Young and Older Folks Exchange Thoughts, Ideas, and Good Conversation

The National Council on Aging joined hands today with the United Nations Population Fund to hold an exchange at the Black Orchid Resort in Burrell Boom with older and younger folks. The purpose was to create an avenue to bridge the age gap between them and find commonalities that can be used to better communicate. It’s all geared toward discouraging ageism, which is defined as discrimination against older people. Ix-Chel Poot, who heads the National Council on Aging, told News Five that out of the day-long discussion will now follow representation in the communities where the eighteen participants hail from and where they share the experiences they got today.

Ix-Chel Poot

Ix-Chel Poot, Executive Director, National Council on Aging

“We had a total of 18 participants, 9 young people, 9 older persons, and they ranged in age from 14 to 84. So there was an exchange of dynamic activities where they were able to share life experiences and find common ground, and then they identified gaps within their community and identified three key actions that they can take towards combating ageism and creating more inclusive societies. Young people are told, for example, driving – you have to ask your parents’ permission to drive, to borrow the car, to move around if you’re a minor, or even if you are not, if you don’t own it, right, you have to ask permission. And then you find the older adult has an adult child who’s telling her “Ma yoh to ole fi drive. Please bring your keys.” So it’s looking at where these common  occurrences in life relapse as we age or cross again as we age. And then finding how we can better communicate with each other. The most effective way of doing that is finding our common ground and not our differences. Very often it’s easier to see how we are different instead of how we are the same. And so today I really helped to build that kind of conversation. These 18 persons now become ambassadors within their community. And at the end of the year, we are coming back together to see what we were able to achieve and how we were able to grow the volunteers and the knowledge. So this is one step towards creating a larger knowledge base and connecting generations.”