Young people at VOYPIC have joined with friends from the Dee Street Over 60s Club, Belfast, to celebrate Global Intergenerational Week and All Ages April.
The Club, which provides social activities for older locals in East Belfast, has been a long-time supporter of VOYPIC, most recently playing a big role in our ‘Be A VOYPIC Elf’ campaign last Christmas. Through a series of fundraising activities throughout 2023, the Club collected money to buy a huge range of gifts for care experienced young people.
This donation allowed VOYPIC to open a ‘Santa’s Grotto’ in our 100GPS Head Office, helping to make sure that all children had a present to open last Christmas.
To thank the group, young people in the Belfast Participation Forum invited members to a special celebration tea party in April. The Club members and young people joined together, taking part in arts and crafts activities, dancing and signing together, and enjoying afternoon tea prepared by the young people.
Nicola McCreedy, a VOYPIC Youth Rights Worker in Belfast, said “When the young people found out about what the Dee Street Over 60s Club had done, and their brilliant donation to our campaign, they wanted to meet them and thank them personally.
“It’s always great to see generations coming together like this, groups of people that might not otherwise have an opportunity to meet and spend time together. There is much the young people we support can learn from the folks at the Dee Street Club. And, much the young people want to share with our friends in the Club.”
In February, VOYPIC recognised the outstanding contribution made by one of the leaders of Dee Street Over 60s Club, as part of the Care Day Awards 2024. Pamela McCambley, who spearheaded the fundraising campaign in 2023, was honours with a Highly Commended award in the Care Hero category at the ceremony in Queen’s University. Sadly, Pamela passed away in the autumn, so her award was accepted by her daughter, Natasha.
The celebration tea party was made possible thanks to the support of Linking Generations and their All Ages April campaign, in support of Global Intergenerational Week.
Linking Generations Northern Ireland (LGNI) have led the way in connecting generations in communities across Northern Ireland since 2009 and are the only organisation solely focusing on the development and promotion of intergenerational approaches to address societal issues.
Global Intergenerational Week, running 24-30 April, is a campaign connecting everyone who is passionate about everything intergenerational. 2024 is the fourth year of this amazing campaign and VOYPIC is delighted to be participating in it for the second year in a row.
It is important that people of different generations, with different life experiences, have an opportunity to come together and share their experiences. As one guest from the Dee Street Over 60s Club commenter, “It was a fabulous wee get-together, and a great evening. We got on well with everyone- age does not matter.”
