?

Yeah. So for the student side, we are. It's a few different methods. We do recruitment efforts, direct recruitment efforts. We send emails to student organization offices, to student leaders on campuses that run community service opportunities. We. We especially beginning. That was a lot of it.

We were doing a lot of direct recruitment. As we continue to grow, we've been growing in a little bit more of a natural manner where students are telling their friends at other college campuses who are then reaching out to us. We've been doing more of a social media push through LinkedIn and through Instagram, trying to get more people aware. And so honestly, we've cut back a little bit on our direct recruitment efforts and now are focusing a little bit more on how can we, you know, strengthen our current chapters. And then students are still coming to us with interest of involvement, which is really exciting.

That's one. Have you worked with the career services offices on the campuses?

Yeah, we will. We will reach out to career services offices. We will reach out to. Student life is generally the most helpful because they can directly share opportunities to. For activities, but all of the above, and then for the senior communities. So you asked for the senior partnerships. We partner with senior communities. So that's primarily where we are right now.

We have a national partnership with an organization called Maplewood. They have organizations, senior communities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Ohio and maybe a few other states. That's where we're currently operating, though. And then for any of our. So any of Our chapters that are proximate to one of their communities, we'll partner with them. And for any of the other, for any of our other university or college chapters that don't have a maple location, we will find an alternative senior community. But right now we've been utilizing a senior community student chapter model. In the future, we'd like to expand that to be transparent.

We want to make sure that these opportunities are available to individuals that don't live near college campuses. So thinking about a virtual component and then also to homebound seniors even living near these college campuses who don't live in communities. And so, you know, and you could argue that those are individuals that potentially need it most, these type of opportunities for intergenerational engagement and frequent, frequent visits. And so we are consistently thinking about how to grow, but also just cognizant of logistics in terms of it's slightly easier first 10, 15 students to go to one place rather than different. Different.

Right, right. Good, good.

Yeah, yeah. So we kind of touched upon this a little bit earlier that the Legacy project may be a one time project for a student, but. But sometimes not. Again, it kind of opens their eyes. Have you found many of the volunteers continue to support seniors in some capacity? I mean, and also, do you have any recommendations for students or any adult who would like to connect with seniors and better understand the issues that they face?

Yeah, I mean, I think most of our students don't just do it one year. So like if someone joins their freshman year, they, they tend to do it year after year, which is exciting. So that's one demonstration. We don't have any program evaluation right now that shows also we're kind of new, so we don't have tools to show that this has inspired anyone to go into the field of gerontology. But anecdotally students are showing a more a willingness and openness to, to consider those fields. But that is something we'd like to implement in the future.

And so sometimes that, sometimes that doesn't offer itself until a little bit later in your career too. I mean, you're planting the seed right now, which is. That's all you can do.

Yeah, yeah, that's the goal. That is great. The goal, the legacy. If you're a student and you're interested, you should reach out to us. Legacyprojectinc.org to, to consider opportunities with us. But if you're looking for other opportunities and you're maybe not in a college or university environment, I. There's a plethora of wonderful intergenerational programs that exist. And you can check out Generations United.

They are kind of an umbrella organization for intergenerational programs in the United States. They have a program database that you can look up wherever you are in the country. Odds are that there's probably one near you and definitely in your state of an opportunity to connect across generations. And if there's not one, you can start one. So that's not a barrier either, or you can just seek to do it kind of on a one off basis. So most communities have senior centers and a lot of those have, a lot of those spaces have volunteer opportunities for individuals to engage in. So I say there's a lot of, there's a lot of ways and there's a lot of need. And I think anyone can benefit from these types of connections.

So those are, those are my recommendations for getting involved.

One of the things that we do on our podcast, Arielle, is create a resources sheet that will go with the podcast. So to our listeners, we're going to have all of this information about the Legacy Project and the programs that Arielle just mentioned and other ideas that we may have had here in central Ohio in terms of individuals who want to work with older adults. And also, then again, we're going to talk a little bit more about the growth of the Legacy Project in a minute, but we'll also talk about how people can contact you for information on the Legacy Project. Yes, absolutely. So, so good. So, you know, one of the things that you and I talked about as we were preparing for this podcast, which I had, I sort of knew, but hadn't realized that the depth of and critical level of this issue, youth working with younger people, working with older adults, it's not just sitting around talking and having a great time. There are a lot of young people in our country. You mentioned 6 million who are doing caregiving for an older adult family member or some connection.

Tell us more about that issue. I just don't think people have really put that together.

There's a couple million youth caregivers in the United States. There's been a number of reports that have shown that number of young people who are under the age of 22 who are balancing both being a caregiver for a loved one, whether that's a grandparent, a parent, sibling, and also balancing, you know, the normal life of being a teenager, of going to school, of preparing for college applications, of being in college, of doing, you know, an additional job, whatever it might be. And so it's a widespread problem, I think more broadly, just Talking about the 50 million-plus caregivers in states and kind of the lack of supports that exist for those caregivers. But when you're specifically talking about the youth population, I think it's even more critical that there's more directed action. The reason being is for older, for you know, maybe middle aged individuals, there's opportunity sometimes in the works. The workplace environment where you get benefits for caregiving or you just might meet, might be more keen about the resources available to you. But for a lot of younger people, they might not even recognize themselves or self identify as a caregiver. And so the cognizance of having to go out and seek support might not come to mind and those supports might not be available to them.

And so I think it's really critical that when we're talking about trying to bring more youth into the conversation, to the aging world, into long term care and caregiving, it's that younger people are already being impacted and if that's, that can't be lost in the mix. Right. And so all of these things I think are really important for lawmakers, policymakers and advocates to keep in mind during their efforts to try to build a better system.

Right. Having had been a caregiver for a parent, I was overwhelmed by trying to find services for my dad. I can't imagine doing that at the age of 22. You don't have the experience of having been a mom or a parent. So you don't know what's out there in terms of caregiving or options. And you're also overwhelmed by the responsibility. I was overwhelmed by the safety for my dad and it, I just to do that as a young person, for an older adult, that is pretty mind boggling. So yeah, so that, that's wonderful.

But again, for our listeners, we will put all of these resources together for, for the each of you who are interested in looking at the Legacy Project and other available resources in central Ohio.

Yeah, yeah. It sounds as though you're, you're, you're seeing some really significant growth. Could you talk a little bit about maybe some future plans and the momentum for you and your team? And I, I guess I look at this as an opportunity with this question too of hey, we want to work with these type of people. Give me a call. Sort of feel to it.

Yeah, yeah. So we are currently this fall will be in 14 states. My long term goal in media in the next five years or so. I would love for the Legacy Project to be have a chapter in at least every state in America. So if you are listening and you want to start a chapter, or you know, a student who wants to start a chapter, or you're a professor who's interested in bringing this to your college campus, please reach out. We'd love to chat. Likewise, if you we are consistently looking for more widespread partnerships with senior communities. So if you know a senior community or part of a senior community staff or senior center in a community that's proximate to a college or university campus, please reach out.

We would love to think about how we could build out that partnership. I think as we're talking about more of the innovative changes in what we're trying to achieve, we're definitely like right now our final product is a written book, which is wonderful. But now in this ever growing social media landscape, we would like to make sure that we are also capturing a more multimedia approach through podcasts, through documentaries. So we are consistently looking for opportunities to do that. Right now, you know, we're in a growing nonprofit. We're looking for funding streams to be able to support that line of work. But that is something that we're absolutely hoping to do so that we can share through social media these stories that we can add. You know, we can make a documentary with some of the individuals that partake in our project.

And then I would say the other I mentioned earlier that we're hoping to expand to the older adults that we're reaching through individuals who are potentially homebound, who don't live proximate to a college or university campus, but would still like to share their stories. And then the last thing I would say is that we are hoping to bring a more I've always believed that intergenerational engagement can be a propelling force for civic change making in communities. I think in this moment we have a lot of division polarization in the US and that there's a great need to find ways to come together to do good work in communities. I think the key to that is intergenerational engagement and collaboration and working together to solve those problems. So we're trying to bring a more civic change making twist into the work that we do. This year we got a grant chosen as an Eisner Prize Fellow. So we got a grant to do a pilot of this. It's going to be called Intergenerational Change Makers.

We're launching very shortly. Basically what it is is we're going to create a fellowship cohort of 15 to 20 pairs of older and youngers who are going to spend the better part of next this upcoming year engaging, doing intergenerational storytelling and writing like we always do, but then also coming up with a project in their community that they want to see dressed, they'll get a, they'll get a stipend to do that project and then bringing other olders and youngers into the fold to pursue and co create and co implement that project together. And so the idea is that we will be able to create this model that intergenerational storytelling and engagement can launch civic change and hopefully we can continue that to a more massive capacity in the future.

It would seem that notion of getting people to sit down and talk to each other, sharing stories, but really also sharing needs and concerns and how to make your community better could be pivotal in a lot of what will entice young people to look at this as a career opportunity. Because so many young people are interested in civic engagement and community change, but they don't realize how pivotal it is to look at a community as being inclusive of everyone of all ages. Because often we only see those we see, we only see those that we're around. So this could really be a huge difference. Here in Columbus, we have a matriarch of our senior services and her absolute belief is whatever is good for an older person is good for a younger person. So therefore making change for an older person is going to make change, good change for that younger person as they are younger and as they age. So this will be wonderful. When you're looking at these, the multi generational situations, there's so much negativism out there.

There's so much ageism. Bretton said, what was it? Hey, Boomer and all those fun things. It's overwhelming. It's really overwhelming to realize that you are suddenly of no importance in your community because you've hit a certain age. And as opposed to respecting elders and realizing how much they have, you know, to tell you and to give back, we're all dealing with those issues, cultural issues, ageist issues. How do you see your program and other programs that you may be aware of, meeting those challenges? We've kind of touched base on this a little bit, but do you have some other thoughts as to what we can actually reach?

I mean, I think one of the biggest challenges, not just facing the Legacy Project, but other like all of these intergenerational programs, is that there's not. We are all operating in our own communities. The problem with that is when you're talking about trying to make the case to policymakers or to grant makers about the importance of not just like this is not just Feel good work. Right. It has an impact potentially on public health with the social isolation and connectedness crisis and whatnot. That we need to make sure that we are making the case and that we need data to drive that. And so I've long been an advocate for trying to create kind of a more standardized way of measuring the impact of intergenerational programs. I think it's one of the biggest obstacles that we're facing.

And then funding also right now there's a single funder for solely, that solely does intergenerational programs. It's the Eisner Foundation. There needs to be more ways to access funding for these types of, these types of programs. And so. Right, you have to. The problem with that is when you're applying to grants and they are focused on XYZ thing, you're kind of shaping your model or your project to fit that focus area, but it doesn't allow you the funding or the capital to just grow the initiative that you're already seeking to do. And so those are just two key challenges that aren't just facing us, but other intergenerational innovators as well.

I was wondering, in your work, have you discovered other valuable programs that are meeting the needs of seniors? I mean, kind of once you create a program, you kind of become a magnet. You're, you're sought out. Have you, have you discovered other valuable programs, whether they're partners with you or not? But it's that, oh, wow, they do really good work, you know, that sort of thing. Oh, of course, yeah.

There's a billion.

I mean, there's a, there's so many good programs.

Yeah.

I'm a fellow with an organization called Cogenerate. And what Cogenerate does, it's another life. Generations united. I think it's kind of one of the premier thought leaders in the intergenerational space. They do amazing work in convening intergenerational organizations across the country for communities of practice and for webinars and conversations. And so, yes, there's a billion examples, honestly, of just really wonderful orgs that are doing this work. Right here in Boston, there's an organization called Friendship Works that is connecting high school students, some college students and older adults in the Boston area for just a myriad of different programming. Derote is another one in New York City that is doing very, you know, great work in terms of trying to bring younger people to go into the homes of older adults, amongst other programs that they run.

So they're, you know, a lot of them are geographic based, but There are a ton of different programs and we, we rely on one another to, to learn and, and to, to try to strengthen the programs that, that we put out.

Good. Well and I think you spotlighting and just saying there are a lot that opens a listener's eyes going oh, I should just google something about this and.

Kind of save their generations united. Yeah, Program database is one of the best places to go.

Arielle we always talk about the fact that our podcasts go too quickly and we no sooner get to the end of our list of questions. But often our guests have one more thought or some words of wisdom to give to our listeners. So tell us what do you want to make sure we're walking away from this podcast and have learned from you?

Yeah, I mean I, I would say for the general listener that you don't have to you if you have any interest in getting involved intergenerationally, you don't need to dedicate all of this time to starting a program. You don't even have to necessarily, you know, go out and spend a lot of time volunteering with another organization. You can live a more intergenerational lifestyle on a day to day basis. Not to plug something that I've worked on, but it's called the, if you go on the code generate website and I can share this link with you. Carol and Brett, there's this pledge called the let's make Next Gen Cogen pledge. And if you sign up to your email inbox, you're going to get a whole list of different ways that you can live a more co generational life. That could mean having dinner with an older, younger person in your community. That could mean organizing some, you know, organizing an event that you already wanted to do, whether that was trash cleanup or hosting a farmer's market or whatever it is, but making it intergenerational by inviting individuals of other ages into the fold.

My idea is that it doesn't have to be a massive lift, but that if it becomes a way of life, that's the way it should be. And then also take the time to listen to the stories of those in your life. Older adults, in your own life, younger adults too. Everyone deserves a platform. So those are the, the two nuggets of wisdom I would share with the audience.

One of the things that we should probably add to our resource list is information on the books that you have already put together from the Legacy Project Times of Young People Working with Older Adults. Because you're creating those storybooks of stories and I think those are available. Is that correct?

So our Tufts chapter ones, all of those are available and they're just actually publishing. Next year we'll have all, all of our chapters publishing a book. So yeah, yes, you can just go look at our Amazon front. They'll all be there and they'll continue to be populating there over time too.

Good.

Stay informed and keep reading those stories.

Exactly. I mean, I think that that just reading something like that, talk about inspirational to not only about what was going on with that individual, but how the whole project has created this incredible opportunity for everyone to see the beauty and the value of somebody's life over time. And so we'll add that to our resource list too. So thank you.

Well, many thanks to our expert guest, Arielle Galinsky, CEO and co founder of the Legacy Project, for joining us today. Listeners, thank you for joining us. You're going to find the contact information and resources we discussed in the podcast in the show Notes and on our website at lookingforwardourway.com and we are looking forward to hearing your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes.