Lowell Sheppard of the Never Too Late Academy, Japan, has joined The 8th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2022) on the panel for “Missing You: Resilience, Renewal and Rebuilding Intergenerational Contact Within Families”.
Additional panelists that have been chosen to discuss this topic will be announced over the coming weeks. Follow the conference website and social media pages (Facebook / Twitter) for more information.
To participate in AGen2022 as an audience member, please register for the conference.
Speaker Biography
Lowell Sheppard
Never Too Late Academy, Japan
Lowell Sheppard is an author, speaker, social entrepreneur, former minister, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, husband, father, long-distance cyclist, and aspiring sailor. Lowell has spent his entire adult life working with established non-government organisations (also known as non-profit societies) and in several NGO start-ups. As Founder of HOPE International Development Agency Japan, Lowell has seen the growth of HOPE-JP to be in the top 2% of charitable organisations in Japan with the coveted “nintei” certified tax-deductible status.
Lowell has served for the last twenty years as an informal advisor to companies and boards in the area of ethical decision making and thought leadership with a focus on community legacy. He has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects.
As an author, his book Never Too Late (Lion Hudson PLC, 2005) was published in four languages and was the catalyst for his latest social enterprise called the Never Too Late Academy of which the flagship course is called “Daring To Realize Your Dream”.
Lowell moved onto a sailboat two years ago in Tokyo and is currently sailing full time around Japan, training for his solo crossing of the Pacific before the age of 70. His voyage is being documented by the History Channel and the pilot will be aired in 2022.
Abstract
Missing You: Resilience, Renewal and Rebuilding Intergenerational Contact Within Families
The year 2020 was a time of resilience, with widespread separation and the suspension of family contact and intergenerational support. Following this was a time of rebuilding and renewal as vaccines for the COVID-19 virus slowly became more available, and as a result, the re-emergence of intergenerational visits and the re-initiation of suspended contacts. As we enter 2022, we begin to create a “new normal” that will allow for the safe return of intergenerational support, visiting, and sharing. While many problems remain, concern for our elders is creating new ways to interact while reducing the risk of infection. Families are reuniting and finding ways to support and share experiences in a post-pandemic world. This plenary session will share the stories of three researchers and their experiences in attempting to maintain and re-establish physical and emotional contact with elders isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their stories express the shared concern, fear, and hope that we all experienced when cut off from our families during the pandemic.
