Intergenerational Day Ottawa

Intergenerational Day Ottawa Committee is a community group which has been successful in its request to have Ottawa join cities across the country in proclaiming Intergenerational Day Canada on June 1st, 2019.

Proclaiming Intergenerational Day Canada June 1st will provide an opportunity to make a powerful statement about the value of intergenerational connections in the community and to raise awareness of the many benefits that connections between generations bring to education, health and community safety. Stereotypes of both young and older people are broken down when they learn about each other. Isolation is diminished and empathy grows in both directions.

Critical to a successful Intergenerational Day will be effective promotion leading up to June 1st, to inform and encourage participation by residents and organizations. Plans include the development of an online platform:

  • to bring awareness to the wonderful efforts of organizations and residents across the city to connect people of different ages for positive community impact;
  • to encourage organizations and community groups already holding events on June 1st to include an “intergenerational” angle to their activities and promotional efforts; and
  • to promote ideas and activities for individuals young and older to connect with others in meaningful ways on June 1st and throughout the year.

Challenge to be tackled: We are seeking help to develop a platform with enhanced website features and functionality, including:

  • a web application for organizations and groups to register and post Intergenerational Day events. Some of the key tasks and functionality to include:
    • registration tool that would allow organizations to post their events with relevant details, including event description, location, and accompanying photo or logo; and
    • additional features that could improve the user’s experience (e.g., search filters for residents to easily find an Intergenerational Day event based upon location or category; interactive “like to attend” button);
  • a Google map on home page that is linked to June 1st events posted on the website;

This project is scalable and sharable to other cities (Since 2010, over 100 Canadian cities have officially recognized June 1st as Intergenerational Day Canada.)

More information on Intergenerational Day Canada can be found on the website of the i2i Intergenerational Society of Canada, created in 2008 to assist Canadians in the building of bridges between generations. http://intergenerational.ca/i2i/ig-day/