> Timeline: from January 2022 to June 2024
> Keywords:gaming; ageism; age discrimination
Purpose
The Erasmus+ project ‘Smart against Ageism (SAA)’ is a gaming tool to raise knowledge against ageism and contribute to develop empathy, tolerance and civil society skills.
The project intends to contribute to restore the image of older people as full citizens and remove the barriers to their social participation. Its overall objective is to strengthen the competences of volunteers and staff of different professions in social and healthcare organisations, older adults themselves, and the broad public in becoming aware of the pervasiveness of ageism in all spheres of society.
Knowledge about ageism and familiarity with strategies to tackle these phenomena open the opportunity to work for more equality and social inclusion. In this context, education must address topics under discussion, help identify stigmatising situations as well as to assess their impact. Responses to counter ageism will promote critical thinking and encourage learners to develop their empathy and acceptance of human diversity.
In the project, education will be provided via the SAA game, an intuitive, easy-to-handle to. It can be used by younger adults to initiate self-reflection and a differentiated view to the diversity of age. To older adults, it can provide support in (re-)developing confidence in their talents, strengths and abilities.
The SAA project aims to create a low-threshold and playful access to the experiential worlds of older adults, especially when suffering from functional restrictions, chronic diseases and disability. This serves to promote a self-reflective and emphatic examination of the topic. Through the low-threshold access to the SAA game, it is also addressing people with lower levels of education.
Expected outcome
SAA works to design:
- an interactive learning platform with a high-quality game,
- a compendium on ageism across the European Union,
- a trainer manual to train users and trainers to the game,
- policy recommendations for a more inclusive society.
The project intends to respond to ageism and show the world through the eyes of people who experience ageism. Awareness is given to contexts beyond the comparatively well-researched practices in the workplace – such as the family and neighbourhood, local authorities, welfare associations and institutions like care homes – and it includes the perspectives of people living with dementia and their relatives.
Partners
- ISIS Institut für Soziale Infrastruktur gemeinnützige GmbH (Coordinator)
- SHINE 2Europe, Lda
- Afedemy, Age-Friendly Environments Academy in Europe
- AGE Platform Europe
- Asociacija Senjoru Iniciatyvu Centras
- Alzheimer Bulgaria Association
- European association for the education of adults
AGE involvement
All partners are responsible for carrying out work within their countries – with EAEA and the AGE Platform being responsible for the European level of activities – as well as the horizontal tasks of quality assurance and sharing and promotion activities as defined in the corresponding sections of this proposal.
Particular responsibilities of the AGE Platform are:
- Desk research on European findings relevant for PR1 (Compendium “Responding to Ageism”), documentation of results, peer-reviews
- Contributions to the learning platform
- Contributions to toolkit, peer-reviews
- Contributions to the recommendations, peer-reviews
- Translations into French and proof-reading of English texts
- Organisation of a joint European multiplier event
- Print of English and French brochures
More information
- Website: https://www.saa-game.eu
- Project presentation leaflet (also available in BG, DE, FR, NL, PT)
- Compendium (in 7 languages)
- Recommendations to decision makers (in 7 languages)
