Motto: We must restore the honour of experience, wisdom and intergenerational dialogue. (Frank Schirrmacher) Background: The „population ageing process”, characterised by an increase in the age of the population and a decrease in the number of children born is a common phenomenon throughout Europe. The most affected area on the continent is Southern Europe, which is hit hard by the migration of young people. Our partners have been chosen from this area. In recent years, more and more young Hungarians have left small towns in the countryside for larger cities or migrated abroad looking for job opportunities, which have exacerbated problems such as the accelerated aging of the population. So far Hungary has responded very slowly to this process. Thus reflecting on and addressing the issue has become an urgent duty of our cultural institutions and our partner institutions. Main aims: - to prepare the participating institutions for working with and engaging the elderly in a structured and conscious way - to acquire effective methods of discovering, raising awareness of and transmitting the values of older generations - to develop and expand the competences of our cultural professionals to enable them to: - engage with the elderly, - to motivate the elderly to take advantage of non-formal learning opportunities - to apply the methods of experiential learning Long term goals: - to develop a new strategy for collaborating with older people - to develop an own method that reaches the elderly in general not only those with greater cultural interest Methods: The organizations would like to implement an exchange of good practice that allows Hungarian partners to draw on the experiences and methodological knowledge of foreign professionals and prepare their employees for the work in the field of teaching the elderly. The HUN partners already have experience obtained while applying cultural, primarily museum related themes and methods during events organized and implemented with the elderly, and they are ready to share them. During the exchange, we are primarily interested in non-formal learning methods, which enable the members of the target group to learn more about themselves, and to engage in active recreation and enjoy themselves. In our work with older people the object is regarded as a tool (and a common language), that awakens the memory which is the transferring material that helps to bring the hidden values to the surface. The members of this age group possess various kinds of cultural treasures, the existence of which most of them are not aware of. Through the present project, we wish to raise the awareness of the elderly that the experience and knowledge they carry has great cultural value, to identify these values, to organize them in a system and to present and explain them (e.g. in the form of exhibitions, virtual exhibitions) to the community and the future generations. Digital technique is an important tool in achieving our goals, which will be introduced to the participants during the preparation for the joined exhibitions and the connecting events. The joint realization of exhibitions has a huge community-building power as during the process your treasure becomes our treasure. Museologists add a lot to the new method. Their knowledge enables them to define values because they work in vaults of collective memories and experience (museums). Participants: 3 Hungarian cultural institutions, a Portuguese university for seniors, a Greek, a Spanish and an Italian NGO participate in the project with a total of 29 professionals involved, complemented by the members of project management, other professionals and members of the secondary target group (adults over the age of 55). The Hungarian participants have rich experience to share; the foreign partners have good practices. Activities: 2 personal partner meetings, 1 videoconference and 5 LTT activities are planned which are followed by feedback and, if necessary, correction. The partners perform various tasks in their own country, carry out dissemination activities, and have a local project meeting once a month. A website will be created at the beginning of the implementation period and it will end with an exhibition. Methods used in the activities: exchange of experience, discussions, collection, interactive group work, museum gerontagogy, training, participation in art and other activities and game methods Expected Results and Effects: Development of methodological knowledge and tools, adaptation Better understanding of age-specific characteristics Learning from the solutions of other countries Professional renewal, development of cultural and educational competencies New professional partnerships Development of foreign language competences Long-term positive effects: Creation of complex methods Development of a new methodology to increase the activity, self-esteem and appreciation of the elderly Enhancement of the institution's role in society
The museum in Kunszentmárton decided - together with the other two cultural institutions in the region - to learn from those in the more experienced southern European region. We will learn how we can help improve the quality of life of the elderly with our own tools and methods and by using the good practices, ideas and methods we have learned. How we can meet the needs of the elderly. Furthermore, how to work together with voluntary helpers, social services, local authorities, the civil sphere and other possible partners in order to achieve our goals. The Hungarian partners wanted not only to learn, but also to share their own experiences of their work with the elderly in the cultural and museum field. To teach what an elderly-friendly institution is like, as well as what role they play in preserving and passing on the memories that are important to the community, the common treasure of all of us, kept by the elderly . The coordinator was also motivated by specific needs, and after completing their new EU TOP tourism investment, new spaces were created that would accommodate the elderly. This has made it necessary to prepare to work with the older generation.
We were motivated to submit this application by a fundamental social problem, which primarily affects the Hungarian countryside, and in our case, our own region. Cultural institutions must always keep pace with changes in their immediate and wider environment. In the small towns of the Great Plain, we have been witnessing a change in the age composition of the population for many years. For various reasons, the proportion of young people is decreasing and the number of the elderly in the municipalities is increasing. The problem of ageing small towns is a serious challenge that needs not only to be discussed but also to be addressed quickly. We have assessed our experience as cultural professionals in working with the elderly. The time spent on the elderly and the projects we have carried out with them have clearly not been properly utilized, mainly because we have only occasionally worked with older people. The greatest challenge facing our colleagues today is therefore to work and care for the elderly in a much more focused, conscious and organized way, using methods from the cultural fields in addition to those of andragogy, geronto-andragogy. To this end, we all need to expand our methodologies and develop our competences.