Dr. Sally Newman was a guiding force for the founding of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships in 2003 and the first editor of the journal; she served in that capacity until June 2014. In 1979, Sally founded and served as President of Generations Together, a Pittsburgh-based organization that promoted intergenerational programming and productive roles for older adults working with children and youth. In 1997, she co-authored with Chris Ward Intergenerational programs: past, present, and future; this was the first text of its kind, presenting theory, models, research, and profiles relevant to intergenerational programs. Building on these experiences, Sally envisioned the journal as an international collaboration where researchers and practitioners work together to advance knowledge that could benefit youth, older adults, and society. Despite her death in 2022, Dr. Sally Newman’s legacy lives on.
In honor of Dr. Sally Newman’s leadership of and contributions to intergenerational program research, the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships invites scholarly contributions for a special issue focused on contemporary intergenerational research that builds on Newman’s foundational work. Intergenerational programs are increasingly diverse, supporting mutual benefit to youth and older adult participants as well as families, organizations, and communities. Researchers citing Dr. Newman’s work in recent publications hail from Bangladesh, Chile, China, Malaysia, Sweden, and the U.S., among others. Many explore programming with young children and frail older persons (e.g., Jarrott et al., 2019), but her work also informs community needs assessments (e.g., Kennig et al., 2020), digital literacy programs involving young adults, and even workplace mentoring models (e.g., Bostrom, 2018). The special issue aims to reflect the diverse arenas impacted by Dr. Newman’s work.
Contributions may include:
- Research articles addressing predictive, mediating, and resultant factors associated with intergenerational program delivery, outcomes, and sustainability, including:
- Evaluations of Intergenerational care, housing, volunteer, Service-Learning, co-mentoring, and civic engagement programs
- Environmental features influencing program outcomes
- Practitioners’ strategies associated with program outcomes
- Demographic and cultural factors informing engagement in, nature of, and outcomes of intergenerational programming
- Policy informing intergenerational program delivery and outcomes
- Studies addressing the development, validation, or application of measures of intergenerational interaction or relationships relevant to intergenerational programs.
- Case Reports of a program, intervention protocol, policy, or issue that influences the development of the intergenerational programming field, such as:
- Advances on recording and coding behavioral responses of participants to intergenerational programming
- A case report detailing a program that trains, places, and supervises intergenerational volunteers in a service or learning setting
- Systematic reviews of research literature documenting progress of the intergenerational field.
Special issue editors include: Ray Engel, Shannon Jarrott, Carrie Rodzwicz, Leng Leng Thang, and Cathy Tompkins
