Women Empowering Wellness: An Intergenerational Faith-Based Wellness Program Profile

ABSTRACT Faith-based organizations offer an opportunity for intergenerational relationships. Two of the major barriers in initiating these relationships include (a) providing a structured environment for individuals to first communicate and (b) overcoming the initial anxiety of interacting with someone from a different generation. This paper describes the design and implementation of Women Empowering Wellness (WEW), a faith-based intergenerational program. WEW allows college-age females and older women to interact in a structured environment for eight-weeks. Several benefits were observed including formed relationships/sisterhood, personal sharing/open dialogue/vulnerability, and learning about the other generation. Given the testimonies of participants, WEW was beneficial, enjoyable, and meaningful to both younger and older women and has the potential to be implemented in other faith-based organizations.