The project "ICT for e-Synergy seniors'" is a joint initiative of a partnership between three NGOs (Poland - Social Ecological Institute, Sweden - MobilEducation, Turkey - TROY Environmental Association) and a Center for adult education (Austria - SPES Zukunftsakademie). Each partner is involved in beyond formal and informal education in issues related to sustainable development, environmental protection, climate, health and civil society. All partners run as well projects whose recipients are seniors. Therefore, they are familiar with the needs of this group, and with the digital exclusion, which condemns seniors to limited information, passivity, social isolation, exclusion from public life. According to the statistics run by the partners, standard methods of teaching ICT for seniors do not bring the expected results.The main objective of the project is to reduce marginalization and social exclusion by improving the ICT skills of seniors. The aim of the project is to exchange experiences, knowledge, practices, and on this basis to develop innovative approaches and teaching methods that motivate seniors and break the mental barriers in the use of ICT. The innovative pat consists of including content about sustainable development, health, environment and climate, and civic participation to ICT training for seniors.The projects' activities will be attended by (in addition to those from key partner organizations - 15 persons), experts, trainers and educators leading ICT training for seniors (40-50 persons) and participants in local workshops, where the results of the projects will be presented (200-230 persons). The last group consists of seniors from different social circles: in Poland - members of universities for seniors in Warsaw and residents of rural communities in Mazovia, Turkey - farmers in the region of Canakkale, Austria - residents of rural communities in Upper Austria, Sweden - residents of Stockholm.The Project's activities are primarily based on four international meetings (one in each partner country), their goal is to exchange experience, knowledge of best practices and work on the planned results. At the local level, each partner will conduct a workshop for seniors, which will present the results of the project. A total of 15 workshops are planned.The realization of the project is based on the principles and methods established by the partnership:systematic communication between partners, work plan, plan of dissemination, monitoring, evaluation and collaborative problem-solving on the basis of consensus.The final results of the project are:The project web pages www.eosynergy50plus.com, linked with the parties' partners.Vademecum ICT for eco-seniors - a summary of best practices and experiences of the project's partners: the database of organizations, institutions and networks in the subject of the environment; information on networking; information on the use of ICT in everyday life; information on how to create and use blogs. Vademecum (in a pdf form, in English and in the partners' languages) will be published on the project's side and by the partners, and widely available.Blog - a contemporary diary of eco-seniors, its users are mainly senior citizens in Turkey and Poland, where ICT skills are the lowest. Another important result of the project will also be the establishment of international partnerships and the development of a follow up.The results will be incorporated into the partners' curriculum, used in training sessions or lectures for seniors and communicated to stakeholders and companies cooperating with partners, organizations and institutions. It is estimated that at least 40 organizations will use or be inspired by the results of the work (University for seniors, local organizations, organizations leading ICT courses for seniors, seniors clubs, etc.).This circle of people and institutions will be expanded, since each partner has been active in various fields, many of which are related to the subject of the project. The lasting effect of the project will increase the level of knowledge in dealing with issues in the partners' organizations and increase the level of knowledge concerning ICT local participants.
The project 'ICT for seniors' eco-synergy' was a joined initiative of partnership of three NGOs (Poland - Social Ecological Institute, Sweden - MobilEducation, Turkey – TROY Environmental Association) and of the Center for Adult Education (Austria – SPES Zukunftsakademie). All partners work in the fields of beyond formal and informal education in the subjects of sustainability, protection of environment and climate, health and civil society. Everyone works on - among others - projects whose recipients are seniors. The main objective of the project was to reduce the marginalization and social exclusion of seniors by increasing their ICT skills; the second objective was the exchange of experiences, of know-how and of best practices among the project partners. The project was innovative by including content on issues related to eco-development, ecology and civic participation in the teaching information and communication techniques (ICT). The milestones of the project were international meetings, which took place at the headquarters of the partners' organization's (4 meetings), with each having a different topic: Warsaw - non-formal education systems for seniors based on the example of Seniors Universities; Schlierbach - independent and mutual help of seniors through ZeitBank 55+; Canakkale - innovative activation of seniors in Turkey's first Senior Center; Stockholm - ICT tools for seniors and cultivation in hydroponics. Not only the meetings were used to get to know the partners, work on the results, raise the knowledge about their countries (history, culture), but also to get to know the best practices related to the subject of the project and to establish new contacts with other organizations and institutions from the partners' countries. As a result of project activities, 30 institutions and organizations received information about the project and its results. Involved in the project activities were: partners (21 people - staff), experts, trainers and educators conducting workshops and classes (52 people), participants of open seminars (80 people). On the local level, the partners organized workshops and meetings for seniors, in which a total of 906 people took part. The target group consisted of seniors - members of Seniors University (Poland), seniors using the Senior Center in Canakkale (Turkey), seniors from local groups ZeitBank55+ (Austria), seniors of the Finnish minority in Sweden and seniors - residents of Stockholm (Sweden). The partners - using the date analyzed for the project - adjusted the level of content to their recipients, taking into account the level of their education, past profession or social group. The implementation of the project was based on the principles and methods established by the partnership: systematic communication between partners, a detailed work schedule, evaluation and monitoring of the project's progress. The final results of the project are: Newsletters (4) containing information on international meetings, ICT guide for seniors, basic ICT dictionary and database of institutions and organizations dealing with environmental protection, nature, climate and health (developed in each of the partners' languages and in English) and a blog on the websites of the Turkish and Polish organizations on the subject of seniors' activity in public life and environmental issues. All results are available free for the public (pdf) and are posted on the partners' websites, the websites www.ecosynergy50plus.com and on the Erasmus + platform. An important result of the project is a well-established international partnership and cooperation of the partners' and a follow-up project in which partners focus on the use of ICT tools by seniors in health prophylaxis. The results of the project have been included in the partners' educational offers, and are used for trainings, meetings and lectures. The permanent effect of the project is the increase of competences and skills of the members and staff of partnering organizations (substantive related to the subject of the project, organizational related to the implementation of the partners' project) and the increase in the skills of seniors - participants of local workshops in the use of ICT tools.