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HOW INTERGENERATIONAL ORGANIZING STRENGTHENS MOVEMENTS  
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Annie Faye Cheng
March 19, 2025
Prism
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_ Combining the wisdom of experience with the energy of youth can
create powerful, lasting change. _

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While New York City has always been a reliable win for the Democratic
Party, comparisons [[link removed]] between
the 2020 and 2024 presidential election results reveal the striking
influence of the Republican platform on historically blue
neighborhoods. In closer breakdowns by borough, Queens stood out,
taking 37.3%
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the Republican vote in 2024 compared to 26.8% in 2020. 

Demographically, Queens has a “majority-minority” population of
which nearly half are immigrants. Of all the boroughs in New York
City, it also has the largest recent increase in older adult
residents. These outcomes reflect both broader historical and recent
national trends of increased conservatism among older voters. However,
New York City’s progressive and grassroots organizations are seeking
to challenge this trend through intergenerational organizing, focusing
specifically on labor, housing, and community activism. Many of these
efforts began at the start of the pandemic; at their foundation is an
earnest commitment by organizers to build meaningful relationships and
intentional strategies to make community engagement more accessible
and relevant to the lives of their neighbors. 

Many politically left-leaning organizations focus their energies and
resources on courting Gen Z and millennial stakeholders, rather than
integrating an older voting base. Prism spoke to several groups in New
York City about engaging older residents by providing tailored
services, political education, and opportunities for reciprocal
education between youth and elders, among other critical organizing
efforts. 

Farihah Akhtar, the lead organizer at CAAAV: Organizing Asian
Communities, pushes against the sentiment that elders—and elder
immigrants in particular—are shifting to the right.

“People think these immigrants with backward ideas are voting for
Trump, but actually everything that’s put out in the media,
everything on social media, these institutions in our city are moving
to the right,” Akhtar said. “The terrain has shifted to the
right.” 

This new terrain under the Trump administration, which includes cuts
to Medicaid and food assistance
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as well as serious threats
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Social Security, means that many elders will be left behind.

“We need more power”  

CAAAV consists of two primary organizing projects: one working with
youth and elders in Manhattan’s Chinatown and another focused on
working-class Bengalis in western Queens. Akhtar told Prism that
organizing around issues related to housing has proven to be a
powerful pathway to engage entire families, with grandparents,
in-laws, parents, and children often participating in the same
meetings. The goal of this intergenerational organizing is for
communities to arrive at a deep investment in solidarity and class
alignment. 

“We love community as a beautiful thing,” Akhtar said. “But we
have clarity that we need more power. We’re trying to win material
changes in our society and increase power and decision-making.”

Akhtar underscored the importance of reciprocity and education in
building an age-inclusive, culturally inclusive space. This is why
CAAAV’s organizing combines theory with practice, emphasizing
political education around capitalism to help workers of all ages
understand how class shapes their lives. Akhtar told Prism that when
discussing strategy, the organization’s older resident organizers
often reference history and tactics used by unions they were a part of
in their home countries. Meanwhile, youth who are more comfortable
strategizing in English tend to thrive in smaller breakout groups and
often discuss their experience growing up in multiracial spaces. This
dynamic has shaped anti-racist practices within the organization,
while also allowing youth to share their experiences with elders who
hold real pain regarding their treatment as immigrants in the U.S.

The unique needs of the organization’s member-leaders shape many of
CAAAV’s structural investments. The organization provides child
care, interpreters, and meals at meetings, and organizers consider the
timing, place, and local conditions to maximize attendance.

CAAAV underscored the importance of direct engagement and empowerment
of member leadership. The organization hosts an annual training under
the banner of CAAAV Leadership Assembly to Win (CLAW), which brings
together member leaders who participated in campaigns throughout the
year. CLAW also goes a long way in bridging the experiences of its
working-class Chinese and Bengali members, which helps build
solidarity between the groups. 

One of CAAAV’s most useful exercises to overcome linguistic and
cultural differences is its spectrogram activity, in which
participants physically place themselves on a spectrum of “strongly
disagree” to “strongly agree.” With a visual representation of
where people stand, leaders and participants discuss their stances,
creating a powerful outlet for political conversations. 

Meeting material needs  

Each of the organizations Prism spoke to acknowledged the importance
of resource provisions around language access, child care, and meals
to reduce barriers to entry by making community engagement more
convenient and appealing. But not every organization has the resources
to achieve goals around accessibility, especially groups that are
entirely volunteer-run. Volunteers and funding dollars are drying up
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mutual aid communities, making matters more difficult for these groups
and limiting capacity even further. 

Across the U.S., conditions that were already dire for low-income
communities worsened during the pandemic, which led to the creation
and mobilization of new mutual aid groups that continue to operate
today. This includes western Queens’ Sunnyside and Woodside Mutual
Aid [[link removed]] (SWMA), which has performed weekly food
distributions since it was founded by a group of neighbors in 2020. 

The group’s core logistical organizers are mostly English-speaking
adults in their 20s and 30s, though their client base and most
consistent volunteers are mostly older immigrants who exclusively
speak languages such as Mandarin, Bangla, Arabic, and Spanish. An
older Egyptian woman known only as “Susie” is the person that
everyone in the food distribution line looks to for guidance,
according to SWMA organizer Jordan Greene. Over time, more clients
have become volunteers. Some hand out food, while others unload
delivery vehicles or help pack up after distributions. 

Greene told Prism that the group’s biggest challenge is language,
posing a significant obstacle to meaningful connection. 

More recently, SWMA has welcomed new recruits with diverse language
abilities. Organizers suspect that President Donald Trump’s
inauguration sparked more interest in the mutual aid group’s
efforts. Greene said new volunteers were desperately needed but that
the group also wants to make sure they’re not overburdening
recruits. 

“We’re a little more in a bubble than I’d like to be,” Greene
said. “We’re wanting to collaborate with folks more … but just
making this happen every week can be a lot.” 

Still, SWMA has found a way to navigate these challenges and many
others with grace and agility. EJ Mara, another SWMA organizer,
recalled when the group’s largest food delivery failed to make it to
the distribution site. A Spanish-speaking client turned volunteer,
Alejandro, communicated this information to others in the food
distribution line. The information worked its way through the crowd as
Bangla, Spanish, Mandarin, and Korean-speaking clients conveyed the
information to others. It started with Alejandro, who helped
communicate the disappointing news that there would be less food to
share that week. Because of the embedded sense of trust and
camaraderie nurtured over time, the distribution ended up going
smoothly. 

Among the organizations Prism spoke to, a primary focus was meeting
the material needs of elders, and as SWMA has learned, nothing is more
material than food. 

Nationwide, older adults are at higher risk of food insecurity,
especially if they are disabled, do not own their home, and are not
married, according to
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National Council on Aging. In New York, a state
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nearly 12% of older adults report experiencing food insecurity, food
distribution is a core means for organizations to connect with elderly
residents. 

Prior to 2020, Woodbine, a volunteer-run experimental culture hub
based in Ridgewood, Queens, did not have a formalized food
distribution program. 

“At first, we thought it was responding to the pandemic as a
biological phenomenon. … And now it feels more obvious that there
was always a lot of food insecurity in the neighborhood anyway, even
without the pandemic,” said Woodbine organizer Matt Peterson.

The organization’s food pantry remains active today, and, according
to Peterson, it’s the primary way that Woodbine connects to elderly,
immigrant neighbors in the surrounding blocks. 

“The hope is that people get interested in the other kinds of
programming. They come for one thing, then get curious about the other
things,” Peterson said. “We’d imagined ourselves as a political
or cultural hub, but that meant a more narrow population of people in
their 20s and to early 40s. Whereas now it has shifted into being more
of a neighborhood, community-based thing.” 

Woodbine events, projects, and programming are organized by a
collective of smaller working groups, which facilitate the group’s
hackerspace, seed library, sports leagues, art classes, and other
offerings. Sometimes these working groups fizzle out due to lack of
engagement, Peterson said, but a constant feedback loop
and adaptability of their grassroots operational structure allows
Woodbine to adjust to changing community needs.

Woodbine just signed a 10-year lease extension for its physical space.
One of the organizers’ main goals moving forward is to further
develop their programming that currently serves two primary audiences:
locals within walking distance, and broader New York City metropolitan
residents who are drawn to their film screening series, lectures,
poetry readings, and more.

After seeing the popularity of its first kids’ arts and craft event
and the success in attracting more parents and grandparents, the
center worked to establish more consistent family-friendly
offerings. 

“Social service and social change”

New York City has a long history of locals serving their neighbors. In
1886, a New Yorker created the nation’s first “settlement house
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reformist movement to help urban immigrants access vital social
services. Though the political landscape has shifted since the
Progressive Era, the 37 settlement houses that still exist today have
evolved their approach to better fit 21st century values and needs.
This includes Queens Community House (QCH), focused on empowering
locals. 

“Our model is one that marries social service and social change
work,” said Anna Dioguardi Moyani, QCH’s director of community
building. QCH caters to a multigenerational population through
services ranging from youth tutoring and eviction prevention to
medical transport and adult day programs.

During the height of the pandemic, QCH saw firsthand how the needs of
community members varied by age and how sometimes those needs were in
opposition, depending on age differences. Older adults in the
community didn’t want to risk being around children, for example,
while others were distrustful of vaccination requirements and masking
obligations. Dioguardi Moyani said that navigating the challenges
required understanding where elders were coming from.   

“For intergenerational organizing, we need to acknowledge that
people have had very different life experiences and they’re bringing
all of that with them to any conversation, listening session, or
discussion they’re having,” Dioguardi Moyani told Prism. 

To reduce risk and maintain the ability to organize and connect with
one another, QCH shifted its events outdoors in partnership with the
Department of Transportation’s Open Streets
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First launched during the pandemic, the initiative was codified in the
spring of 2024 to “transform busy city streets into open public
spaces.” 

But not everyone was on board.  

Contention arose between parents of young children who valued the Open
Streets and older constituents who valued the presence of open lanes
for car traffic. Before long, some older community members refused to
attend QCH events as an informal boycott of the policy.

Dioguardi Moyani acknowledged that working in community has its
challenges, so the work must be done with the ability to compromise.
QCH decided to move events outside a school adjacent to the Open
Streets avenue, which helped encourage seniors to attend. Later,
community potlucks and other events brought people of all ages and
from all walks of life together for informal and formal relationship
building. Over time and with continuous exposure, many seniors came to
see the benefit of the Open Streets program and eventually supported
the initiative. 

QCH offers a tailored approach to programming, including technology
classes geared toward senior students that often become entry points
into the larger umbrella organization. QCH’s “E-Basics Weekend”
classes connect young adult volunteers to elderly neighbors for tech
support. The classes were scheduled to be mindful of volunteers’
workdays and senior citizens’ preference for early evening
programming. 

When groups within QCH collaborate, it shows the real beauty and
challenges of multigenerational organizing. For example, two of the
organization’s LGBTQIA+ groups, Queens Center of Gay Seniors and
Generation Q, decided to co-organize the annual Pride Parade in
Jackson Heights. Diguardi Moyani said that initially there were
misunderstandings and disagreements concerning issues like gender
identity and the use of gender-inclusive language. The two groups also
didn’t seem to share political priorities.  

But through open communication, transparency, and sometimes difficult
discussions, there was reciprocal education between young and old. 

“Over time, as they do more exchanges and programming together,
there’s been a lot of cross-education,” Diguardi Moyani said.
“Older adults schooling younger people about their experiences of
fighting for LGBTQ rights on the forefront of those movements in the
’70s and ’80s, talking about AIDS and what it was like to live
through that. On the other side, younger people who are schooling
older adults about the movement to expand the language, education
around pronouns and different identities emerging, the evolution of
LGBTQ [identities], and their experiences in the current world.” 

Not fully aligned 

In New York City and across the U.S., conditions are worsening,
especially for elders. The city’s embattled Mayor Eric Adams, a
“MAGA Democrat
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Trump administration’s war on immigrants and the working poor
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shows “the blatant alliance of the capitalist class against the
interests of the working people and the oppressed,” Left
Voice reported
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As NYC’s unpredictable mayoral race
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up, housing has been a primary concern
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voters, and many are hoping for a rent freeze. Rents in New York City
have risen 5.6% as rates in other major cities decrease. 

Akhtar of CAAAV told Prism that it’s also worth noting the
increasing influence of real estate developers in reshaping NYC
neighborhoods. 

“We see the real estate industry as a right-wing force,” Akhtar
said. “Corporate America is very much in lockstep with parts of the
right wing.”

Trump, of course, first gained national prominence as a real estate
developer in New York City, where the Trump Organization’s real
estate entities were known for housing discrimination and 
[[link removed]]harassment
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By making these kinds of connections clear and through
intergenerational organizing and exposure to diverse perspectives,
organizations like CAAAV are shifting the stances of some of their
members. This includes some elder immigrants who voted for Trump in
the past. 

“We successfully contested for them, and they haven’t been
consolidated into the right,” Akhtar said. She notes that some
members have even expressed regret over voting for Trump. Akhtar told
Prism that frank conversations rooted in trust can go a long way to
counter media literacy issues common among older voters and the
misinformation that targets them, especially on platforms like WeChat,
WhatsApp, and Facebook.

As a nonprofit organization, CAAV doesn’t focus on electoral
politics, but its sister organization CAAV Voice does. Communications
Director Irene Hsu told Prism that broadly, the organization remains a
place where people can access information, strategize, and work
through an analysis of power. 

“Our goal is to organize people who may not be fully aligned on
every single thing,” Hsu said, “but who form really important
blocs in our city.”

_Annie Faye Cheng is based in Queens, New York City. Her work focuses
on the intersection of race, food and power. Connect with her on
Instagram at @achg.kitchen._

_When Prism was established in 2019, it was because we knew that the
status quo media landscape wasn’t reflecting enough of the
truth—and it wasn’t bringing us closer to our vision of collective
liberation and justice. We saw a different path forward, one that we
could forge by disrupting and dismantling toxic narratives, uncovering
the hard truths of injustice alongside the people experiencing the
acute impacts of injustice, and providing a platform for people of
color to tell their own stories, and those of their communities._

* Asian Americans
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* Chinatown
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* Queens
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* New York City
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* intergenerational organizing
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* community organizing
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