What Is Intergenerational Care?

The core idea

Most elder care facilities are designed around a single principle: safety and comfort for older adults. Most childcare centers are designed around a different single principle: developmental enrichment for young children. Neither asks the question: what happens when you bring both groups together, intentionally, in the same space?

Intergenerational care answers that question. It places elder care facilities, childcare centers, or family support programs in the same building — or on the same campus — with shared programming and daily contact. The arrangement isn't accidental. Activities are designed so that elders and children interact naturally: reading together, music sessions, outdoor time in a shared courtyard, meal preparation, craft projects, and storytelling.

It's a model that sounds obvious in hindsight. Human beings of all ages have always been better when they have purpose, connection, and the company of people different from themselves. Intergenerational care builds the architecture around that fact.

How intergenerational care works

The term "intergenerational care" covers a range of facility types and programming models. The common thread is intentional interaction between distinct age groups — typically elders (60+) and children (0–5 years), though some programs include adolescents and young parents.

Shared site programs

Also called "co-located" or "campus-based" programs, shared site models place two or more distinct programs — an assisted living wing, a licensed childcare center, and sometimes a family stabilization unit — in the same building. Residents and children share common spaces, structured activities, and informal interaction throughout the day. This is the model KinRoots uses with its three-wing design.

Visiting programs

Some intergenerational programs bring children into elder care facilities on a scheduled basis — a few hours per week, as part of a structured activity. Research shows this still produces benefits, though less pronounced than daily shared-site models where interaction happens organically throughout the day.

Integrated childcare and elder care

The most intensive model combines both functions in a single program — a licensed childcare center staffed by early childhood educators, with elders participating as trained volunteers, mentors, and activity partners. This is what KinRoots' Wing 2 (Early Childhood) enables with its connection to Wing 1 (Assisted Living) and Wing 3 (Family Stabilization).

Why it works: the psychology and biology

The benefits aren't accidental. Several psychological and developmental mechanisms explain why intergenerational contact produces such consistent results.

Elder role and purpose. One of the most robust findings in aging research is that a sense of purpose is one of the strongest predictors of health and longevity in older adults. Structured interaction with children gives elders a daily reason to be engaged — not as patients being cared for, but as active contributors to young lives. The child isn't just a visitor; the elder is a mentor, teacher, and role model.

Child development through attachment figures. Young children develop language, social skills, and emotional regulation in part through relationships with adults outside their immediate family. Elders provide a different kind of attachment: patient, unhurried, less screen-mediated, and rich with stories. Children in intergenerational settings show measurable gains in narrative reasoning, empathy, and turn-taking — skills that predict school readiness.

Mutual value and belonging. Perhaps the deepest mechanism is simply belonging. Both elders and children are groups at high risk for social isolation. A shared site doesn't just schedule activities between them — it creates a community where both populations feel seen, needed, and known. The building itself communicates that both matter.

What makes a good intergenerational program

Not all co-located programs are equal. Research identifies several design principles that separate high-impact programs from ones that just happen to share a building.

• Intentional programming: Spontaneous interaction is valuable, but structured activities — joint reading, music, gardening, cooking — produce more consistent developmental benefits.
• Trained staff: Both elder care and childcare staff need training in intergenerational program design, not just their own domain. Boundary-setting, activity design, and communication across populations are learnable skills.
• Safe and accessible shared spaces: A shared courtyard or garden that both groups can use independently (with appropriate supervision for young children) is one of the strongest predictors of organic daily interaction.
• Family integration: The best programs involve parents and other family members, creating a multi-generational community rather than two isolated populations sharing a building.
• Leadership buy-in: Both the elder care director and the childcare director need to embrace the model — it requires more coordination than running two separate programs.

Alaska's opportunity

Alaska has the highest elder loneliness rate in the United States — 45.9% of seniors report chronic loneliness, well above the national average. It also has a documented childcare crisis: 62% of working Alaska families face barriers to accessing licensed childcare. These two problems are expensive to solve separately, and they're both getting worse.

Intergenerational care is a single infrastructure investment that addresses both simultaneously. One facility that houses assisted living, licensed childcare, and family support generates revenue across three streams while reducing the social isolation that drives elder health decline and the childcare gap that forces parents out of the workforce.

No such facility exists in Alaska. KinRoots is the first to design around this model — a three-wing facility in Anchorage where all three populations live, learn, and grow together.