MP for Castle Point, Rebecca Harris, lent her support to Abbeyfield Week 2011 by taking part in a generational skills swap in Parliament this week. Rebecca Harris was joined by the actor and Abbeyfield patron Geoffrey Palmer in Parliament to raise awareness of this innovative scheme, which brings together older and younger people to encourage them to swap invaluable skills. 

The events were spearheaded by Abbeyfield, a not-for-profit organisation which has over 700 houses and 80 care homes across the UK, as part of their annual Abbeyfield week. Abbeyfield has two housing centres in the Castle Point Area; Abbeyfield Hadleigh and Abbeyfield Canvey Island. This year’s theme is AGEnda – a generational skills swap which will see events hosted at a number of their local residential homes to encourage and improve greater understanding between generations. It will also enable residents to have a fun day interacting with young people to swap skills which are currently unknown to each other.

The parliamentary event was held ahead of Abbeyfield Week, which will take place between 10th-19th June.

Rebecca Harris MP said:

“I am pleased to be able to support this innovative scheme to help raise awareness of the importance of skills swaps. Too often we overlook the need for different generations to learn new skills such as IT and cooking. It also provides an excellent opportunity for generations to get together to learn from each other, to discuss the differences in their lifestyles to encourage better understanding.”

Paul Allen, Chief Executive of Abbeyfield said:

“We are delighted that Rebecca Harris MP is supporting this year’s Abbeyfield Week – AGEnda: A generational skills swap. We would like to see more of these generational skills swaps in areas across the country to enable better understanding between different generations. Schemes such as this not only help alleviate loneliness amongst older people, but also teach younger generations skills that they might otherwise have missed.”