Generations Growing Together

GENERATIONS GROWING TOGETHER: METHODIST VILLAGE TO OPEN ARKANSAS’S FIRST INTERGENERATIONAL EARLY LEARNING CENTER

Innovative Fort Smith project will bring children and older adults together while creating a new model for senior living, early education, and workforce development

FORT SMITH, AR (September 1, 2026) What if a senior living community could also become a place where children take their first steps, discover their first books, plant their first gardens and develop some of their first friendships with people nearly a century older than they are?

That is the vision behind The Village Early Learning Center, an innovative early childhood education center being developed on the campus of Methodist Village Senior Living (MVSL) in Fort Smith. Believed to be the first intergenerational Early Learning Center of its kind in Arkansas, The Village will intentionally bring young children and older adults together as part of the children's educational experience and residents' daily lives.

Click here for the full press release.