Intergenerational Support Leads to Neighbor-Helping-Neighbor Approach
The villages movement in Rockville is evolving, with volunteers of all generations stepping in to offer a helping hand.
Villages — local, volunteer-led, grassroots organizations — foster social connections through activities and events, and coordinate volunteer help at home using a neighbor-helping-neighbor model.
Twinbrook is one of four emerging villages in Rockville, which include King Farm, East Rockville (the Pump House Village) and the West End. (Contact information for those villages can be found at www.rockvillemd.gov/villages.)
“This has really become a movement defined by neighbors helping neighbors,” Twinbrook Village representative Anne Goodman told the Mayor and Council at their Jan. 22 meeting. “ … We are fortunate. We are delighted to have volunteers who are active and represent a broad age-range. It is lovely to see young people participate in this, and participate actively, as well as people who are not so young.”
Similar intergenerational efforts are emerging nationwide and in Montgomery County jurisdictions, such as Bannockburn Neighbors Assisting Neighbors, a decade old village in Bethesda. Services include loans of strollers and infant and toddler gear, holding intergenerational social events, and providing for more traditional needs such as transportation, kitchen help, visits and running errands.
“By organizing local resources and inspiring residents to support one another, the Village model promotes intergenerational relationships and makes it easier for older residents to age in place responsibly while maintaining their autonomy and independence,” according to Innovations in Aging Collaborative, a Colorado nonprofit dedicated to addressing issues in aging.
For more information and to learn how to start a village discussion in your neighborhood, contact Trish Evans, village facilitator, at 240-314-8807 or [email protected].