Leith's Citadel is a Youth Centre for all ages
Leith's Citadel is a Youth Centre for all ages
Protecting and nurturing the Port's people culture by connecting the generations brings rewards, writes Sarah McArthur
We live in a time when we’re so obsessed with the generations that we’ve a label for all of them – from the Greatest Generation born at the start of the 20th century, whose early adulthood was forged in the fire and flame of the Great War, right through to today’s Generation Alpha – the first entire generation to be born in the 21st century.
And all the others in between, the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers of the post Second World War population explosion, Generation X, Millenials (Generation Y) who became adults as the millenium turned, and Generation Z. We’re also obsessed with labels – as you can see, and the characteristics of each cohort of the British public are material for infinite speculation and debate, not to mention humour.
But as fun as it is to box off the generations in our conversations, in this social media, digital age it seems we are doing it in our communities, in real life, too: outwith our immediate families, it’s harder actually to spend time with people of other generations.
The Citadel Youth Centre, tucked away on a corner of Commercial Street, has been connecting generations in their community for decades. The “intergenerational approach”, as it’s called, has proved to have endless positive spillovers for everyone involved.
Generational disconnect:
“It’s really cradle to the grave,” says Ryan McKay, one of the Development Workers at the Citadel, explaining that the Centre is used by toddlers, 94-year-olds, and everyone in between. Approaching its 45th anniversary, the Citadel has been ingrained in all ages of the Leith community for a long while. However, their explicitly intergenerational work began in 2009, in partnership with Pilmeny Development Project.
The two organisations learned through their service users of a disconnect between generations in the area. Young people at the Citadel were vocal about not having contact with any grandparents, and the Pilmeny team were hearing elderly people who no longer went out after dark, or avoided certain areas, for fear of local teenagers.
In response, the New Spin Cafe was launched; a weekly session for around 20 participants, aged 10-18 or over 50. The New Spin cafe-goers meet at the Citadel for tea, cakes, an activity of some kind - but crucially just for a chat. Over the years the Citadel has also facilitated Olds Cool- intergenerational activities in schools, which are led and designed by the young participants themselves.
“The reason we’re doing this is to bring the two generations positively together, to share skills and knowledge, but mostly to break barriers. It’s to remove some of this ageism and limiting beliefs about what older people are capable of and what young people are capable of,” says McKay.
One elderly Olds Cool participant expressed her delighted surprise at the warm welcome she was given by a group of high school pupils. “One thing I’ve found which makes me feel quite emotional actually is that I’ve been accepted with my disability… I’ve absolutely loved being with the children… I really appreciate that we have been accepted with or without a disability, and nobody's questioned my wrinkly face!” she said.
For young participants, McKay believes the relationships formed at New Spin can be much more powerful than any other adult relationship in their life. McKay mentions multiple young people who have been involved in violence and criminality in the local area, but have sat happily at New Spin every week without any issues. While this is in part due to a fantastic experience of older New Spin members, from retired social workers to psychiatric nurses, McKay also believes that the authenticity of the connection is the key to intergenerational work’s success.
“Young people can see through the nonsense and if someone has any type of further agenda they can sense it,” says McKay, “But sitting them with an older person who literally wants nothing to do but to connect with them for connections sake, it’s incredibly genuine.” Some of McKay’s favourite moments have been seeing the huge boost in confidence of younger participants when they receive genuine, unprompted praise and encouragement from their older counterparts.
“I love it…”
For older participants, too, the intergenerational activities can be hugely beneficial. “It gives the older people a real purpose,” says McKay. He also says that older people who might need to regain their confidence, after a fall or a medical issue, can gain a lot from New Spin.
“I went a year and a half waiting for to get an operation,” explains one elderly participant, “I was talking to myself, because I couldnae get out, couldnae get walking about… I went to Olds Cool and I’ve never looked back. I’m down to taking just a half of my tablet I was taking for depression. I love it- I know the kids can be a bit unruly but that’s a part of growing up,” he said.
For the wider community, many of the Citadel’s intergenerational activities play a key role in preserving local history. From constructing local history top trumps based on older participants’ memories, to the annual pool tournament in honour of a couple of regulars at the Citadel Centre, intergenerational activities are preserving the memory of the community’s past.
Intergenerational approaches have proven so helpful for the Citadel and its community that McKay says it has become “the bread and butter of everything we do.” But McKay still has a hard time convincing others, particularly donors, of its worth. Many people see things like the New Spin cafe as work experience for teens who’d like to work in care homes, rather than a multifaceted social care intervention. Others think of intergenerational work as primarily for young kids rather than teenagers, assuming that young Gen Z will not be interested in spending time with Boomers. This visibility issue is becoming only more pressing, as the organisation will lose £375,000 of core funding over the next three years.
McKay and his colleagues are optimistic, though- the centre is aiming to grow its Friends of the Citadel funders group to cover some funding gaps. The Citadel is also feeding into a growing evidence base for intergenerational practice through partnerships with PhD researchers and Heriot Watt University.
“I can’t see the project ending,” says McKay. “The Citadel will always be here, but the shape it’s going to be is the question that needs to be answered.”w