From April into May last year we held a series of events in East Renfrewshire aiming to connect people with others in their communities. We called these Intergenerational Festivals as we wanted people of all ages to come along. Click here to find out more about how we arranged the events. 

We began this work to find out if people living in this area were interested in having more opportunities to meet other people.  We were looking for ways to reduce social isolation and to give people more opportunities to find other people and activities that they could then follow up themselves. We wanted people to go along to the events and form new friendships there which could continue without any support. In this way we hoped that people would have better links with other people in their communities. This is also why events were held using facilities that were already there, so it was more likely that people would attend.

“I loved meeting people who have a positive outlook on bringing communities together.”

“It was great to hear about community events.”

What we heard

People at the events told us they definitely did want more opportunities to connect with people in their communities. A lot of the people we spoke to said that they would like more activities they could go to. Some ideas people had were

• Classes and activities continuing over the summer holidays, as most stop and this increases isolation
• More information about what is going on in each area so it is easier to find out what is going on
• Opportunities to have conversations with individual people
• We heard lots of interesting ideas from older people which you can read about here

“It’s been nice chatting and finding out what’s going on.”

“You have cheered me up.”

What will happen next?

We planned the events so people had the opportunity to follow up with people and organisations they met at the events so they can make stronger connections with people and organisations in their communities themselves. We heard from people that the events encouraged them to find out more about what is on in their community and to reach out to more people who might be feeling isolated.

“Today has made me more aware of the different organisations working together to encourage people of different ages to work together to improve their community.”

“I loved talking to people today – I miss this.”