Meet Me Halfway – Collaborative live talk events on intergenerational communication

Le Va’s research shows that Pasifika families and communities thrive when older and younger generations communicate well, and take time to understand each other. It’s when there is a communication breakdown between the generations that it can lead to distress, relationship breakdowns or even tear families apart.

With an intergenerational approach that is strengths-based and focusses on relationships and the inherent strength of each generation, it is then, we can see the potential to possibly building a more resilient and accepting community.

Live Talks NZ and Le Va collaborated to create a community event accessible both in person but also online with the aim to:

• attract and reach a vast community audience (both live and digital, parental and youth) 
• create an innovative interactive approach to engaging with the community.
• build an awareness around the topic of ‘Intergenerational Communication’ within the Pasifika community.

Facilitated by Live Talks host Fatima Lui alongside a panel of 7 community, youth, and academic leader’s valuable insights were shared from brain development research to personal stories.  Both the live and online audiences were given the opportunity to interact with the panel through questions and comments.

A total of 7683 people connected to the event on the day and an overall reach of 27,062 people connected during the lead up in promotion to actual event. 

Common themes such as better communication, the requirement of respect, the need for deeper dialogue and better understanding around brain maturity in young ones emerged from the audience feedback. Strategies such as storytelling were found to be something that resonated for most regarding the bridging of the generation gap.

Le Va would like to thank our guest panellists: Dr Seini Taufa, Dietrich Soakai, Iaheto Ah Hi, Shana Malio-Satele, Flora Apulu, Dr Sam Manuela and Zech Soakai for your knowledge and time dedicated to the event.

Acknowledgements to our #CollaborACTION partners Fatima Lui and Zeena Khan from Live Talks NZ, and Candy Tusini-Rex and the singing sensation STATIC.

Click here if you would like to watch the Meet me halfway event via Facebook Live.