Intergenerational Projects

As part of the Older Person's project we are developing a series of intergenerational programmes with the aim of building communities, improving communication between younger and older people and helping to reduce the feelings of isolation and disengagement that is often experienced by older people. These projects may include dance and theatre, film and visual arts.

As the Community Safety Officer's aims to reduce the fear of crime linked so closely with our own aims of keeping people active and involved in their communities, it made sense to work together. This relationship was particularly helpful in identifying the communities and establishing the local contacts. The first project is to be in Falmouth, with the other projects to follow in other parts of the county.

Tall Ships Regatta Flags - Arwennack Ward, Falmouth

A series of flags are now decorating the town centre of Falmouth for the Funchal Tall Ships Regatta, which have been created by old and young working together.

This project was a partnership between Arts for Health Cornwall, Falmouth Town Council and the Tall Ships Association and funded from Arts Council England. It was aimed at using creativity to unite the youth with their elders in a common purpose and help to create happier, stronger communities in which the older people stay more engaged and active, enabling them to lead fulfilling, happier and healthier lives.

This project also sought in particular to actively engage the local community in promoting and participating in the Funchal 500 Tall Ships Regatta, which is taking place in Falmouth 10th - 13th September 2008.

Falmouth School and Falmouth Age Concern Day Care Centre are located over looking the docks where the Tall Ships will be berthed throughout the regatta and is an area of Falmouth that has a long maritime history. Falmouth Day Care Centre is a well used meeting place and support centre for the more elderly members of the community, many of whom had strong connections with and memories of the sea; hence the Tall Ships seemed an ideal backdrop for this project.

Under the leadership of artist Tony Minnion, the students and the older people attending the day care centre chatted about the Tall Ships and maritime memories, using props from the Maritime Museum. The thoughts and memories evoked were then transposed into the flag designs using drawing, stencils and printmaking techniques. The students later digitised the images and prepared them for printing.

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Lucy Downing, Day Care Centre Manager commented ‘The centre benefited greatly from the interaction with the students, and being involved with the preparation of the flags. Often the older generation are not able to participate in events like this due to mobility or lack of transport so it was lovely to bring the event to them in a relaxed informal setting’.

Mark Williams, Town Clerk, said ‘It would have been easy to go out and buy some flags to decorate the town centre but giving the community the opportunity to work together to design the flags, meant so much more and clearly demonstrates how we value and respect the people of Falmouth; after all the Tall Ships Regatta isn’t just for tourists. We are really proud to have been involved in this project and we plan to use the flags on many occasions'.

Lisa Pearn, Arts teacher at Falmouth School commented ‘The finished art work is dynamic and has given the students a chance to be a part of the community in which they live. Everyone who took part enjoyed different aspects and they have taken away some brilliant memories and have created some vibrant designs’.

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The students reflected in one of the workshops that ‘It is interesting that we feel that everyone is scared of us, particularly if we are in a group, but we’re not scary people and we were really quite nervous about meeting them. I am glad I did it though as I overcame this. As the week progressed we felt that the elderly gained confidence with us, and came out of themselves….it feels good to have done something and given back to the community. We are ecstatic that us students from Falmouth School were able to take part in Tall Ships 2008! We can’t wait to see our flags we made hanging in the Market and Church Streets!’