CSI Facebook Takeover: “Leveraging Intergenerational Partnership for Social Change”

This is another installment from our series of articles in the CSI Facebook Takeover Week. In this article, Brina Ludwig Prout, an SSE senior intern, talks about the need for intergenerational partnership to enable meaningful social change.

 

In SSE’s Facebook post on Monday, you heard about our founder Michael Young who campaigned for an Ageless Society, in which all forms of ageism are eliminated. Michael believed that everyone had a gift to share with the world, and it was society’s duty to help each person discover and use it at every stage of life.

You may also have seen the Globe and Mail’s series on Baby Boomers and the demographic challenges facing Canada. There are Baby Boomers that I believe have been underrepresented in the press: Boomers whose passion is to leave a positive social legacy for their children and grandchildren.

Boomers can create this legacy through paid or volunteer work that contributes to improving the social and environmental situation in Canada and the world.

I’m one of those Boomers.  After spending almost 40 years in large Canadian corporations, as both employee and consultant, I knew that I needed to learn more about what was happening in the world of social innovation so that I could put my professional skills to their best use. This is why for the last 18 months, I have been working pro bono two days a week at SSE, where I’m a 50+ year-old intern (alongside Andrea Telfer, another senior intern you’ll hear about later). Check out the video below to hear about my experience.

At SSE, we believe that a key driver of our world’s success in the next decades is intergenerational partnership. For this reason, we’ve been working with like-minded organizations including Challenge Factory, a leader in turning the aging workforce into a competitive advantage.  

I believe intergenerational partnership will pave the way to realizing Michael Young’s vision of an “Ageless Society”. This society would be one where older generations partner with younger ones to combine their respective skills, knowledge, and experience to undertake rapid, positive social change. While it is the younger generation’s role to lead, it is the role of older generations to offer their hard-earned wisdom and help create opportunities for the younger generation to thrive.

I would like to invite you all to a conversation on the role people over 50 can play in making social change.

What kind of skills, connections, and learning is needed to make the 50+ crowd as successful as possible as social innovators or partners in change? You can post your answers on the CSI Facebook page or send me an email at brinaludwigprout@sseontario.org. 

Brina Ludwig Prout is one of SSE’s two Boomers-in-Residence. The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Ontario is a member of CSI.