You'll need someone from a different generation to complete this crossword

All our actions to help you Spend Time with Somone From a Different Generation. Colour in a smiley face every time you've done an action.

Age Exchange works with older people to improve their quality of life by valuing their reminiscences and giving them opportunities for wider appreciation.

Grandparents Plus is the national charity which champions the vital role of grandparents and the wider family in children's lives.

Organisiation connecting the generations

Project resulting in collection of stories from elderly people visited by Uni students 

Spend time with someone from a different generation

Campaign to get older people online

Campaign to get everyone online

Campaign to get everyone online

Article on older celebrities loving Twitter

Hilarious guy who simply tweets the weird stuff his Dad says

US based campaign to bring generations together

Website addressing the lack of accessibility of many parts of the internet for disabled people

Make the Internet super easy by creating a page of Internet Buttons.

BBc site with help and resources for people new to the net. 

• Knowing how to use the internet gives people greater independence. Being able to shop, pay bills, order prescriptions as well as find local transport options, social groups to join and info on local events means people need less care from others, can live safely in their own homes for longer and have better social lives.
• New technology can be pretty confusing if you didn't start using it as a child: As Douglas Adams said in the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  "Anything that is in the world when you were born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural way the world works; anything that is invented between the time when you are 15 to 35 is new, revolutionary and exciting and you can possibly get a career in it and anything invented after you are 35 is against the natural order of things".
• As a society we are spending less time with our families, communities, sports teams, or faith groups than we used to:In the early eighties, more than 60% of people then in their thirties were active members of local community organisations.  Twenty five years on across a similar section of society, active membership has dropped to less than 10%. Church attendance across Europe halved over a similar period and political party membership in the UK once nudged 3.5 million but now struggles to reach half a million.
• The benefits of spending time with someone from a different generation include: The transmission of useful life-skills, values, moral codes and social norms, culture, history and identity both up and down the generations. The prevention and reduction of age-based prejudice and discrimination.
• The fastest growing age group in the population are those aged 80 years and over who currently constitute 4.5 per cent (2,749,507) of the total population. This age group has increased by over 1.1 million between 1981 and 2007 (1,572,160 to 2,749,507). It is projected that by 2031, the UK population will include 3 million people aged over-85.
• 1.2 million people over 50 in England (i.e. 7%) face severe‚ multiple exclusion.
• Around half of people over 50 suffer disadvantage with respect to one aspect of their life.
• 1.3 million people over 65 have clinical depression.
• 2.2 million households with a member over 60 live in unfit housing.
• 2.5 million people over 50 have little social or family contact.
• 3.4 million people over 50 live in relative poverty.
• Just under a third of all pensioners live on or close to the poverty line.
• 12 million people - half the UK workforce - are putting nothing aside for their old age.
• Around half a million people remain in the workforce after the age of 65, contributing substantial skills and experience.
• The over 50s account for 40% of consumer spending, 60% of total savings and 80% of wealth.
• Two thirds of volunteering is undertaken by the over 50s with approximately five million people over 50 taking part in unpaid voluntary work.
• The over 50s provide half of all unpaid care, estimated to be worth £87 billion annually, with many older people providing childcare to enable younger parents to work, or looking after older family members.
• In 1950, the average man retired at 67 and could expect to spend 10.8 years in retirement. Today's children have the prospect of spending a third of their lives in retirement, and of seeing their own children retire.
• 'Surveys from the 1950's and 1960's found that between one third and one half of elderly people in the UK lived in a household containing one of their children. By the 1990's, this proportion was closer to 5-15%' (ILC-UK 2008)
• 82% of people agreed that older people can learn from the young.
• 96% of people agreed that young people can learn from older people.
• More than 60% of people agree that outside of their families, a natural part of the ageing process is for older people to become disengaged from younger people.
• 55% of people agree that outside of families, people of different generations generally find it difficult to communicate.
• 83% of 16-24 year olds agree that outside of their families, it becomes harder for older people as they age to relate to younger people.
• 67% of people agreed that old and young people today live in separate worlds.
• 67% of people agreed that relations between old and young in society today are worse than in the past.
• Amongst the very old, social contact with non-family members has a greater impact on mental well-being than their health status. (ILC-UK 2008)
• For many individuals, especially men, retirement is synonymous with loneliness, and ultimately depression, as they are removed from the social structures and networks that provided them with social contact during their working life. (ILC-UK 2008)
• Seven in ten older people are resorting to thrifty skills picked up during the war and post-war years to help them save money and make resources go further during the recession
  - 91 per cent of people over the age of 50 say they budget carefully and spend within their means
  - 87 per cent cook from scratch rather than buying ready-made meals
  - 71 per cent reuse leftover food
  - 54 per cent shop for food in the reduced section or buy reduced food at the end of the day
  - 50 per cent sew or mend items for themselves or others
  - 29 per cent grow their own vegetables.
• Nine in ten older people believe the 'make do and mend' mentality could help younger generations weather today's recession. Younger people share the same belief with 84 per cent of people aged 18-24 thinking they could benefit from skills handed down from tough war and post-war years.
• Young people can show older people the benefits and fun of exercise. In 2007, 72% of boys and 63% of girls aged 2-15 met the '60 minutes of exercise a day, everyday' target. Grown-ups (aged 16-64) didn't fare so well - with 40% of men and just 28% of women achieving the recommended level of physical activity for adults. Only 17% of men and 13% of women over the age of 65 are sufficiently active
• 60% of women over 60 said they would exercise more if they had someone to go with.
• 'Respect for the aged' day is held in Japan the 3rd Monday of September.
• Grandparents Day is celebrated in England on the first Sunday in October and the first Sunday after Labor Day in the US.
• A third of parents and grandparents have been taught or encouraged by a younger generation to get on line (from National Digital Inclusion conference 2010)
• 23-27 April 2012 is when Silver Surfers Week begins
• In a survey commissioned by the ILC-UK, the majority of people aged 16-65 thought that old and young people today 'live in separate worlds' (ILC-UK 2008) 
• 'The internet is arguably the most 'inclusive' environment of all. Web-based platforms such as online social networking present multiple and cost-effective opportunities for advancing intergenerational relations' (ILC-UK 2008)
• The sharing of knowledge and life skills going down the generations is far from one-way, 'Changes in technology, products and services... continually create a need for individuals to re-learn life-skills' (ILC-UK 2008)
• 'An individual's ability to learn and use new technologies is highest in their youth... past this 'peak' many individuals struggle to adapt to emerging technologies that are quickly adopted by younger cohorts... being unable to use a computer means a new form of 'online social-exclusion' (ILC-UK 2008)
• Interaction with grandparents has been shown to be associated with increases in self-esteem (ILC-UK 2008)
• Populations are more mobile than ever and migration is resulting of the separation of young and older generations - Younger people move to urban cities for employment and older people retire to coastal and ruarl towns - this pattern represents a challenge to the functioning of intergenerational relations in society. (ILC-UK 2008)
• Advances in information and communication tecnology, as well as increasing physical flows of people and ideas means that families are living further apart, and relying on modern communication to keep in touch (ILC-UK 2008)
  
• Internet usage is increasing among all age groups, but particularly in older groups. Online participation is actually one of the most age-inclusive activities as online interaction 'does not enable individuals to form the kind of immediate preconceptions and judgements associated with face-to-face interaction. (ILC-UK 2008)
• The internet presents opportunities for young and old to share knowledge, experience and skills through online forums and other websites, without face-to-face interaction. for example, online mentoring of teenagers in deprived local areas, by retirees living far away. (ILC-UK 2008)
• 10 million people have never used the Internet. Around half of these people are over 65.
• 4 million UK adults are socially and digitally excluded, of which more than a third are over 65
• In Japan, 2 thirds of pensioners live with their children
• There are 14 million grandparents in the UK
  
• 1.5 million grandparents in the UK are under 50
• 7 million grandparents are under 65
• The proportion of single grandparents has doubled from 8% to 15% between 1998-2007. This does not include widows. 36% of single grandmothers are aged under 55.
• 1 in 3 families depend on grandparents for childcare.
• The value of the grandparental childcare contribution has been calculated at £3.9billion.
• 3 out of 10 (31%) grandparents put money aside to help their grandchildren get onto the property ladder.
• 1 million children lose touch with their grandparents as a result of separation or divorce.
• National Family Week 2012 begins May 28th