KiB exists to connect people, so there’s never been a more important time for our work. But we are a small charity; we need to partner with others to ensure that everyone can benefit from what we’ve discovered: that bringing the generations together makes everybody’s life richer, healthier and more meaningful. Since summer 2024, we’ve been working with the Centre for Social Justice to spread this message and help embed our ideas.

Meanwhile, we’re doing everything we can to connect young and old. Across the country, our thousands of student volunteers meet with older people on Zoom or in real life to have fun, to learn new things and to reminisce about old things. They laugh together, sing together, play board games together and even read funny play scripts out loud. We have emails from hundreds of young people who say they feel more connected to their community because of our work.

When young and old get together, everybody benefits. The older people feel valued and cared for, and the younger ones feel a new sense of purpose. They also learn that real life is not as scary as they thought: there’s nothing like a chat with a spirited 85-year-old to put things into a very different perspective.

In the past year –

• 3,500 students signed up for our Zoom Teaching & Volunteering programme, which shows young people how to connect with over-70s thoughtfully and creatively; then gives them the chance to virtually ‘visit’ older people in care settings, or living alone in their own homes.
• 500 students worked with us to deliver real-life visits to hospitals, care homes and community groups at our programmes in Dorset, London, Leeds and Warwickshire. Some used their talents to create music, dance and drama projects; others offered relaxing hand massages and much-needed haircuts and grooming to older people on hospital wards.
• 2,500 primary school children took part in our primary school workshop, ‘When Great Granny Came to Stay’. These fun and imaginative sessions help children understand what it’s like to be old in a rapidly-changing modern world; they also feature thoughtful ways to show older relatives and family friends that they are loved and remembered. Once a school has completed our workshop, we set up KiB clubs to link them to local care homes and day centres, so the children get the chance to light up the day for older people in their community too.
• On top of all this, hundreds of our KiB volunteers made gifts, cards and goody bags to send into care homes and hospitals at our programmes in the Midlands, London and Dorset, so older people never feel forgotten.

To join our volunteer programme click the following link to fill in our volunteer sign-up form: http://eepurl.com/g9_jtj