Planning for an Intergenerational Future: a New Community Guide

By Donna Butts, Executive Director, Generations United

More than ever, planners are being asked to develop innovative solutions to a diverse range of housing and community needs without leaving anyone behind. Including the rapidly aging population and an increasingly diverse younger population. Generations United and Pennsylvania State University have created the Intergenerational Community Planning Report with the American Planning Association, to help local communities build an intergenerational infrastructure to support whole communities.

Intergenerational Community Planning is a guide to planning for the well-being of children, youth, and older adults as an integral part of the planning for housing, community development, and infrastructure that most governments conduct periodically. In so doing, it addresses three things of interest to planners and Generations United:

● Putting energy and resources into planning for the well-being of children, youth, and older adults (and their families) as methodically as local governments invest in planning for the built environment and the economy.

● Bridging some of the more significant divides that fragment our abilities to effectively address the needs of young, old and those who care for them; notably, the siloed bureaucracies and funding streams that define and divide our collective work on behalf of children, youth, older adults, and the families of which they are a part.

● Achieving greater and more lasting impact in the lives of children, youth, older adults, and those who care for them by engaging them and tackling the interdependency of solutions that these populations require, e.g., housing, education, health care, social services, economic well-being, a community that is safe, livable, and fosters connections across generations.

Older consumers are balking at senior-only communities that isolate them from other generations. At the same time, communities are weary from the pandemic, lack trust in public systems, and are losing patience. The recently released Belonging Barometer found a startling 74% of Americans feel alienated from their local communities.

The planning field recognizes that intergenerational living improves lives and strengthens communities. As a result, some forward thinking planners have been taking steps to move the concept forward by demonstrating the benefits of safe and affordable housing in a public health context and facilitating the development of multigenerational and age-friendly communities.

The Intergenerational Planning report addresses people and place in a unified way and supports planners and local government to take their experience implementing intergenerational solutions to scale and meet the challenges of today for all residents.

We are excited about enhancing the significant and important role municipalities and counties play in shaping the physical and economic environments with an overlay of what it takes to ensure optimal outcomes for all people particularly our bookend generations — children, youth, and older adults.

We want to thank the American Planning Association for their collaboration on this report and their attention to the importance of intergenerational connections in thriving, healthy communities.