Who We Are

Our vision is that every area would have an intergenerational community where people of all ages can come together. Intergenerational connection is good for young people, for older people and for society as a whole.

Since 2022 we have launched four intergenerational community centres and enabled over 750 children and older people to create ‘Grandfriendships’.

The Sparkle Story

‘Sparkle’ was launched in June 2022. The previous years had seen increased isolation due to the pandemic and intergenerational mixing had all but ceased completely. This of course was on top of a growing generational divide that had been taking place in British society.

A small team at St Michael’s Church Southfields felt called to do something about this. They had a church building available with a day nursery on-site. Conversations with a local primary school were fruitful and, after a period of planning, Sparkle opened at St Stephen’s East Putney.

Since then, three further venues have opened in Battersea, Earlsfield and Roehampton.

We believe every town should have an intergenerational community. Churches are perfectly placed to create these communities since they often have empty spaces midweek, a nursery hiring space, a nearby school, older congregants to form the initial group and willing volunteers to support the project.

Who Are We?

Emma Chisholm

FOUNDER
Emma was formerly Community & Wellbeing Lead at Age UK Wandsworth. During her time there, she responsible for many initiatives including physical activity programmes, digital support and also Age awareness programmes in local schools.
Olivia Wood

MANAGER
Olivia worked for 15 years in project management and business development in a variety of sectors, including social care, education and financial management. Olivia was initially a volunteer at Sparkle, bringing her young daughter who delighted in having ‘Grandfriends’
Juliet Gill

CRAFT QUEEN
Juliet has worked as a nanny and in nurseries and as a volunteer for Age UK, so she has plenty of experience with all generations! Juliet also started as a volunteer at Sparkle but her passion for the project and her endless craft ideas soon led her onto the team as session facilitator and craft queen!