Re-imagining Our Ageing Population

Seniors playing with 3D printing pens to exercise creativity & fine motor skills.

What began as a simple conversation about a loving elderly couple eventually evolved into a movement — one that challenges how we view ageing and transforms senior engagement within our communities.

Instead of seeing ageing as a period of decline, we asked: What if we unlocked the immense capacity within our senior population?

By adopting an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, we sought to shift the ageing population narrative from needs to strengths, recognizing that seniors are not just recipients of care but contributors, creators, and changemakers.

Their experiences, wisdom, and passions hold incredible potential. And our role was to present opportunities to unlock the potential of our seniors while promoting meaningful connections across generations.

BUILDING AN INTERGENERATIONAL ECOSYSTEM

We envisioned a space to bring wise minds and young minds together to:

• Create a fun & safe environment for intergenerational connections to form and flourish.

• Nurture organic & dignified relationships between internal and external stakeholders (i.e. community, government, institutions, businesses, experts).

• Facilitate the process of discovering interests & matching assets to bring impactful ideas to life.

Ultimately, this vision became the foundation of L!VE Intergen Innovation, an initiative designed to push the boundaries of senior engagement through co-creation and social innovation.

Corporate partner employees contributing to our community asset map.

MILESTONES & IMPACT

We began this journey in 2017 with Live A Legacy, an intergenerational book-writing project. As the project gained momentum, it inspired the conceptualization of a physical innovation lab in collaboration with St Luke’s Eldercare at its newly launched centre in Ayer Rajah.

Air Amber spearheaded this effort, establishing the L!VE Café and L!VE Lab within the space. As stewards of this hub, we grew a dynamic and thriving ecosystem, driven by a shared commitment to innovate for impact and reimagine the ageing experience.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Piloted 40 Intergenerational Innovation Ideas
  From dress-making to coffee-blending to VR experiences and NERF-Gun rehabilitation programmes, these creative ideas fostered meaningful intergenerational engagement.

• Collaborated with 45 Community Partners
  Our network included government agencies, nonprofits, businesses, institutions, and interest groups, all committed to transforming the ageing experience.

• Organised over 200 Intergenerational Sessions
  With the L!VE Lab as our home base, we piloted, curated, and refined ideas before scaling to more than 15 senior centres to expand our impact.

• Engaged over 6,500 Youth, Adults & Seniors
  Over the course of two years, thousands participated including kindergarten children, secondary to university students, adults, and seniors.

THE POWER OF CO-CREATION

One of the most exciting aspects of this movement was witnessing intergenerational co-creation in action. Each innovation proved the power of cross-generational collaboration.

Instead of asking what seniors need, we reframed the question to ask what seniors have to offer — and the results were truly transformative.

Ageing is not a problem to be solved but a gift to be embraced. By unleashing the capacity of our seniors and weaving it together with the exuberance of youth and collective assets of the wider community, we can truly redefine what it means to grow old in today’s world.

A QUESTION FOR REFLECTION

What are some simple ways to create memorable shared experiences with younger and older family members, even in everyday moments?