You are invited to the launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Social Integration’s interim report, ‘Healing the Generational Divide’, with Chuka Umunna MP and Wera Hobhouse MP.
In December 2017, the APPG launched its inquiry into intergenerational connection to explore the growing age divide and what could be done to bridge it.
The APPG was first inspired to explore intergenerational connection following the stark political divides between different age groups exposed during the 2016 EU referendum and 2017 General Election. But throughout the course of its inquiry so far, the APPG has found the generational divide to extend far beyond politics. Different age groups are increasingly living parallel lives in different parts of the country, not spending meaningful time with one another on a regular basis, and unable to form the bonds of trust and understanding that characterise an integrated society.
This interim report explores the current state of the generational divide, and sets out four main ways that stronger connections between generations can be built, highlighting the role that community initiatives, public services, housing and technology have to play.
Creating a country in which different generations are more integrated requires a whole-society approach, cutting across all policy areas and involving national and local government, not-for-profit organisations, the private sector and academia. The APPG hopes this interim report sets the foundations for healing the divisions between generations that have been exposed by Brexit.
Speaker profiles
Chuka Umunna has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham since 2010, and is a member of Change UK – The Independent Group. He has been chair of the APPG on Social Integration since 2016.
Wera Hobhouse is the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath. She is a member of the Committee on Exiting the European Union, in addition to her role with the APPG on Social Integration.
Dr Matt Dickson is Reader in Public Policy at the Institute for Policy Research (IPR). IPR are currently running a project on ‘Loneliness in the Digital Age’, which links closely to many of the themes of the APPG’s interim report.
Antony Hawkins is the Strategy and Business Development Director of The Challenge, the UK's leading charity for building a more integrated society. The Challenge runs programmes across the country to bring people together from different backgrounds, and provides the secretariat for the APPG on Social Integration.
Rachael Dutton is Head of Research at St Monica Trust, a Bristol-based charity which supports older people and promotes intergenerational connections. St Monica Trust hosted the first series of Channel 4's 'Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds'.
Ivo Gormley is Founder of GoodGym, a community of runners which combines getting fit with doing good. Through GoodGym, young professionals run to the home of an older person at risk of loneliness, and build intergenerational friendships.