A Day Care Integrated in a Retirement Home Proves Beneficial to Kids and the Elderly

Photo screencapped from the Present Perfect Trailer on youtube.com

There’s a daycare facility that’s doing something so simple and yet so impactful, you’ll wonder why no one else is doing it too. 

Providence Mount St. Vincent in Seattle, Washington is combining child care and elder care in one place, reports abcnews.go.com, and it's a perfect match. Think about it, kids need love and attention and the elderly still have so much love to give.

Within Providence Mount St. Vincent, a retirement home with more than 400 residents, is the Intergenerational Learning Center (ILC). Here, for five days a week, children and the elderly come together for planned and spontaneous activities like dancing, singing, making art, storytelling, eating together or just simply visiting and enjoying each other’s company.

Children get to spend a day with adults who have the time to give them love and attention. They learn to be more open and involved with older adults while they enjoy being part of an extended family.

Residents and program participants get to spend their days with energized and playful kids. They get to tell stories to each other, play games together and teach the children life lessons that only time and experience can bring. Most importantly, the children give them a renewed sense of purpose and self-worth.

Filmmaker Evan Briggs, a one-woman crew, is trying to get more people aware of ILC.  Here’s the trailer for the documentary she's making about it, called "Present Perfect".

In order to finish the film, Briggs has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the post-production work on the film, which has since gone above and beyond its $50,000 goal, with (as of writing) more than $90,000 for funding.  

It’s clear that people want ILC to get the attention it deserves. And who knows, maybe this wonderful idea will catch on.


Source:
June 19, 2015. "When elder care and child care come together, magic happens". sheknows.com

June 16, 2015. "Seattle Preschool in a Nursing Home 'Transforms' Elderly Residents". abcnews.go.com