"ESCAPE: Enhancing Seniors' Competencies for Active Participation in Europe" is a 24 months project, involving 3 different organizations coming from Italy, Spain and France, working in 3 different but interconnectable sectors: senior education, ICTs, Eu Partecipatory Democracy. The Strategic Partnership will start from sharing best practices and, thanks to a participative and inclusive implementation of the project, it will lead to the definition of a new Educational Methodology for promoting senior 50+ E-Participation in EU. Senior citizens, especially those facing economic and geographical obstacles, would like to have their say at local but also at EU level. Their experience would really help the Europe in becoming closer to the needs of its citizens. How to do so? The only way is to use the existing European Partecipatory Democracy Tools (EU Elections, Citizens' Initiatives, Citizens' Dialogue, Petitions, ....) and maybe to propose new ones. This requires a certain knowledge of the use of ICTs. How to help these seniors in taking actively part to the construction of the Future of Europe? The answer is: a new Methodological Approach, where adult education, ICTs and Active Participation merge in one unique Educational output: the ESCAPE E-Book. During the project there will be organized 3 International meetings + 4 Learning/Trainngs activities + local educational activities. About 18 participants per partner (Staff members, educators and trainers) will attend the planned meetings and at least 25 seniors per Country will partecipate in the field experimentation of the new methodology. The final project result (the E-Book) will be available in the ESCAPE website, on adult education resources portals and on Social Media. In this way, every interested organzation will be able to experiment it in its own context, eventually adapt it and bring benefits to its senior learners and, since they will become "digital" active citizens in EU, to the European Union itself.
"ESCAPE: Enhancing Seniors' Competencies for Active Participation in Europe" was a 24 months project, involving 3 different organizations coming from Italy, Spain and France, working in 3 different but interrelated sectors: senior education (UCLM, SP), Digital competences (E-Senior, FR), Eu Participatory Democracy (Fattoria Pugliese Diffusa, IT). After collecting their best practices, the partners worked together on a final deliverable, an E-Book where they give tips and tricks about how to support senior 50+ to actively take part at EU level, by integrating seniors digital education with E-Participation. There is a lack of participation in EU, especially of Senior citizens facing economic and geographical obstacles, as they have less access to information, trainings, Info Days, tools, ecc.... On the other hand, seniors would like to have their say, they need to be heard but they don't know how to do so. One effective way is to use the existing European Participatory Democracy Tools (EU Elections, Consultations, Citizens' Initiatives, Citizens' Dialogue, Petitions, ....); but they can be accessed and practiced only if the user has basic digital skills, as they are mostly online. The main aim of ESCAPE was to define an Educational Methodology to support the seniors in taking actively part to the construction of the Future of Europe. Each partner took care of one aspect of this process, adult education, digital skills and E-Participation and, thanks to the 4 LTTAs, they co-designed a new Approach to Seniors Education. During the 24 months project, there were organized 3 International meetings + 4 Learning/Training activities + local educational workshops. 22 direct participants (Staff members, educators and trainers) attended the planned meetings and a total of 180 seniors participated in the field experimentation of the ESCAPE Approach, in each of the 3 partner Countries. The final project main result (the E-Book) is now available online and freely downloadable from the ESCAPE website, EPALE, ERASMUS+ Project Results Platform and from the project Facebook page, so as to allow other practitioners to use and replicate it, after eventually adapt it to their local context and seniors' needs. More digitally active citizens in EU brings not only benefits to the communities where they live, but also to the European Union itself, as they can actively contribute to the construction of the Future of Europe.