Sally Newman has shepherded Generations Together from its inception as a grass roots movement in the late 1970s to a legitimate field of work and study. As Newman leaves GT, she is encouraged by the suc-cess of its two professional development programs: the annual Intergenerational Training Institute and the Intergenerational Specialist Certificate.

In her new office just one floor above GT’s hub of activity at University Place, Newman, 72, is hard at work on new projects, ever devoted to reconnecting older adults with children, from pre-school through college age, and assisting those who make intergenerational work their profession.

Newman first came to Pitt in 1979, when, as a school administrator, she was examining new roles for older adults in society. Vijai Singh, then executive director of the University Center for Social and Urban Research, invited her to pursue her project at UCSUR.

“In July of that year, Generations Together was born,” Newman recalled. “We had taken our research model into the public school system by then, but it became clear that we were on to something much bigger than a school-based model.”

Over the years, Newman watched this grass roots concept evolve into a legitimate field of work and study. She planted the seed for at least half a dozen program models and all since have blossomed with thousands of success stories of young people linking with senior citizens in productive and meaningful ways. For example, the Intergenerational Arts and Education program brings the community’s older master artists and craftspeople into the classrooms to share their skills and knowledge with young students. The Family Friends Program matches volunteers, age 50 or older, with households where there is a child developmentally or mentally challenged. The Intergenerational Early Childhood Program trains older adults for employment in childcare, and the Mentors in Service to Youth Program matches senior citizen mentors with high school and college students.

Now Newman is taking her passion to a global level. Her retirement years will see her in the role of chairperson of the International Consortium for Intergenerational Programs (ICIP), based in the Netherlands.

“There are issues in each of our nations that might well be approached with an intergenerational lens,” she said. “In Nigeria, entire communities are being decimated by AIDS. There are no moms and dads available, so now the grandparents have become the caregivers. It’s an intergenerational solution.”

In the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Newman has encountered other scenarios. “Immigrants coming into those countries have left their grandparents behind, so now German, Dutch, and English elders are working with these foreign children, to help introduce them to the culture and become more accepted.”

Linked to that project is Newman’s other new position as editor of the Intergenerational Programming Quarterly: An International Journal of Program Development, Research, and Policy — a unique and comprehensive journal on the intergenerational field, to be published by Haworth Press in January 2003. In addition to peer-reviewed articles by scholars and practitioners from around the globe, its pages will contain articles on program development, book reviews, and a Forum Page for reader comments on issues related to intergenerational work.

“We’re giving it a twist, to make it an attractive journal for both the scholars who need journal publications for their career and the thousands of people in the field who are not involved in universities,” she said.

As Newman leaves GT, she is encouraged by the success of its two professional development programs: the annual Intergenerational Training Institute, which has been attracting 50 to 70 participants every summer since 1992; and the Intergenerational Specialist Certificate, a noncredit continuing education program, which provides 100 hours of professional development and skill building. Newman and new GT executive director, James McCrea, in collaboration with the School of Social Work, launched the certificate program several years ago. Since then, 60 people have registered and 25 have completed the program.

“These professionals now have a credential,” explained Newman, “a certificate they can use to increase their job status, earn more money, and contribute to this growing field. Several academic jobs have been created, where people with these certificates are overseeing university intergenerational work and assuming new leadership roles in social service fields.”

The outgoing director sees that as her legacy. “Generations Together stands almost alone in promoting the professionalism of this new field,” she said. “People are taking a serious look at intergenerational work, as creditable, multi-disciplinary, and requiring skills and knowledge.”

Newman won’t let her future plans stand in the way of her own personal intergenerational activity — visiting and backpacking with her two grandchildren, ages 5 and 1, in Montana. The young children’s happy faces are in photos on Newman’s desk. “My husband and I spend a long weekend with them every two-and-a-half months,” she smiled. “I’m very lucky.”

—Sharon Blake