The Better with Age Initiative at the Institute on Aging created the Gerontology and Education Research Initiative (GERI) to support faculty-led research related to aging. We are excited to share the two faculty-led research projects that have been awarded a GERI grant as part of the inaugural 2022/23 round of funding.
Exploring the impacts of the Neighborhood Story Project in intentional, intergenerational communities
Completed November 2023
Faculty:
- Amie Thurber, PhD. Assistant Professor, PSU School of Social Work
- Michele Martinez Thompson, MSW. PSU Assistant Professor of Practice and Distance Coordinator, PSU School of Social Work
Introduction:
In 2023, Bridge Meadows staff recruited teams of residents to participate in the Neighborhood Story Project in the Beaverton and North Portland communities. Bridge Meadows is a Portland-based non-profit organization that operates intentional, intergenerational communities for youth formerly in foster care, adoptive families, and elders. Over the course of 12 weeks, staff lead each team to develop a research question about their community, collect and analyze data, and report findings back to the community, with the goal of sparking ongoing action.
Project Goals and aims:
This project will explore the contributions of The Neighborhood Story Project, a 12-week participatory action research intervention designed to increase place knowledge and attachments, social relationships, and self and collective efficacy, to participants living in two Bridge Meadows intergenerational communities. This study is expected to contribute to emergent understandings of the uses of macro therapeutic interventions with older adults in intentional intergenerational and/or age-friendly communities.
Findings:
Researchers from Portland State University evaluated the outcomes for program participants and some members of the broader intentional intergenerational community. Researchers found that most program participants benefited from the program, gaining increased knowledge of community needs/desires, deepened social ties, and strengthened efficacy/civic engagement. While less data is available regarding the broader effects of this program, a sample of attendees at the Neighborhood Story Project culminating event indicate that the project fostered community cohesion and social ties, and increased current community engagement, and generated plans for future civic action. In evaluating the implementation of the program, researchers found that program effectiveness was correlated to facilitator’s fidelity to core design elements of program design, facilitator’s ability to modify the curriculum, and the use of Bridge Meadows staff facilitators. The most significant challenges in implementation related to differences among members’ processing needs, managing conflict, inconsistent attendance, time constraints, and low representation of families. If Bridge Meadows would like to replicate the program in the future, facilitators and participants recommend additional modifications to curriculum for intentional community, the recruitment of intergenerational teams, and the need to address workload concerns of facilitators. This report concludes with additional recommendations from researchers related to project replication and sustaining resident-led initiatives.