“In my experience,” says Lord Syed Kamall, “the most cohesive communities are the ones that involve people of all ages. Whether it’s a village, a town, a local borough, a workplace, education, I think the most productive and therefore the happiest communities tend to be those which consciously listen to different life perspectives.”
A lot of that experience is first-hand. During Syed’s varied career he’s been a strategy consultant, a Member of the European Parliament, worked with community projects tackling poverty and social exclusion and is currently both a university lecturer and a Conservative peer – all roles in which, he says, he has constantly learned from people both older and often much younger than himself.
“Older people have that wisdom of age to guide you,” he says. “They don’t lose that, in fact often those years of knowledge and experience become more important the older they get. But younger people’s perspectives are just as important, whether that’s presenting new ideas, challenging old ideas or demonstrating why it’s important that some things need to change. Constant communication between the generations can be very empowering for individuals, but also for communities as a whole.”
All of which is why he’s now a proud trustee of Intergenerational England, a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering connections across generations, sectors, and government to create a more inclusive and resilient society.
“I’m a great believer in communities who want to achieve something, or who might have an issue they need to fix, finding solutions within themselves and their own communities,” he says. “Rather than wait for someone else to sort it out, such as local or national government, or a charity, I’m very passionate about people realising the answers are often right there and they can find them if they come together as a community – which involves different generations.
“So it’s a bottom-up approach, but often communities need support, inspiration or information to do that. Intergenerational England support this is by connecting different groups together, by showcasing best practice, by building a network of projects and contacts and support. We can introduce people to a project or a community organisation somewhere else, and put them in touch to have a conversation. Then they might come back and say, ‘Wow, we could do this ourselves’ but might still not know where to start – so Intergenerational England can support with advice or hold their hand in starting a local community initiative. So it’s very much joining the dots and showing just what an impact an intergenerational approach can have, and helping communities to build those solutions themselves.”
As for his own intergenerational experience, Syed describes his parents as “a huge influence – my dad would constantly tell me that by working hard I could break down barriers and there was no limit to what I could achieve”. But at 57 years old, he says he is constantly learning from younger people – not least those he teaches as Professor of Politics and International Relations at St Mary's University, Twickenham. “My role of course is to teach them, but they teach me, all the time,” he says. “Just through growing up in the world we’re in now, they obviously have a different experience from me, and a different world view from the one I had when I was their age. I am quite laid back, I have always believed in ‘live and let live’ but it is interesting to learn from them what they think is acceptable, or not acceptable, whether that’s actions, or language, or attitudes, and what excites them, what worries them and to have conversations about that. Take the debate over ‘wokeism’ for instance, or how we refer to people different from ourselves, whether that’s because of colour, sexuality, gender identification, disability, mental health, and how some people see that as a challenge to free speech, and that can sometimes be along generational lines. Just bringing people together to listen and learn from each other’s point of view is hugely valuable to us as individuals and as a society.”
That power of an intergenerational approach was underlined to Syed when he was a health minister and Intergenerational England founders Charlotte Miller and Emily Abbott invited him to a conference for their organisation Intergenerational Music Making. “Music is another of those things that naturally brings people of all ages together,” he says. “Music is one of my passions (Syed has played bass and guitar in a blues band) and I was very interested in its benefits to health and well-being. Sharing musical experiences between different ages, whether it’s introducing each other to different artists, or as IMM does, just bring people of all ages to make music together, is a wonderful thing. It’s the same with all forms of art, it naturally removes barriers between people of different ages. You come together for the shared love of music, and music making.
“And of course from IMM grew Intergenerational England and I was delighted to be invited to be involved.”
Now Syed is keen to help Intergenerational England grow – and to get its core message across to as many people as possible.
“In a way, it’s such a straightforward thing,” he says. “Engaging, being interested, genuinely respecting, teaching and learning from people older and younger than you, gives you a far more rounded view of the world.”