Generation gap 'could undermine society'
Young people and the elderly have become so estranged that a national network of clubs is needed where teenagers and the older generation can mingle and get a better understanding of each other, leading charities say.
They could meet at play sessions, prepare meals together and take part in local history sessions in order to maintain and strengthen bonds, claim the children's charity 4Children and Counsel and Care, which campaigns for older people. In a joint report this week they will warn that a growing divide between younger people and senior citizens will undermine the social fabric. Relations between them are increasingly marked by fear, ignorance, misunderstanding and a lack of time spent together, according to the document, For All Ages.
'The increasing distance between young and older people is set to spark a new wave of social problems unless urgent action is taken to reduce inter-generational prejudice and discrimination,' it says. It blames time pressures, different forms of family set-ups and the growing habit of people living far from where they were born for the situation.
Polling by the charities revealed that 30 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds rarely spend any time with older people and that the same proportion of senior citizens fear young people because they associate them with antisocial behaviour and crime. Four in five children said they did not feel that older people understood them.
'Those findings are of great concern. A divide between children and their grandparents seems to be opening up in front of us at huge speed because our fast-changing lifestyles are limiting traditional forms of social interaction between them,' said Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children. 'We need to intervene to bridge this gap.' She suggested that the small but growing number of children's centres which already stage special sessions for grandparents and toddlers, rather than just for parents and their offspring, could be copied nationwide. Youth clubs and schools in their extended day sessions could also host inter-generational activities, such as arts activities and special lunches, to encourage greater contact.
The report also proposes that young people volunteer in old people's centres. More controversially, Longfield said ministers should explore the viability of older people being given financial incentives through the tax system for looking after their grandchildren. Similarly, she said, youngsters could be rewarded for shouldering some of the responsibility of looking after grandparents. There are now more people over 65 than under 16.
'We could explore low-cost calls being available at certain times of day so that grandparents could be in touch with their younger family members who live elsewhere, as happens in some places in America,' said Longfield.
Ninety per cent of the 500 young people questioned who do spend time with older relatives said they enjoyed it and more than 60 per cent said they would welcome doing more with them. And the older celebrities they admired include Madonna, who recently turned 50, the X-Factor judge and impresario Simon Cowell, 48, and the Queen, who is 82.
Denis Campbell
21 September 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/21/communities.youngpeople
