O40: Older People for Older People
O40: Older People for Older People is a Northern Europe Periphery Programme Project, which concluded in 2010. Its goals are to assist older adults living in the far-north regions of Europe, where smaller population numbers may make it more difficult to receive social and health services. By working with communities, O40 promotes policies and programmes that allow older adults to stay in their own communities for as long as possible. These include community transportation, social events, community housing, and more. The project’s findings remain in its final report, in order to promote the continuation of programmes, despite the project’s completion. In June 2012, it was chosen to receive a RegioStar 2012, in recognition of its superior work promoting inclusive growth in Europe.
For more information and policy recommendations, visit their website.
Sustainable Learning in the Community
The SLIC project, coordinated by the Austrian Red Cross, aimed to empower older people to become active citizens, encouraging the development of skills and competences through formal and informal learning opportunities and directly linking the concepts of lifelong learning and community involvement.
A two-day competence workshop was developed and delivered involving older people from diverse backgrounds. Participants developed their personal skills profi les and actions plans for engagement in the community through learning and a SLIC handbook was developed for adult learning organisations.
For further details, please see the link below:
ECCB (Diaconia of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren)
For more information, please visit the campaign’s website: www.otevrenoseniorum.cz
Elderly Councils in France
Many French municipalities have senior consultative Council in which issues of interest to older citizens are debated and local policies or projects are discussed or proposed.
Their aims are to:
- Facilitate dialogue between decision-makers and seniors
- Inform older citizens on community projects and allow them to express their view and comments
- Improve older people’s lives within the community and better respond to their needs
Link to Lille’s Elderly Council
WHO – Age Friendly Cities Programme
and social experiences of older people in accessing – and negotiating barriers to accessing – the full range of places and services in cities and urban areas. It lists a number of requirements for age friendly outdoor spaces and buildings including the need for general cleanliness, seating both inside and outside, shelter
from the elements, toilets, smooth nonslip surfaces, wheelchair access, ramps where needed, steps with rails and green spaces.
For more details, please see the following link:
https://www.who.int/ageing/age_friendly_cities_network/en/index.html
Retired and senior volunteer programme – Retire into Action
Activities include ‘grandmentors’ working with teenagers, a programme to help isolated retired seafarers, and organisation of meals for the homeless.
For more information on the competition and awarded projects, please see the following link: https://www.aamee-elac.eu/ELACinenglish or contact Glenda Watt at Glenda.Watt@edinburgh.gov.uk
In 2010-2012, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is supporting 18 pilot projects, 11 in the UK and 7 in Portugal, to plan, test and implement their ideas for new intergenerational activities. The projects represent
a range of models and approaches to intergenerational practice and though each will undertake a unique journey as they fi nd new ways of working, they will all be offered support to improve collaboration with their benefi ciaries. For instance, Thinkpublic, the UK’s leading service design agency, will help projects to work with participants to ensure their activities produce the greatest impact through utilising co-design and
prototyping methods while the Beth Johnson Foundation is offering the programme expert advice on intergenerational practice.
For more information on the projects’ activities, please visit
https://intergenerationall.org/main-page/about/
Campaign to End Loneliness
The Campaign to End Loneliness – a UKwide initiative which aims to create connections in older age – was launched in early 2011 by four partners: Age UK Oxfordshire, Counsel and Care, Independent Age and WRVS. The Campaign will help people to maintain and create personal connections in their later life, draw on research and inspiration from across the UK to offer information and ideas both to individuals and those working with older people, and will deliver projects and campaigns with a range of other organisations.
The role of government bodies is crucial too. Several key policy areas must be approached with loneliness in mind: improving pensioner incomes, housing policy, health and social care, the digital future and supporting people through life’s changes such as retirement.
For more information on the ambitions of the Campaign, please visit https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org.uk/index.php
Intergenerational Program of the department of Older People, Torrejón de Ardoz
The intergenerational activities seek to enhance community participation of older people and advance the mutual knowledge between generations. Within the context of learning throughout life, it intends to show younger generations the importance of maintaining intellectual and physical activity.
Activities include games between the kids and the older people inside the classroom, as well as having both groups visit the exposition of works by the older people in the plaza.
For more information:
TRAMP – Transnational Mobility of Older People in Europe
Working with Older Volunteers in Manual Intergenerational Projects
In the light of recent demographic changes, the EU is currently aiming to foster the potential of older people through active ageing. The TRAMP Project created new opportinities for voluntary transnational involvement for the elderly. Targeting senior citizens with few language skills and/or inadequate financial resources the project has greatly increased the transnational mobility and facilitated the access to Europe for senior citizens.
Two methodical approaches were selected in order to enable and promote communication between participants with different languages:
· uniting them in manual work-oriented jobs on the one hand (informal learning through practical work)
· including children and adolescents in the project work (intergenerational dialogue)
The young participants acted as mediators concerning language-related communication problems. Insofar, the TRAMP project had an intercultural and intergenerational dimension. In addition to the manual and intergenerational project work, joint socio-touristic excursions and encounters with people at the project locations and the corresponding regions enabled access to the everyday reality of European countries.
The final publication “ TRAMP – Transnational Mobility of Older People in Europe – Working with Older Volunteers in Manual Intergenerational Projects” documents the experiences and results of the project. A set of methods for European volunteer exchanges involving older people have been presented in order to support organisations in the planning and implementation of future projects.
To download the document: https://tramp.aulnrw.de/fileadmin/docs/TRAMP_Internet_2010-04-19.pdf
For more information on the TRAMP project: https://tramp.aulnrw.de/index.php?id=23&L=1
