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Intergenerational Exchanges in LGBTQ+ communities

Start date

September 2022

End date

February 2024

Overview

Intergenerational disconnection is a problem across society. However, through a CILIA-LGBTQI+ study on intersectional life course inequalities, it has been discovered that this is particularly the case among LGBTQ+ people, whose ‘families of choice’ are often peer-group-based, without descendants and less likely to include members from their ‘family of origin’.  

When people from different generations have insufficient opportunity to communicate and understand each other’s perspectives and experiences, research has found that this can lead to: divisive stereotyping and misunderstanding about other generations; ageism and fear of one’s own ageing; insufficient transmission of cultural memory and cultural understanding of shared histories; and less connected communities. 

In this ESRC IAA-funded project, the team is collaborating with LGBTQ+ charitable organisations that specialise in supporting LGBTQ+ communities in the local region, to establish how best to facilitate interventions that bring different generations together.  A framework of ‘queer generations’ may be better suited for facilitating effective intergenerational exchanges based around empathy, difference, and parallel experiences of inequality and this will be explored through interventions, to enable LGBTQ+ people to narrate and reflect on their generational identity in an intergenerational setting. 

Team

Intergenerational LGBTQ+ Toolkit

Our Intergenerational LGBTQ+ Toolkit offers evidence-based recommendations for running intergenerational workshops with LGBTQ+ staff, members, volunteers and/or service users of your organisations. 

Details of how to setup the workshops are presented in the toolkit as well as guidance for activities, recommended timings, additional resources, and further tips for how you can adapt aspects of the workshops to fit your organisation’s needs/constraints.

How to access the toolkit

The Intergenerational Exchanges in LGBTQ+ Communities Toolkit is free to use, but we ask you to have regard for the following conditions of its use:

Do not distribute this document to anyone else outside of your organisation – if anyone asks for a copy, please direct them to this web page so they can download it.

If you use this document or any part of it, we would be grateful if you would please:

 Acknowledge the authorship team

  • Send us any comments/suggestions that you feel might improve the document so that your experience can be incorporated into subsequent updates. These can be sent to Professor Andrew King (andrew.king@surrey.ac.uk).

Download the toolkit

Planned Impact

Through this project, multi generational LGBTQ+ people and our charitable partner organisations will gain new insights into what is needed to successfully enhance intergenerational communication and connection.

For LGBTQ+ workshop participants

A greater sense of intergenerational community, confidence in navigating intergenerational exchanges productively, and greater understanding of the perspectives of members of other generations is anticipated. 

For partner organisations

Partners will learn about their members’ sense of generational identity, the extent to which they feel represented by or disconnected from cis-heteronormative generational discourse, and their sense of intergenerational connectedness or otherwise.  

For the project team

The project team will learn about the value of the co-produced creative intergenerational intervention and will adopt best practice going forward.