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click.... here for the list of PACE 2000 Board Members here to read about Intergenerational Themes and PACE 2000's Videoconferencing Network the Intergenerational Virtual Vilage, IVV

Founder PACE 2000 International Foundation

Background

PACE 2000 International Foundation is a registered Canadian charitable organization (Reg.# 892857962 RR 0001).

The name PACE is an acronym for Programs for Autonomy and Communication for the Elderly.  

The overall objectives of the PACE 2000 Foundation are to foster on-going communication between seniors and students, to create opportunities for both generations to share knowledge and experience and to provide mutual support.  The interaction allows seniors to live longer in their own homes and provides support for their autonomy.

These objectives are being achieved through the use of new and customized communications technologies, and the development since 1996 of the Intergenerational Virtual Village.

PACE 2000 customized videoconferencing interfaces and developed applications to meet the needs of seniors.

The applications include:

• customized group/living room Videoconference stations (using the seniors existing television set) allowing one click connection for active and frail seniors alike. All session include youth in the role of participant and/or intergenerational coordodinator.
• a unique Videoconference Based Goniometer for the tele-monitoring of mobility in a home setting.
• a tele-mentoring computer station called PACE-2-Face allowing seniors and students to explore and share internet and computer based activities as if they were physically together..

Videoconferencing between Seniors and Youth
PACE 2000's Intergenerational Virtual Village, IVV

For seniors residing in long term care facilities as well as for those who live alone, PACE 2000's Intergenerational Virtual Village videoconferencing provides a window on the world. They communicate by way of their television screens, without the help of a technician, from one centre to another, to recent immigrants to Canada and to students in a French Immersion Sociology class.....even to a physiotherapist at the hospital.

The communication of sound and image was specially adapted by PACE 2000 to meet the needs of seniors and young people. The interface is easy to use, the characters and icons are large and the transmission of movement is improved through broadband internet communicatgions. Now little stands in the way of grandparents sharing with their young protégées (students, immigrants or little children) the jigs they danced when they were younger, the pictures of their old school houses, the beginnings of the sport of basketball etc.

Three types of programs are provided by Videoconference:

- in-home medical support
- recreation and intercultural sessions
- education and linguistic programs.

Ongoing programs include;

• intercultural exchanges between newly arrived immigrants to Canada and seniors.
• the "Virtual Play school" connecting seniors and pre-school children
• mentoring programs between seniors and high school students
• physiotherapy sessions for seniors via Videoconference
  

The PACE 2000's Intergenerational Virtual Village, IVV, is a solution to many of the problems encountered by these two groups of people:

• the growing distress of young people and the social and medical problems associated with it;
• the isolation of seniors and the loss of independence and early death resulting from this isolation;
• the increase in health care costs, the cost of long term care in-home and in institutions;
• the spurt in population growth for seniors;
• the growing probability of conflicts in funding between the two populations at risk -- young people and seniors.
  

Lastly, in congratulating the organizers (PACE 2000) on their special Videoconference event held on June 23, 1999 Dr. Sidorenko (APE, United Nations) said of PACE 2000 "The organization responds to the priorities announced by the International Year of the Aged."

View a transcript of the address delivered by Dr. Siderenko on the Newsletter page.

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WHAT IS INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNICATION?

Over the past centuries, the links between young people and the elderly were always recognized in the context of the family in which three generations of children, parents and grandparents lived side by side. These close family relationships were captured for posterity by various artists over time. One of the best examples of art portraying these family links was painted in landers by Jordaens toward the end of the 17th century. Entitled ; Les jeunes piaillent comme chantent les vieux; (The children chirp as the elders sing), the painting demonstrates the harmony and good will of intergenerational relationships.

Introduction to the PACE 2000 Videoconferencing Network

The Inter-Generational Videoconferencing Network

Emerging telecommunications technologies can help break down some of the barriers that prevent seniors and students from communicating on a daily basis.

PACE 2000 conducted a survey at the Ottawa Forum on "Friendly Technologies for seniors and Students" on June 13, 1996 (180 participants, 25 exhibitors including the Rehabilitation Center, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, National Hearing Society, ...) and drew an unusually high level of interest in emerging technologies, from seniors (average score: 87%). The students who volunteered created a pleasant experience for the seniors. The interaction between students and seniors was considered to be the main trigger of the seniors curiosity in emerging technologies.

 

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Key Objective

To use the PACE 2000 Videoconferencing Network "Inter-PACE2000" as a medium for the development of regular interactions between seniors and students.

Social Benefits

Seniors & students sharing interests using new technologies

In 20 years the senior population will double in the Ottawa-Carleton Region. How society can use this untapped resource, and how the specific physical and emotional needs of this generation are met while interacting with youth, is the focus of a new area of study, known as intergenerational programming. Inter-PACE 2000 is on the leading edge of that study with their efforts to build an intergenerational two-way telecommunication network.

Age segregation is seen in almost every on-going activity whether professional or recreational. Social problems such as: isolation of seniors, depression in the young and the old, chronically ill patients with debilitating life-styles, youth unemployment and lack of training, increasing suicide rates... are only but a few of the consequences of dropping out of the vital interactive social community network.

Seniors & youth enjoying inter-generational entertainment

Meanwhile very little attention is paid to the supportive link that can be drawn from seniors sharing untapped human resources with the young (Drama features traditional conflicts of generations with parents; less than 5% of plays show conflicts with grandparents). A strength can be drawn from this lack of conflict when building a network of students and seniors.

Regular and frequent intergenerational contact is a means to overcome the age segregation and its determinant effects. Switching from a yearly or monthly contact to a regular, personal and eye to eye interaction, provides the best medium for a growing and supportive relationship. This valuable visual contact cannot be achieved by the traditional telephone or even recently by Internet E-mail links.

access to new contact and activities to which seniors may not otherwise have had. autonomy for frail seniors in their homes. opportunities for students to get badly needed experience, particularly in health care of the elderly seniors providing unemployed youth with learning opportunities and professional connections. seniors offering regular conversations in English or French as a second language to immigrants. support and personal connections to seniors care givers, "who are desperate to meet people". The ultimate goal is to have seniors join these intergenerational well- being and recreational programs from their home.

View the paper presented at the 1999 conference on Using Broadband Community Network in Ontario discussing the results of several Videoconferencing pilot projects.

View a page describing the background of PACE 2000