iGenNB Bringing Intergenerational Living to Fredericton
FREDERICTON – A new pilot project out of Fredericton is providing an opportunity for younger adults to save money and for older adults to have company through intergenerational living.
Spearheaded by The Ville Cooperative, iGenNB aims to enhance quality of life and provide affordable housing and mentorship through connection and co-living between younger adults and seniors.
“Each generation has a lot to offer for mentorship and skill learning,” said Casey Gaunce, iGenNB Project Coordinator.
Young adults aged 20-35 and older adults aged 55 and over are eligible to apply. The older adult must have a house in the Fredericton area with an extra room for the younger adult to move into.
The younger adult will receive free living in exchange for companionship, household chores, errands, and other shared responsibilities.
“It will all come down to what each party is looking for,” Gaunce said.
Students and the working population are welcome to apply. Nobody is more likely than another to be chosen for the program. The pairings will come down to which younger adult matches best with one of the older adults.
Most of the older population of New Brunswick wish to age in their homes. With this program, they can remain in their homes while receiving basic help around the house and help with reducing social isolation.
The younger adult might receive benefits like parking and WiFi as well as being less lonely and getting their housing for free.
The program is funded by the Healthy Seniors Pilot Project and was established at the Ville Cooperative.
“People can go about their everyday life as usual,” Gaunce said.
“We just require them to, when they are home, maybe do an activity with who they’re living with, or just help out when they can.”
An iGen program by Happipad started in 2018 in Kelowna, B.C. At the time, Happipad reported an average rent of $1,000 per month and for students attending surrounding universities, intergenerational living was just the way to go.
With the B.C. program, the older adults rented their rooms to young adults at below-market rates instead of the younger adults receiving completely free living. But in this situation, the younger adults got affordable housing and the older adults got companionship and a little extra cash in pocket.
At iGenNB, there will be 20 matches made for a total of 40 individuals chosen.
“Once the matches are finalized, this will involve participants meeting, doing some meet and greets, [and] doing some follow up meetings to make sure they feel comfortable with the match,” Gaunce said.
After the meet and greets and contracts are settled, a two-week trial period will occur to make sure the move-ins go well.
The Ville Cooperative will then likely host monthly events and activities. Monthly evaluations will be done and the iGen social worker will be available for any further support.
All the matched individuals will be required to submit criminal record checks and vulnerable sector checks as well as references.
The iGen team opened the call for applications this week and there has already been interest.
“There’s a lot of community members that are excited about the project – to hear what’s happening and show their support,” Gaunce said.
“And we’re getting a lot of volunteer inquiries. We’ve even received some applications. So, it’s definitely been an exciting week for us.”