Unique Preschool Inside a Nursing Home Enriches the Lives of Children and Seniors

By Jenny Zhang on June 25, 2015

Two generations separated by a lifetime of experiences are living, learning, and laughing together at one special preschool located within a nursing home in Seattle, Washington.

Providence Mount St. Vincent is home to about 400 elderly residents, but it also hosts dozens of children who are part of an award-winning child care program called the Intergenerational Learning Center (ILC). Established in 1991, the purpose of the ILC is to enhance the opportunities for kids and people of all ages to have frequent interaction. Five days a week, the young and the elderly come together in a variety of planned activities such as music, dancing, art, lunch, storytelling, or just visiting. Through these shared moments, the children become part of a loving, extended family where they learn more about the aging process, while senior residents enjoy a renewed sense of self-worth in playing and acting as role models for the children.

This unique facility is the subject of Present Perfect, a documentary in which filmmaker Evan Briggs explores the experiences of growing up and growing old in America. According to Briggs, “Shooting this film and embedding myself in the nursing home environment also allowed me to see with new eyes just how generationally segregated we've become as a society. And getting to know so many of the amazing residents of the Mount really highlighted the tremendous loss this is–for us all.”

As Briggs told ABC News, elderly residents underwent a “complete transformation in the presence of the children. Moments before the kids came in, sometimes the people seemed half alive, sometimes asleep. It was a depressing scene. As soon as the kids walked in for art or music or making sandwiches for the homeless or whatever the project that day was, the residents came alive.”

Briggs' film, which highlights many of the sweet, awkward, and poignant interactions between the young and the old at the center, is currently being crowdfunded by a Kickstarter campaign with the hopes of bringing the story to life on screen.

Above photo source: Evan Briggs / Present Perfect