In this special episode of the ISCA Learning podcast, we take a deep dive into active ageing in the 2020s with Youth Sport Trust (YST) International Managing Director Helen Vost and ISCA President Mogens Kirkeby. ISCA’s Generations Uniting through Movement (GUM) project was inspired by YST’s successful Active Across Ages programme, which started before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The GUM project tapped into a growing “trilogy of fears” among seniors and young people that are not unique to the pandemic but came into the spotlight soon after the initial virus threat. Isolation, extended closures of recreation centres and sports clubs, and an economic downturn highlighted these fears of loneliness; physical, mental and social skill deterioration; and a hyper-competitive job market. Not to mention the perceived recreational/technological gulf between generations – especially Boomers and Zs.

Can initiatives like Active Across Ages and GUM bring these generations together in social settings that aren’t family ones? Could they even help them #StickTogether and tackle today’s fears? And how do we, as coordinators, promote what works?

Listen to find out:

• The immediate feel-good benefits when young people and seniors co-create social and physical activities.
• Why your initiative has to be a win-win for both the older and younger participants to succeed.
• Why “movement” can be a more useful word than “sport” to advocate for active ageing initiatives – and what “movement” activities look like.
• How intergenerational movement programmes could create work experience and employment opportunities if we rethink aged care and prevention in the health sector.

Grab your swimsuit and goggles and dive in with us!

Hosts and recording: Hilal Erkoca Mølgaard and Rachel Payne, ISCA
Guests: Helen Vost, Youth Sport Trust International, and Mogens Kirkeby, ISCA
Post-production: Kristine Onarheim, ISCA

Visit the Generations Uniting through Movement project website https://www.generationsmove.org/

This project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.