Resources
Below are free resources for research and learning, taking action in your community, and supporting the collective's movement building activities.
Join our Monthly Book Club
Join us for the Women Making Waves Book Club, a monthly event designed to bring together grandmothers, aunties, elder women, and intergenerational allies committed to social change. Every month at 7 PM Eastern Time, we gather to discuss thought-provoking books that inspire, educate, and empower.
Our selections cover a range of topics including activism, community leadership, social innovation, and the unique contributions of older women in driving sustainable change.
In addition to our discussions, participants can post questions and share ideas about the books in real-time. This platform fosters a vibrant community where ideas can be exchanged, connections can be made, and collective action can be inspired.
Whether you are a seasoned activist, a curious newcomer, or someone passionate about the power of grandmothers in social movements, the Women Making Waves Book Club is the perfect space to engage, learn, and grow together.
Thrive Together - A Changemaking Guide to Intergenerational Collaboration
A roadmap inspired by the wisdom of visionary leaders who are helping transform how we interact across generations. Developed in collaboration with Ashoka, see the full report.
Grandma's Recipes - Project guides
Check out our resource, Grandma's Recipes, community project guides aimed at empowering grandmothers to address things they want to change in their communities easily and accessibly. Each "recipe" draws inspiration from successful projects created by various organizations, ensuring that anyone can become a changemaker with confidence!
Tea for Change - Get our free handbook
Gather your friends for an enriching tea (or coffee!) session and discover the profound movement of grandmother leadership in social change. Click here for our step-by-step guide on how to host an event and begin outlining a program to solve a problem in your community.
Book recommendations for adults
Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon by Paola Gianturco
Whether fighting for the environment, human rights, education, health, or cultural preservation, a new generation of activist grandmothers across the world are using their strength, wisdom, and hearts to make a difference.
Collective Wisdom by Grace Bonney
In this rich and multilayered collection of interviews, conversations, and intimate photographs, over 100 trailblazing women describe the ups, downs, and lessons learned while forging their unique paths.
Grandmothering While Black by LaShawnda Pittman
Pittman explores the complex lives of Black grandmothers raising their grandchildren in skipped-generation households (consisting only of grandparents and grandchildren).
Grandmothers and Grandmothering edited by Kathy Mantas
Grandmothers and Grandmothering: Creative and Critical Contemplations in Honour of our Women Elders, as the title suggests, seeks to pay homage to our grandmothers and their contributions to society.
Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Louise Aronson
Reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, noted Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that's neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy--a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself.
Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble by Stephen Jenkinson
With lyrical prose and incisive insight, Stephen Jenkinson explores the great paradox of elderhood in North America: how we are awash in the aged and yet somehow lacking in wisdom; how we relegate senior citizens to the corner of the house while simultaneously heralding them as sage elders simply by virtue of their age. Our own unreconciled relationship with what it means to be an elder has yielded a culture nearly bereft of them.
Grandmother Wisdom compiled and produced by Ma Creative
Grandmothers Wisdom: Reverence for all Creation is a ground-breaking portrayal of traditional spiritual women and an inspiration for all. The stories are ageless wisdom of earth-based cultures that can benefit all people in today’s climate of disconnection, preparing and opening pathways for the future generations.
Book recommendations for children
Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? by Junauda Petrus
This picture book debut imagines a radically positive future where police aren’t in charge of public safety and community well-being.
Grandmother's Dreamcatcher by Becky R. McCain
While spending a week with her grandmother who, like her is a Chippewa Indian, Kimmy learns to make a dreamcatcher which allows the sleeper to have only sweet dreams.
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña
A young boy, CJ, rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.
Grandma's Tiny House a Counting Story by JaNay Brown-Wood
In rhyming text, when the whole family and guests show up for the big dinner at Grandma's house, it becomes clear that the house is much too small to hold them all.
Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
When the aroma of Omu's homemade stew fills the air, her neighbors arrive, one by one, for a taste until all is gone except for her generous spirit.
Sunday Shopping by Sally Derby
Every Sunday night a young girl and her grandmother go on an imaginary shopping trip using play money and the advertisements in the newspaper as a guide for their purchases.
When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L.B Deenihan
When Grandma gives you a lemon tree, definitely don't make a face! Care for the tree, and you might be surprised at how new things, and new ideas, bloom. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Grandma and Me by Carole Boston Weatherford
With simple rhyming text, a young child reflects on the many reasons they love their Grandmother.
A Grandma's Magic by Charlotte Offsay
grandma’s magic bursts through the door as soon as she comes to visit and can be seen in every wonderful thing she does: playing, exploring, baking, gardening, and in all the many ways a grandma and grandchild connect.
Articles, videos, research studies and more
Papers & Articles
New findings: Is America ready to unleash a multigenerational force for good?
Videos:
Additional social change resources
Changemaking.net: Learn how to affect the systems that are in our way and not just symptoms from Ashoka, the largest network of social entrepreneurs around the world.
AARP Livable Communities Library: A large grouping of FREE publications to help community leaders and residents make where they live more livable for people of all ages.
The Grandparents Academy: GrandparentsAcademy.com is the world's first and only online academy dedicated to helping grandparents grow meaningful relationships and rich legacies with their loved ones.
Changing the Narrative: Ending Ageism Together: Resources from the Changing the Narrative team focused on way to help get everyone on the same page and fight ageism in our societies.
Please let us know at info@grandmothercollective.org if there are other resources you'd like to see!