Dr. Lokon wins Gen2Gen Innovation Fellowship
Oxford, Ohio, September 23, 2020—Encore.org today announced that Dr. Elizabeth “Like” Lokon has been selected as one of 15 Gen2Gen Innovation Fellows, a group of the nation’s most talented innovators and entrepreneurs marshaling their best ideas to create and scale intergenerational solutions.
Lokon, a local artist and Director of OMA at Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center was selected from a field of more than 160 applicants. Her project, ScrippsAVID (Arts-based, Virtual, Intergenerational and Dementia-friendly program), pairs older adults living with dementia with younger adults without dementia, based on artistic areas of interest, to co-create paintings, poetry, stories, and music. ScrippsAVID will be user-friendly and meet accessibility requirements for people living with dementia and at the same time, it will be engaging to people without dementia.
“This fellowship will allow me to meet with like-minded innovators to better conceptualize ScrippsAVID. The goal is to build friendships across generations and being creative together. The current pandemic adds to the urgency to develop a virtual application to connect more people,” said Lokon.
Encore.org, a nonprofit bridging generational divides, launched the fellowship to spur and support new ways to bring older and younger people together.
Even before Covid-19, connections between generations were strained. Since then, physical distancing has created more division, disconnection, ageism and loneliness.
“Innovation is often born out of crisis,” says Eunice Lin Nichols, VP for Innovation at Encore.org. “And this particular crisis is inspiring and accelerating the work of innovators who recognize that we can do better together, solve problems together, and create a better world together.”
The 15 fellows selected are bringing generations together to fight social isolation, even the playing field for youth, create stronger cities and more affordable housing, strengthen the multigenerational workforce, and so much more.
Over the next nine months, fellows will meet (virtually) with one another and with experts who will help them advance their work. Each fellow will receive $10,000 and the chance to win a $5,000 Judges’ Prize at the Gen2Gen Innovation Showcase, a virtual live-pitch event taking place in Spring 2021.
The Gen2Gen Innovation Fellowship is funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Eisner Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, the May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, and RRF Foundation for Aging.
Learn more about the fellowship at encore.org/gif
Learn more about Dr. Lokon and OMA at ScrippsOMA.org.
