Bringing Generations Together

Photo by Darrin Phegley

Homeplace of Henderson is a retirement and assisted living facility located in Henderson, KY. They opened their doors in November 2021. The facility consists of sixty apartments—offering a personal care area and a dedicated memory care area with social activities and direct care throughout the building 24/7. 

“It is a dream come true. We wanted to take the senior care industry to a new level and give people what they asked for. Seniors want to be home. Sometimes home is a place we associate that we are comfortable with,” expressed Executive Director, Jessica Beavens. Homeplace was built around family and community, and it all came together because of the community’s support. 

A Generational Gap Program 

Jessica and the Henderson County Public Library’s Children’s Services Manager, Danielle Anguish, were part of a Life Enrichment Community meeting. One of the ideas brought up at this particular meeting was that having children within Homeplace of Henderson would bring value and joy. They talked about pen pals or a program where kids would come hang out with residents at Homeplace. 

Fast forward several months later, and as Danielle is putting together her summer programs for the children’s department at the library she remembers this idea from the Life Enrichment Community meeting. “I was trying to come up with different outreach activities and that’s how this really came to be,” said Danielle. She reached out to Jessica expressing the library’s interest in trying this program out and naming it “Grandpals at the Homeplace.” Jessica said, “The mission of the library in this program is to bring together a generational gap. You see the older individuals we pride ourselves in caring for and the younger individuals interacting. It is something special. Not everyone has grandparents, or their grandparents don’t live here locally.” Without hesitation, Jessica was on board. “It was an idea, and thankfully the library wanted to implement and try it and here we are!” 

Homeplace currently partners with the library with their genealogy program. The library comes once a month with a different topic and history of Henderson. All the residents love it, even if they aren’t from Henderson. Homeplace has also worked with the school system in the past. However, this is their first partnership offering a program such as this. ”The first week here, the residents couldn’t wait to come down. We have a retired pediatrician, retired nurses, and teachers. Every background. And something that brings them joy all the time are kids. We want people to see how our residents still have so much life in them. Kids bring out a different area of their life. They feel young again!” stated the enthusiastic director. 

The Grandpals Programs 

Grandpals at the Homeplace has been a new summer program offered every Thursday at 10am during the months of June and July. Open to all ages, including teens, children register through the library, and upon arrival they are partnered with one or more Homeplace residents based on their interests. “We tried to match our residents with something they are interested in along with what the child is interested in. It wasn’t just the activity but the conversation.” For example, one child enjoyed playing basketball and a lot of Jessica’s residents are UK basketball fans – so they were able to interact about basketball, how long the child has played, etc.

The library has brought everything from books, puzzles and games to coloring pages and crafts. They brought everything for the residents at Homeplace and the children to engage in – along with the kiddos. It was Jessica’s part to provide the grand part of this program and having these individuals who could provide wisdom and be a positive influence on the children. 

During the first week of the program, there was a group working on crafts and creating magnets for their refrigerators. Another group was doing art and drawing while the other was working on a puzzle. “The other thing you saw in the dynamic was the history of this young child interacting with someone who had a lot of wisdom to share and then you had the activity as an ongoing conversation piece you didn’t even know was really happening but happened naturally so that was cool to see,” said Jessica. 

The Life Enrichment Assistants invite, remind and encourage residents to come down before the children arrive. Jessica explained how all of their residents are different. They have individuals who are extroverts and like to be around people and some who don’t like a group setting and prefer not to leave their apartment. They had one child who went to the apartment with the parent/caregiver they were with and read stories with a resident who is a retired teacher. It was incredible to see someone who used to be surrounded by children everyday have a child read to her again. 

Jessica said if they mention kids are coming for an activity or event then about 90% of their residents are going to come out of their room. One resident told Jessica it was one of the best days she has had in a long time! “They don’t always get to go to their grandchildren’s ball games but to create a moment they will have – whether it be 30 minutes—they are going to hold onto it forever.”

This program means so much to both Homeplace and the library. “It gives me warm, fuzzy feelings when I think about this program,” Danielle said. “The warmth of the program is that you are doing something that is ultimately making a difference in both of their lives. It is the goodness of the program that does it for me.” It is important for Danielle to get a feel of what the interests are when she is thinking of activities to bring. She laughed and stated, “They love coloring. Not so much on play-doh. Probably flashbacks from when they had their own kids play with it.” She has considered doing a streamline activity before the end of July, such as planting or a game day for the residents and children to do together. 

The program was advertised through social media and put on the library’s summer calendar before school was out, along with the averaging 13-15 programs a week being hosted by the Children’s Department – not including the teens and adults. What Danielle offers to the children in the community, and now to these residents, is wonderful. The parents and caregivers of children who attend any of the programs witness the hard work and dedication that is poured into these programs – with Grandpals being another amazing addition. 

Jane Clark has been bringing her granddaughter, Ella Clark (4) to Homeplace this summer. Jane said, “Ella loved it. Ella’s fortunate enough to have both sets of grandparents in her life, but I tried to explain to her that not everybody that lives here has young kids visit or may not have grandkids – so it’s really important for them. She couldn’t wait to come back! It teaches her compassion and that everyone is different. It’s as much for her as it is for them. The library is just awesome!”  

Kade Hobgood (7) was another child who attended this summer. His grandmother, Nancy Hobgood, said, “It was a good opportunity for my grandson. He really enjoyed it. When it was over, he wanted to come back. I had to talk him into coming because he wasn’t sure about being around people he didn’t know. I was so surprised at how much he enjoyed it!” Kade and Nancy were at a big table with a group of men and played UNO the first week Kade attended. Kade said, “The UNO cards were gigantic!” Some of the men had never played, so they had the opportunity to teach them how to play the card game. It was really fun for everyone, and even Ms. Danielle joined in on the fun that week! 

Creating Moments at the Homeplace

“Our goal here at Homeplace is to create moments,” expressed Jessica. “We want this building to be a place where people come and know it is kid-friendly. It is a place created for family and engagement. It is very much a place where children feel comfortable. They can grab a coke and ice cream. We want to collaborate as much as we can and make our residents feel as part of our community. Young kids don’t always know how to interact with the old population. If we go in with an activity such as a canvas or story, if we pre-plan then you are going to see that engagement become more natural. If we have an idea of what we can do, then we can create moments. What I saw was some moments being created. We have residents who are still discussing it. The retired pediatrician – he saw kids everyday of all ages – so having kids come to him was really important. It is holding a sweet spot in their heart. To be able to know that this is something that is a collaboration between two good organizations with the mission of closing that generational gap and having kids interact with the older population. I don’t know if we can do it enough but it was wonderful. It definitely made a mark on our residents in a good way.”