Generations Connect
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How it works

Two people at least a generation apart meet once or twice a month, for at least six months. A coordinator matches you by hand and checks in with you both along the way.

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An older man in a white cap and a younger man in a tie-dye T-shirt march arm in arm in the sun.
Queer Liberation March, Greenwich Village, 2019

How a pair begins

  1. Apply.

    Mentors and mentees each have a short form, about ten minutes. A coordinator reads every application and replies within two weeks.

  2. A first call.

    Fifteen minutes by phone or video, for your questions and to see whether it’s a good fit.

  3. Orientation.

    Two hours on how it runs, what good mentoring looks like and the five ground rules, with time for questions.

  4. The match.

    A coordinator matches you on what you each hope for and how far you’d travel to meet. Expect four to six weeks from applying to a first meeting.

  5. The first meeting.

    Somewhere you both pick, with the card of first questions if you want it.

  6. Six months.

    You both have your coordinator’s number for anything about the match.

  7. Then keep going.

    Most pairs do. If yours ends, a coordinator helps you wrap it up.

Ways to take part

However you take part, it’s two people meeting regularly, over months. Everything else we do is there to back each pair up.

In person

Meet wherever you like: a coffee shop, a park, a library, a walk.

By phone or video

If getting across the city is hard, you can do it all by phone or video.

By letter

For homebound elders, and anyone who’d rather write than meet. We pay the postage.

Walks

A mentor leads a walk to the places that mattered to them. The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project is one place to start, but the route is theirs. See the walks.

Recorded conversations

If you both agree in writing, you can record your conversations, and we’ll keep a recording only if you both want to.

Gatherings, monthly

A meal for everyone, so the pairs get to know each other too.

Workshops, quarterly

Housing, coming out later in life, HIV across generations, the words each generation uses for itself, and health-care proxies and wills for people who rely on chosen family.

It runs both ways

Mentees teach too: help with a phone or an app, or a recipe.

What we cover

We pay back subway and bus fares to meetings and gatherings, and pay for a coffee or a meal when you meet.

Cost

Free for everyone, always.

Who it is for

If you’re LGBTQ+ and in New York, it’s for you, however you name it and whoever you’re out to.

You don’t need the right words. Each generation has its own, and swapping them is part of the fun.

Mentors, 50 and over

More a long conversation than coaching. You show up, listen, share what you’ve learned about this city and this life, and let the other person make up their own mind. Come as you are.

Apply as a mentor

Mentees, 18 to 30

For the years of figuring out chosen family, work and which traditions to keep. Small, local questions are exactly what a mentor is good for.

Apply as a mentee

Between 31 and 49

Pairs are a generation or more apart, so you’d be one of the people who make it run: hosting gatherings, co-leading workshops and coordinating pairs.

Write to [email protected]

Apply

We’re pairing people now, all over the city. The form takes about ten minutes, and a coordinator writes back within two weeks.

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[email protected] Run and paid for by Rêvasser, a New York clothing brand.