In the wake of COVID-19 a lot of young Europeans experience for the first time lengthy lockdowns, border closures, restriction of individual freedom. They face the unique challenge of managing their personal development and transition to adulthood amid more uncertainties than usual. This is why the knowledge and practices of senior citizens are becoming increasingly important to young people: seniors have experienced wars, hardship, and difficult times and know how to cope with stress and uncertainty in life. Their knowledge and practices can aid young peoples’ survival during these unprecedented and challenging times. So therefore intergenerational thinking and action is essential for addressing challenges faced by local communities in times of increasing global uncertainty. But as there is a big gap between generations nowadays, as the quantity and quality of intergenerational dialogue and exchange have decrease in modern European societies. In our project “Suitcase of my life” the 4 involved NGOs from Germany, Cyrpus, North Macedonia and Spain want to bridge this gap and promote intergenerational dialogue and learning through biographic work, art and creativity. And as the arts have proven to be a powerful tool in supporting reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reintegration, we want to use art and creativity to create dialogical spaces and to initiate intergenerational work and a collaborative learning process on eye level. Young and elder people are matched on 1:1 basis, and together they work on individual “Suitcase of my life” (with physical distance if necessary): They share their life experiences, and create objects, photos, videos, audio files, drawings etc. that stand for the various experiences they made. At the end each participant wil have create his own individual "Suitcase of my life" with the support of the matched person. The participants will be supported by project partners through trainings, online tutorials on art and creative techniques and by providing creative art boxes with lots of material and tools. The “suitcases of life” produced by the intergenerational couples will be displayed in traveling exhibitions in Germany, Cyprus, North Macedonia and Spain in order to start an intergenerational dialogue on community level. Through his creative and artist approach, we create new room and opportunities for young and elder people to meet on eye level, to rediscover the joy of learning together and learning from one another about how to stay healthy and safe, and share stories of resilience, strengthen their bonds and acquire new knowledge and skills. This will also help to reduce inhibitions and prejudice between the groups and promote intergenerational respect and solidarity. A joint European virtual exhibition “Suitcase of my life” will be created as well, to reach a wider audience all across Europe. We want to highlight the advantage of bridging the experience, wisdom and skills of different generations are important. The knowledge and experience of the older generation is of great value, and younger generations should be able to benefit from it. Learning from the stories and life experiences of the elder generation and through collaborative art work, young people hopefully will come up the creative and innovative solutions to face the unprecedented risks, and societal challenges Corvid 19 brings. Conversely, the younger generation has skills that it can make available to the older generation. The kind of collective intelligence, shared meaning among generations can help us to build peaceful and emphatic societies. All partner organisations involved are experts in youth work, creative work and intergenerational learning. Together they will produce following results within the 2 years project: a) a comprehensive study which gives us an insight into what are the success factors but also the inhibiting factors for intergenerational learning in Europe b) a train-the-trainer program and a handbook for facilitators to manage a “Suitcase of my life” project c) a training for young participants and an info session plan for senior participants to promote and support intergenerational dialogue and work d) online tutorials on art & creative work as well as creative art boxes e) traveling exhibitions with 20-30 “Suitcases of my life” in all 4 countries and f) a virtual exhibition and gallery In total we’ll have a minimum of: 40 facilitators trained 40 young people trained and involved 40 seniors trained and involved 8 creative art boxes 80 Suitcases of life 4 national exhibitions, shown 2 times minimum in each country, reaching 400 visitiors 1 European virtual exhibition with at least 1000 viewers 100 partner organisations know the results 4000 users/visitors in total will be reached through additional dissemination activities. We hope that a lot of organisations will be inspired and copy our approach, so that in all regions of Europe a new form of intergenerational dialogue will start.
With this project, we wanted to create new opportunities for young and elderly people to meet on eye level, to rediscover the joy of learning together, share stories of resilience, strengthen their bonds and acquire new knowledge and skills. It helped them to reduce prejudices between the groups and to promote intergenerational respect and solidarity. We created a European virtual exhibition to highlight the advantage of bridging the experience, wisdom and skills of different generations. Also, we wanted to collect facts about the benefits and reasons for intergenerational learning in the partner countries, to highlight suitable methods for intergenerational dialogue, learning and cooperation. At the local level, we wanted to increase the visibility of the Erasmus+ program among citizens and to help young people, youth workers and NGOs to open up to new cultures and practices of other countries. On local and on national level we established new network connections, working closer with schools, youth centers, senior homes and organizations, artists, specialists on digitalization etc. and public authorities. We aimed to form a strong international cooperation network, which will use the same methodologies and tools in the future.
In modern societies, the connections between the elder and younger generations have been decreasing, with families less likely to live or spend time together. This trend has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased the gap between the generations due to social distancing measures. At the same time, intergenerational thinking and action is essential for addressing challenges faced by local communities in times of increasing global uncertainty. The idea for the "Suitcase of My Life” project arose from this urgent need to develop new programs and activities to foster intergenerational learning and encounters. To counteract these developments, we matched younger and elderly people on a 1:1 basis. They worked together on individual projects, creating objects that represent their life experiences. By using art, creativity, and storytelling, the project created a common sphere where both generations met, exchanged ideas, and learned from one another while creating something together. The project aimed to cultivate intergenerational relationships that are emotionally rewarding for everyone, enabling the tandems to rediscover the joy of learning together and from one another.