A Partnership Celebrating 
Intergenerational Relationships

Playgroup Australia is delighted to partner with the ABC around a new series “Old People’s Homes for 4 Year Olds” which is raising awareness of the benefits of intergenerational care programs and play for all ages. Through a social experiment, the series is set to highlight the impact of relationships between two generations – older Australians and pre-school children. Monitored by a team of aged care and early childhood experts, the program explores the mental and physical impact of interactions for both the children and older adults. 

Talking about the social experiment, series expert and Professor in Geriatric Medicine, Sue Kurrle says:

“In order to make positive change for people in aged care here, we need evidence that intergenerational care can work in this country. We hope that our experiment will give that evidence and allow it to be adopted much more widely. Older people were young once and hopefully seeing these four-year-olds will really draw them out of themselves. Get them singing and laughing and dancing again as they would've when they were younger, bringing them back into life again.”

The partnership offers a great foundation for raising awareness of the positive impacts of intergenerational programs and opportunities to connect communities and support wellbeing. Through our national Ageless Play campaign, we hope to warm hearts and inspire people, and organisations, to join or start an intergenerational playgroup in their area.

While the concept of Ageless Play is still in its infancy, to date Playgroup Australia represents over 40 intergenerational groups nationally, which have grown simply through word of mouth, and local community collaborations. Through the support of our state and territory member organisations, we are establishing playgroup programs within aged care services, retirement villages and in seniors centres.

“We are very excited to grow the reach of Ageless Play Intergenerational Playgroups because we know just how much they are valued by residents, the providers and playgroup families themselves. Ageless Play playgroups bring together older adults – grand-friends – parents, caregivers and children through play. The beauty of intergenerational playgroups is the way that they overcome social isolation (for both residents and families) and enable connection across and between generations. There is such joy that comes from watching and joining in with young children at play.“ 

– Playgroup Australia CEO Fiona May

The importance of play is ageless. Play supports improved mood, memory and health through active participation and connection to local community. These benefits extend beyond direct participation, with families and elderly residents offered an extension of family and community through relationships formed at playgroup.

Run similarly to regular community playgroup, Ageless Play sessions are a fun, safe and educational way for children, parents, caregivers and older Australians to join together through a fun weekly activity, learning and connecting through play. Bringing different generations together fosters awareness, understanding and respect between generations, and breaks down social barriers and isolation commonly experienced by new parents and ageing communities.

“As a community initiative for residential aged care settings, you cannot underestimate the power of this type of program. With the right tools, an intergenerational playgroup is relatively easy to establish, and yet the far-reaching, positive benefits between young and old are remarkable.”

– Wendy, Diversional Therapist,
Catholic Healthcare Villa Maria Centre, Brisbane

Join our intergenerational family from the comfort of your own home, tonight Tuesday 27 August at 8.30pm, in sharing the launch of new ABC series, “Old People’s Homes for 4 Year Olds”. The 5 part series follows the heartwarming experiment which explores the benefits of intergenerational relationships, especially in supporting the wellbeing of our elderly Australian’s.

Donate to Support our
National Ageless Play Initiative

With sufficient funding, donations and support from individuals looking to make a difference – we will be able to reach even more communities to support intergenerational connections. Help us to support the development of more playgroups across Australia, click below to donate. We look forward to growing our intergenerational playgroup community with you.

About Playgroup Australia

Playgroup Australia is the peak body for the state and territory playgroup organisations (STO), that represent over 7500 community playgroups around Australia, reaching 80% of Australian postcodes with over 110,000 participating families, Playgroup Australia is one of Australia’s largest volunteer movements. The playgroup movement has been providing and supporting playgroups for more than 40 years through volunteerism and the outreach work of each STO in ensuring that all families with young children in Australia have access to quality playgroups.

Children who attend playgroup are half as likely to have developmental vulnerabilities when they start primary school. The Australian Early Development Census shows that the benefits of playgroups are seen across all domains of child development: physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive and communication.

Playgroups have adapted to the changing face of parenting and communities with playgroups for all. Playgroups cater for a broad range of children – aged from babies up to school age.  There are also facilitated or supported playgroups with trained staff working in partnership with parents designed for a particular group of families that need extra support.  In addition to the benefits gained directly by the children, playgroups provide support networks for parents and carers.

For media enquiries and interviews contact:
​CEO Playgroup Australia Fiona May on 0422 794 712
Email: info@playgroupaustralia.com.au or visit playgroupaustralia.com.au