Having fun is easy when there’s singing.
Here, at the senior citizen’s residence and care home, “Belong Chester",
elderly people, dementia patients and kindergarten children
all live together.
There is children,
there is old people, and there is
poorly people, altogether.
And we all get together.
It's absolutely fantastic.
I call it my Garden of Eden.
Hi kids!
Iain Wheelton has at least as much fun playing as
the children do.
He used to be a truck driver.
At 84, he now needs assistance, and has been living in
this intergenerational community for two years.
The minute I walked through
the door, I wanted to be here.
That is the honest truth.
It is just warm.
Peace.
Bill Jones used to be an engineer.
He’s showing three-year-old Jacob how to handle a drill.
These joint activities are optional for young and old alike.
Joyce Aiston takes part as often as she can.
Once a week we come down.
It's nice, they all seem to enjoy it.
Playing with my friends makes me happy.
The guiding principle here is that no one should feel isolated.
Many are on a first-name basis.
The older residents are also lovingly called “grandfriends"
and they're are happy to share some of their life experiences
with the children.
At the end of it all they
just know how to behave, you know.
If a stranger talks to
them or anything like that...
confidence.
Absolute confidence.
That confidence will stay with them all their lives, right through.
I think she's learned a
lot from the older residents.
Arts and crafts.
A big thing as well is
the communication skills.
And a lot of empathy towards them,
how she treats them when we get to
see them is absolutely fantastic.
The project is almost two years old but it took several years to plan.
Its intergenerational concept is new to Britain.
The project's founders hope their community will serve as
an inspiration to others.
We've looked at
influences from Japan.
We've looked at
influences in Australia, in Canada.
And we are working with Liverpool
University on models in China.
Because everybody knows there is a need for this, because people
are living longer.
Bill Wall spends each afternoon with the kids.
They call him “our Bill”. Staff say the children are calmer
when he's there.
We knew it would work.
We hoped and believed it would work.
But what we have seen in the last almost two years now has far
exceeded our expectations in terms of the joy, and the love that we
have for each other.
One secret of the success is
that the elderly and the kids are
trusted to do quite a bit,
such as going for walks together.
I love children.
Children - that's
humanity, it's the beginning.
It's everything.
It's nature.
Every day with the children is a new beginning for Iain – and
a good day.