Scaling Intergenerational Impact Empower: One Year On - what are the learnings?

As we celebrate the incredible impact of intergenerational practice this week, it also provides the opportunity for us here at InCommon (opens new window) to reflect on our Empower programme (opens new window), and what we’ve learnt since Housing LIN's evaluation of this new tool was published a year ago.

Here at InCommon, we have been delivering intergenerational programmes with social housing providers across London since 2017, and have seen the significant impact long running programmes have in building age-friendly communities, tackling isolation and loneliness, and supporting social and emotional learning in children. The challenge for us was how could this learning be scaled up to enable the set up of projects at a local level? And importantly, at a low cost that would open up who could take part.

Empower, for those of you who don’t know, is a brilliant, simple to use online platform and support offer from the team here at InCommon, which enables the easy set up of intergenerational projects between schools and retirement housing across the UK. Developed thanks to a grant from the UK Research and Innovation fund (UKRI), its ambition was to scale the impact of intergenerational practice, making it easy to set up projects locally, providing all the activities and resources to bring generations together.

The findings of Housing LIN's evaluation in support of the online platform (May 23 - Feb 24) championed its high usability rating, its efficient onboarding process and the autonomy of users once onboarded. It is recommended that “there is significant scope for InCommon’s online platform to be used by the wider older persons housing sector to enable residents across all specialist housing types to reap the benefits of intergenerational connections.”

Taking this recommendation on board, over the past year we have been working hard to build new partnerships particularly within the care home sector, collaborating with activity providers such as the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) to reach new networks and support the set up of programmes across new cities such as Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds & Manchester.

We have been continuing to develop and evolve the platform in response to new insights into the needs and challenges faced by different users within the sector. From in-depth conversations with scheme managers and activity providers within care settings we now better understand how each can benefit from the platform enabling us to tailor our support, and the types of resources provided.

From this feedback, we are also now exploring new training modules providing expertise on topics such as co-designing workshops, providing dementia friendly activities and expanding our resources for working with SEN schools.

What has been wonderful to witness is the continued success of the programmes set up through Empower over two years ago; the new friendships, the growing confidence of children, and our partners seeing the positive impact on their residents in building community. Many of our housing partners who started with an initial pilot are now rolling out programmes across multiple sites - reinforcing that the intergenerational movement is real and happening!

“I think when we get older we get less trusting, we put up barriers. To see the children come in with that innocence and trust reminds you to give a bit yourself instead of being cut off, something you can forget as you get older.  Spending time with the children has made me feel like part of the wider community.” - Geraldine, Older Participant

As part of Global Intergenerational Week 2025, InCommon is delighted to be hosting the Age-Friendly Awards (opens new window) in collaboration with Clarion Futures, where we’ll be celebrating the individuals and organisations across England that are making their communities more age-friendly through intergenerational social action.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how the Empower programme might work for you and your residents, please do get in touch: harriet@incommon.org.uk.

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This Housing LIN guest blog follows the recent launch of the year-long All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People Inquiry, focused on how the built environment can create intergenerational communities in both mainstream and specialist housing. Co-chaired by Lord Best and Anna Dixon MP, the inquiry aims to explore how to improve the intergenerational experience of older people, based on where they live and their surroundings. The Housing LIN will serve as the Secretariat, with a dedicated microsite offering updates and progress reports throughout the inquiry.

We're also pleased to open this year's Spring/Summer webinar series with a session on International and National perspectives on Intergenerational Living on Tuesday, 6 April 2025. Find out more and secure your place here.