Looking to create meaningful connections across generations but need some ideas and activities to get you started? We’ve got you covered. Our new Resources page is packed with practical tools, activities, research, case studies, and expert guidance to help you...
https://youtu.be/ILD6lZmz0HE Food doesn’t just nourish us — it connects us. Across cultures, perspectives and generations, preparing and sharing meals is a powerful way to strengthen bonds and keep traditions alive. This holiday season, join CoGenerate for an...
Of all the things that divide us, we see intergenerational connection as the ultimate “short bridge,” in the words of UC Berkeley professor john a. powell. Crossing it brings opportunities to transcend the more difficult divides of race, culture and politics. In the...
We’re partnering with The Eisner Foundation on a new program called Music Across Generations, which explores and celebrates how music brings generations together to bridge divides, create connection, and strengthen communities. This Q&A series shines a light on...
Last year, Serena Bian and Ernest Gonzales became Encore Public Voices Fellows, a group of more than 60 activists and experts working with Encore.org and The OpEd Project to shape public conversation at the intersection of aging, longevity, intergenerational connection and social justice.
This year, both will be members of CoGenerate’s Board of Directors.
Serena Bian, an expert on loneliness and connection, is a mid-20s, Chinese-American Michigander focused on building intergenerational unity across America, both locally and nationally.
She was recruited by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to conduct research for his New York Times bestselling book, Together: The Healing Power of Social Connections, where her own story of loneliness, solitude, and leadership is featured. More recently, she is helping lead and shape the Office of the Surgeon General’s work addressing loneliness, community, and connection, with a focus on cultural and systems change.
Serena also launched the Biden campaign’s Communities United program, a national effort to spark direct action across hundreds of American neighborhoods for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris while building lasting social infrastructure amongst communities.
Ernest Gonzales — a scholar in the areas of productive aging (employment, volunteering, and caregiving), health equity, discrimination and social policy — is an associate professor and director of the MSW Program at NYU Silver School of Social Work, and director of The Center for Health and Aging Innovation.
Ernest and his team at New York University’s Center for Health and Aging Innovation launched an intergenerational housing program in 2018 to promote housing and economic security among graduate students and older adults, reduce social isolation, and foster cross-generational cohesion. The program — which reflects the university’s efforts to bolster college affordability, and prioritize equity and aging — intentionally recruits first-generation students, racial and ethnic minorities, women, and individuals who live alone to share housing.
Dr. Gonzales is a first-gen Latinx gerontologist. His early life experiences growing up in El Paso, Texas with his loving maternal grandparents, parents, and uncles, inspired him to study how we age in a society that aspires for justice and equity but practices systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, and ageism.
Ernest’s research has been supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institute on Aging, U.S. Social Security Administration, AARP Foundation, The Eisner Foundation, Fan Fox and Samuels Foundation, and other public and private funders.
