"European Educators for Seniors" is directed to senior people and to teachers, tutors and instructor who are responsible for planning and processing the culture offer for this group. Our main goal is to improve the program for seniors by include in original, innovative activities and workshops which will be introduced them during the periodic meeting of Senior Activity Club. We are going to create in Elbląg a senior voluntary, at first as a group and then by involve other institution and organisation form our region to build the whole senior voluntary system. Project will be run with idea of sharing a good practices and experiences in cooperation with three European countries: Spain, Italy and Germany. In the first stage of project will be participate a group of educators and seniors as far as members of the board from institutions, which participate in. Major effect of our project will be encourage of senior people to try new ways of spending their time and be a part of interesting activities which local institutions and organisations prepared for this group. We would like to involve them deeply in work with their own community (neighbourhood, district, estate) to help use amazing and broad experience and skills. Our intention is to reach out particularly to seniors who had never tried this kind of ways to spend time. By encourage older people to take some actions, we would like to prevent to social exclusion and marginalisation. To achieve our goals, we directed our project to educators and trainers, working with seniors also by creating a program for them. We want to improve their competencies and professional knowledge by offering work in international team and to introduce them a new approach i and trends in senior education, which were not know in Poland before. The group of educators will attend to English language course to provide them a proper level of communication and full access to English-language didactic materials in fields which will be discussed. During our project in every country involved on it take place a short course (4 days). Educators from each institution will share experience and skills in senior voluntary subject as far as finding and select non-standard workshops and lessons during which they will use an original methods of work, connected with tradition and culture of particular country. On the last day of course, guest instructors will lead demonstrational lesson with group of local seniors to enable them an observation of use new method in practice. A small directive group from Poland will visit all partners for 3 days in each place to know to observe the way of running a host institution and other organisations in nearest area. During the project we will arrange two international meeting of working team, consists of representants of all included organisations and institutions and professional seniors educators and teachers. Members of the group will share the experience ins senior education and animation fields, formulate most effective and sustainable ways of work and summarize current edition. Crucial and long-lasting result of project will become increase of level of educational and cultural activities for seniors in all involved countries and, thanks to that, systematic progress of seniors quality of life and educators skills. In CSE “Światowid” will be create a senior voluntary system and Senior Activity Club - an innovative forms in Poland, broaden with the time for the whole Varmian-Mazurian region. Results will be achieved by cooperation in international, creative, friendly and dynamic environment, enabling the draw an experience of European leaders in senior education.
The project named "Elbląg educators for seniors" was addressed to seniors and to instructors developing and implementing a cultural and educational offer. Our goal was to broaden the program which was directed to senior citizens with original, innovative proposals and activities as part of the Active Senior Citizens Club. The intention was to create a network of senior volunteering in Elbląg, gradually extending it to the entire region. We planned activities to be implemented on the level of exchange of good practices in cooperation with institutions from three partner countries - Spain, Italy and Germany. The first phase of the project involved a group of instructors and senior citizens as well as the management of the institutions from the partner countries. The result of the project activities was to encourage older people to participate in activities offered by local institutions and maximize their involvement in activities for their own community using their knowledge and skills. By reaching out, in particular, to people who have not yet taken advantage of out-of-home forms of spending their time, we wanted to motivate seniors to act and thus prevent their defavorization, marginalization and exclusion. To achieve the intended goals, we addressed some of the project activities to educators who prepare offers for seniors. We broadened the skills and knowledge of the animators, enabling them to work in an international team and introduced them to new trends in senior education. Instructors from CSE Światowid also took part in a language course to facilitate their cooperation with educators from other countries and access to English-language materials on topics covered by the project. As a part of the project, we planned to hold several days of workshops in each partner country. Educators from the institutions involved were to share their experience and knowledge in organizing senior volunteering and selecting and conducting non-standard activities with the use of original work techniques, referring to the culture and tradition of a given country. The last day of the workshop the guest instructors were to conduct demonstration activities for a group of seniors, which would be observed by animators from the host institution. That helped them to learn how to apply the discussed forms of work in practice. We were able to implement some of these activities in 2019. In September, October and November 2019 we were visited by instructors from partner countries (details are described in sections C4, C5 and C6), who shared their methods of working with seniors with instructors from CSE Światowid and other organisations working for the benefit of senior people in Elbląg. They also conducted demonstration workshops for seniors. The next stage of the project, i.e. implementation of training activities by instructors from CSE Światowid for educators from partner countries due to the pandemic, we had to carry out in online form (details are described in sections C1, C 2 and C3). Due to the closure of organizations working for the benefit of seniors, it was impossible to conduct demonstration classes with their participation. A total of fifty four educators and hundred and thirty seniors participated in all learning/teaching/training activities, including fifty four with special needs. The steering team from Poland was also involved in the project, which involved study visits to partner countries in order to learn about the functioning of the host institution and (if possible) other organisations working for the benefit of seniors from the partner country. The activities also included two meetings of the international project team. The first meeting, held in February 2019, was attended by representatives of all partner organizations. The next meeting, implemented in August 2021, was held in a hybrid fashion. Despite adversities related to the coronavirus covid-19 pandemic, the group shared experiences, developed the most effective opportunities for joint long-term activities, and summarized the project so far. The most important long-term results of the project will be raising the level of cultural and educational activities in the participating countries, and thus systematically improving the quality of life of seniors and the competence of educators. The CSE 'Światowid' has established a network of senior volunteers and a senior activity club - innovative forms of activity on a Polish scale - which will gradually extend their activities throughout the region. We estimate that so far about five hundred people have been involved in their activities. The effects of the project were achieved thanks to cooperation in an international, friendly and dynamic work environment, which enabled us to draw on the experience of European leaders in senior education.