On the 19th December, some of the lucky HeadStart volunteers had the opportunity to meet MPs and organizations who focus on intergenerational contact, sharing their experiences of getting to know people from other generations.
The aim of the day was to give the younger and older generation the chance to interact with each other about how we feel about both generations talking to each other and if there is a big difference in the world the older generation live in and were brought up in, compared to the younger generation and the world they are brought up in. Another aim was to spread awareness of loneliness and how to help people who suffer from it.
The day started out with an educational tour of the parliament, where students got to learn more about the parliament and how Westminster runs the parliament. Students also got the opportunity to ask questions so that they could learn how to participate in parliament more. After that, the actual event started with Speeches by the Chairs of the Parliamentary Group, the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission and by a charity representative. Here, we all learned how loneliness can affect everyone and how we can help people who are suffering from loneliness. An open discussion on the intergenerational connection then took place, where we all disused how we can approach the problem as a community as well as how both younger and older generation is different from each other but how we should still try to talk to each other. The day was ended with a Group activity making Christmas decorations together.
One of the student’s response about the day was “I had a great time here and I’m so glad that I signed up. My favourite part was when we made the Christmas decorations”.
