About Us

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.

We are part of the Beth Johnson Foundation (former host of UK Centre for Intergenerational practice) based in Stoke on Trent; who were responsible for the development of intergenerational practice as a professional/specific approach in the UK and associated training and resources to support this. LGNI operate in Northern Ireland but share learning, practice and resources developed in partnership with BJF and also work closely with Generations Working Together in Scotland.

Our vision is that Northern Ireland will be a place where all generations are respected, understood, connected, and engaged together in their communities. To achieve this, we offer opportunities to bring generations together in lots of different places for lots of different reasons. We work at three levels: bringing generations together in communities, influencing and supporting intergenerational practice within organisations and using our evidence to influence policy.

• Act as a catalyst for intergenerational approaches identifying the opportunities and resources that exist within communities, organisations and settings and supporting them to apply an intergenerational approach.
• Support the adding of value to existing work and intergenerational approaches can achieve bigger impact, for example linking schools and older people’s groups/settings, utilising youth volunteering programmes to work with older people and vice versa.
• Support connections and relationship building to equip ‘people’ and ‘communities’ with the tools to deliver intergenerational approaches, which are grounded in local need and issues.
• Facilitate a Northern Ireland wide infrastructure via the coordination of 11 Local intergenerational Networks across NI – connecting local people, communities, organisations, and policymakers interested in bringing generations together, enabling members to find out about intergenerational opportunities, share ideas/learning, access training, support, and resources.