Making Intergenerational Programs ‘Stick’: Learning from the Care Home FaNs ‘Broker model’ Linking Schools and Care Homes in England

Practitioners are vital for effective intergenerational practice, but they are often unsupported, untrained, or under-resourced. This paper explores the Care Home Friends and Neighbours (Care Home FaNs) Intergenerational Linking project’s ‘broker model’ as a novel approach to supporting intergenerational practitioners. Between 2019-2022, ‘local community brokers’, or ‘brokers’, helped link schools, youth groups, and care homes in 11 low socio-economic areas across England. Connecting over 4000 young people (aged 5-14) and 2000 adult social care residents, this represents one of the largest initiatives of this kind in England to date. This paper focuses on a subset of data from a wider study of the project, drawing upon object interviews and observations to explore brokers’ facilitatory role. We highlight brokering as a more-than-(just)-human activity involving national and regional guidance, COVID-19 policies, inter-organisational relationships, staff turnover, and resource (un)availability. We suggest brokering reveals intergenerational practice sustainability as a non-linear process of nurturing.