Low fertility rate and increasing life expectancy are two issues which directly influence a higher number of older people in the total population. The problem of the population ageing affects the modern Europe and remains a major challenge for the economy and social security systems of the European society. An increasing share of the older people implicates the need to undertake actions aimed to engage the potential of the older people in frames of the social and civil activity. Allowing people to stay active as they grow older and continue contributing to society is a key issue in order to tackle the challenge of demographic ageing. Volunteering answers to the need to strengthen older persons resources and potential for active participation in society and can be highlighted as a way to contribute to social inclusion and integration. But still, due to the perception on volunteering and lack of culture on community involvement among seniors, they remain uninvolved in volunteering opportunities. Therefore, the main aim of the WEActiveVol project is to strengthen the volunteering activity among the over 50 people. It will be accomplished by international cooperation of the staff of participating organisations, who will be exploring the theme of volunteering by exchanging ideas, knowledge, experience and good practices. The target group consists of educators/trainers/coaches active in the adult education, volunteer coordinators, project managers, practitioners working in the field of volunteering and active ageing, advisors, decision-makers from the participating organisatons. Partnership on the European level will enable to share good practices around Europe and to get familiar with new ideas and approaches on how the volunteering could be more efficient amongst the over 50 people.The main project activities will be concerned with: preparing the official project website; publishing leaflet informing about the project; participating in transnational project meetings; developing two questionnaires and carrying out two survey polls; organizing events aimed at promoting active citizenship; creating and disseminating the brochure containing the descriptions of good practices in the field of the Over 50s volunteering. The project will apply the following methodology and approaches: analyses on statistic data, legal frameworks reviews, 2 survey polls, transnational partner meetings, forming groups of local experts by each national team.In the course of the project the following outcomes will be achieved: project website, meeting minutes, ppt, thematic workshops for the meeting participants, leaflet, questionnaire for the assessment of predisposition to perform a voluntary work, two different questionnaires for opinion polls, set of recommendations about the scope of a comprehensive training course in the field of volunteering, dissemination activities aimed at promotion of volunteering, final report, brochure.The expected impact on the participating staff is on the one hand, a better understanding of the situation of people aged over 50, and on the other hand optimized and more target group oriented competences and knowledge about the older adults volunteering, notably how to recruit and train volunteers more efficiently. The participants will gain new insights about the possibilities involving 50+ citizens into volunteering activities, as well as new know-how on how to improve the 50+ competences. The project represents a great opportunity to consult approaches used by other organisations to find out the best ways to mobilize seniors. From the perspective of the partner organizations, the project will have multiple benefits. First, it will help to increase their visibility in the local community and to strengthen the position of active actors supporting the development of volunteering. The project will enable further and more strengthened partnership with local organizations, as each partner will cooperate with different relevant stakeholders in his country (group of local experts). It will be an opportunity to discover and exchange new methods and practices between the local partner organizations as well as to ensure the wider scope of dissemination activities. The project will generate impact through the exchange of expertise and good practices among the involved partners. Project implementation will potentially have impact on long-term in a sense that many social problems related to ageing can be prevented and immense amounts of productive resources can be saved in the future if the appropriate lessons are learnt and proper strategies promoting the involvement in lifelong learning activities among older population are applied today. The project is a valuable contribution to address the urgent European problems of an ageing population and the need to allow people to stay active and to strengthen older persons' potential for active participation in society.
The project ‘Ways to enhance active aging through volunteering – WEActiveVol” responded to the current needs to undertake active actions in relation to the challenges of an ageing society. It was about keeping people over 50 in activity and using their potential in the area of social and civic activities. Volunteering is a great example of how to effectively use and strengthen the potential of people in their mature age. In addition, volunteering is recognized as an example of non-formal learning activity, which develops skills and key competences (communication, social and civil competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, learning to learn). Unfortunately, due to the insufficient promotion of volunteering and lack of habit on community involvement among seniors, volunteering in this group still remains an under-utilized form of activity. Therefore, the main aim of the WEActiveVol project was to strengthen volunteering among the over 50 people. The other goals were are aimed at: 1)getting familiar with some basic law regulations and statistic data on volunteering in the partner countries; 2)exploring the methods of work with the Over 50s volunteers; 3)learning about obstacles that may limit volunteering among the Over 50s; 4)gaining information about attitude of entities organizing voluntary work towards the Over 50s volunteers; 4)promoting volunteering in partner countries through promoting events, leaflet and brochure of good practices. The partner group of the project was composed of 6 organizations from the following countries: Poland, France, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania (mainly non-governmental organizations and public entity). During the eighteen – month long cooperation, the staff of the partner organizations was exploring the theme of volunteering by sharing ideas, knowledge, experience and good practices. This group consisted of educators/trainers/coaches active in the adult education sector, volunteer coordinators, project managers, practitioners working in the field of volunteering and active ageing, advisors, decision-makers from the participating organizations. Partnership at European level enabled to share good practices around Europe, and to get familiar with new ideas and approaches on how to empower volunteering amongst the over 50 people. The project activities were concerned with: preparing the official project website www.weactivevol.eu; publishing the information leaflet; participating in the transnational project meetings; developing two questionnaires and carrying out two survey polls in partner countries; organizing events aimed at promoting volunteering and active citizenship; developing and disseminating the brochure containing the descriptions of good practices in the field of the Over 50s volunteering. Thanks to the project the following results were developed: project website, meeting minutes, ppt, thematic workshops for the meeting participants, leaflet, questionnaire for the assessment of predisposition to perform volunteering, two different questionnaires for opinion polls, set of recommendations about the scope of a comprehensive training course in the field of volunteering, dissemination activities aimed at promoting volunteering and active citizenship, final report, brochure with good practice examples. The project impact on the participating staff was concerned with, among others, acquiring knowledge and competences that enable to increase the participation of people in their mature age in volunteering (especially in the field of recruitment and training); learning about new solutions on how to improve the 50+ competences; exchanging ideas and good practices in the field of volunteering of people from this age range. On the other hand, the impact of the project on the participating organizations was primarily related to increasing their visibility at the local level and to strengthening the position of active actors supporting development of volunteering. The project enabled to establish and to strengthen the local partnerships, as each partner organization cooperated with different relevant stakeholders in own country (groups of local experts). The project impact on organizations also referred to the exchange of good practices among the involved partners, the gaining of knowledge about approaches and solutions used by other organizations to find out the best ways to mobilize seniors. In the long-term perspective, the project will contribute to the interest of mature adults in volunteering. In this way, the possibility of strengthening and using their potential in frame of the social and civic activity will be ensured. And also, the promotion of active aging and development of skills and competences will be provided. The indicated elements are part of the catalog of activities that are to solve the problem of the ageing of society through creating a framework for active participation of people over 50 in society.