Episode 18: Larry Nisenson on Multigenerational Living and Employee Caregiving

04/22/21 • 28 min

A new study from Generations United, Family Matters: Multigenerational Living Is on the Rise and Here to Stay, finds that the number of Americans living in a multigenerational household with three or more generations has nearly quadrupled over the past decade, with a dramatic increase of 271 percent from 2011 to 2021 (7 percent vs. 26 percent). Our report found that 66 percent of those living in a multigenerational household say the economic climate was a factor in their living arrangement. Among the top reported causes, 34 percent said the need for eldercare was a reason and 34% said childcare was a reason.
In this episode—Larry Nisenson, senior vice president and chief commercial officer of Genworth's U.S. Life Insurance Division—joins Generations United's Executive Director Donna Butts to discuss his own role as a caregiver to his parents, ways employee caregivers can advocate for resources, and how employers can support employee caregivers.
"The best we can do as the advocates for caregivers is try and tell that story and arm the emerging caregiver with all of the tools and help we can provide for them to make that burden as easy as we can." —Larry Nisenson
Resources mentioned in the show:
• Family Matters: Multigenerational Living Is on the Rise and Here to Stay
• GenWorth sites for advocacy: GenWorth.com and CareScout.com

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Episode 17: Ms. Genia, Keith Lowhorne, and Ana Beltran on Kinship vs. Guardianship

Across the U.S., more than 2.7 million children are growing up in grandfamilies — families in which grandparents, other adult family members, or close family friends are raising children.
Generations United, with support from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, created a brief and national comparison chart, Adoption and Guardianship for Children in Kinship Foster Care, which focuses on adoption and guardianship for children in kinship foster care, so that these children can exit foster care into permanent families.
In this episode, Ana Beltran, co-director of the National Center on Grandfamilies, is joined by Generations United's GRAND Voice Network Members Ms. Genia LaRese Newkirk and Mr. Keith Lowhorne .
Ms. Newkirk took guardianship of her niece, Nadia, after becoming licensed as a foster parent. Ms. Newkirk had never met Nadia before and didn’t know about her. They were not offered North Carolina’s Guardianship Assistance Program because the state limits their program to children age 14 and older, and Nadia is about 8 years old.
Mr. Lowhorne, with his wife, adopted three grandchildren from foster care in Alabama: Kayren, about age 7; Kaiser, about age 6; and Harper about age 4.
Ms. Newkirk and Mr. Lowhorne talk about the options offered and not offered to them when they decided to keep the children in their lives out of the foster care system.
Ana offers resources for families in this situation.
Show resources

Adoption and Guardianship for Children in Kinship Foster Care: https://www.gu.org/resources/adoption-and-guardianship-for-children-in-kinship-foster-care/
Generations United: www.gu.org
The National Center on Grandfamilies: www.grandfamilies.org

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Episode 19: Mary O'Donnell and Ernest Gonzales on the Benefits of Intergenerational Programs

A few months ago, Generations United released our latest set of free resources—developed with support from RRF Foundation for Aging—aimed to strengthen and expand intergenerational programs. The publications—Making the Case for Intergenerational Programs, Fact Sheet: Intergenerational Programs Benefit Everyone, and Staying Connected While Staying Apart: Intergenerational Programs & the COVID-19 Pandemic—support the growing field of practice by increasing the knowledge and skills of people working to connect and support older adults, children, and youth.
Mary O'Donnell, president of RRF, joined our Executive Director Donna Butts and Ernest Gonzales, Ph.D., who led the development of Generations United's new resources. Dr. Gonzales is also an associate professor and director of the MSW Program at NYU Silver School of Social Work.
This episode focuses on how the RRF Foundation for Aging came to include intergenerational programs in their funding priorities and what the Foundation has learned about intergenerational programs. The episode also explores what Dr. Gonzales and his research team learned while creating the intergenerational tools.
Other resources mentioned during this interview include: