At Rocky Knoll Health Care Center in Plymouth, WI, senior residents gather in a large activity room surrounded by crayons, glue sticks and stuffed animals as a reading of The Berenstain Bears echoes through the speakers.
Despite the makings of a preschool playroom dotting the space, the residents are not there to revisit their childhoods. Instead, they are joined by six children, around three or four years old, for a session of intergenerational programming.
At Rocky Knoll, a Sheboygan County-run facility serving people in short-term rehabilitation and long-term care, community plays a central role in daily life. For residents — whether they are recovering from a stroke or hip surgery or experiencing dementia — connection and social engagement shape how days are lived.
Intergenerational programming, the practice of bringing age groups together for shared activities, is one way Rocky Knoll works to make each day meaningful.
According to Kayla Clinton, Rocky Knoll’s nursing home administrator, intergenerational programming offers numerous benefits to both children and seniors. It creates a unique environment to nurture exceptional possibilities.
One might find a child learning to walk for the first time in tandem with a recovering adult regaining mobility after a stroke, for example. Overall, the process introduces a space for people of different generations and abilities to learn from and observe one another.
“When you think of language development for children, confidence and that type of exposure and socialization is really important,” Clinton says. “On the other end of the spectrum, loneliness and isolation is something huge that our residents combat, and so having those opportunities and touch points is really just a win for everyone.”
Intergenerational programming is not brand new to Rocky Knoll. When the facility partnered last semester with the UW course, Educational Policy Studies 580, the health care center had an opportunity to develop a tangible curriculum and system for measuring the developmental growth and impact of intergenerational programming.
Led by Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies Dr. Naomi Mae, Ed Pol 580 is a Community-based Learning course focused on participatory and community-based research and evaluation. Before joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall of 2024, Mae worked for an education research foundation in Chicago. Though Mae is new to her faculty role, community-based work has been fundamental to her work ever since her undergraduate career.
“As someone who was both an African American Studies major and a co-chair of the Black Student Union on campus at UC Berkeley, I always saw community as the foundation to research,” Mae says.
Rocky Knoll, which heavily relies on and values community support, hosts a satellite location for Growing Generations Child Care to provide on-site childcare at the nursing facility. Their partnership with Ed Pol 580 mobilized their goal of formalizing a curriculum for intergenerational programming that can be used by the staff.
A primary goal and eventual desired outcome for developing this curriculum is to be able to measure and track impact.
“If you’re a county board supervisor or if you’re a prospective family member, bringing your loved one here, we have intergenerational programming, and this is what it means,” Clinton says. “This is the value. These are the benefits. This is the reach,”
With community-based work and integrated partnerships, it’s crucial to ensure that the goals and intentions of a project are well-communicated from the get-go. Campus organizations like UniverCity Alliance (UCA), a campus unit that engages local governments across Wisconsin to identify projects and areas of collaboration, and the Morgridge Center for Public Service play vital roles in developing fair and effective partnerships between the university and surrounding communities. Rocky Knoll is connected to UW through UCA ‘s partnership with Sheboygan County.
Community partnerships such as this are mutually beneficial to both partners and the students involved. Jada Young, a first-year MA student in African American studies and PhD student in educational policy studies who was enrolled in Dr. Mae’s course, said being involved in the course resulted in tangible, real-world experiences and outcomes solidifying her interest in community-based work.
“One thing that’s really valuable is that we’re actually able to meet with this community partner twice, even though they’re two hours away,” Young says. “Developing that type of relationship has been super important for this work — seeing what our community partner wants, and putting that on the forefront of what we create for them.”
For Mae, that sense of responsibility is at the core of Community-based Learning.
“You’re working with real people who have real needs,” she says. “That’s the accountability.”
By Sophie Wooldridge