Our modern way of life has endangered social links; an ageing population and poverty make the situation worse. In some countries, the situation is quite alarming: 1 older adult out of 4 suffers from social exclusion (INSEE, France). Among these people, 300 000 are in a state of "social death". A British Red Cross reseach in 2016 also showed that 32% of 16-24 years old people felt lonely. Loneliness is one of the most pressing public health issues in Europe. It creates a lack of understanding between older and younger people and fear among generations, then ageism. As teachers mainly working in health and social vocational schools, we are eager to build a youth-led intergenerational project that connects. Therefore, our motivation for this project is to promote inclusive societies through art and social fairness as recommended by Europe and national social plans of partners:"Promoting Erasmus+ among every generation by offering activities of education and exchanges of experiences to seniors with view to building and adding solidity to the European identity" (Erasmus+ priority). Our project includes 25 participants aged 12-18 mostly coming from families with low incomes. They rarely have access to culture, are often deprived of open mindedness and lack of interest in learning foreign languages. As a result, vocational students often don't see the point to carry on studies. This Erasmus+ project is the only opportunity they will have to travel abroad, to broaden their horizons and open their mind to common European values and heritage. Co-working with peers and elderly people through chosen artistic activities and scholastic tasks will encourage them to speak English and become more confident. Writing a Handbook of Good Practices will enable them to analyze and assess their professional activities. Pupils will improve their professional and social skills (patience, perseverance, communication, flexibility), share their work and develop cooperating strategies. Therefore, the collaborative work (artistic workshops) and youth-led activities will imply every student increasing the sense of pride, motivation and will draw a better picture of their future jobs. Students will implement their artistic activities during each mobility with various workshops in retirement houses. Such a rewarding experience will create a positive and quality learning environment. Teachers and students' relationships will also improve. The primary benefits of doing intergenerational work is the power of connecting the strengths of older adults and youth in making a difference in each other's lives, as well as that of the community. Social inclusion and networking is at the core of our project. We really hope that this project will benefit the elderly people by stimulating their creativity, fighting against loneliness, improving well-being. Teachers involved are highly motivated to improve their ability to communicate in English and to develop new and innovative teaching methods or materials. Sharing views of different countries on a VET field will provide new teaching strategies. The variety of the schools involved will add a greater value to the project. On a long term basis, this project will increase the involvement in community of educational institutions. Project status reports and schedules will be written for each mobility to keep everyone on the same page by keeping them updated. Communication and interaction between participants will be assured before the mobilities through a Twinspace devoted to the project. The partners of the project agree on the team effort such a project recquires and a genuine communication will take place. Before each mobility, the hosting country will prepare a planning of the activities and skills to be developed (shared curriculum and European key competences). Assessment grids will also be created. The project activities during mobilities will follow the scheme below: 1) Aging sensitivity and empathy training to fight age prejudices. 2) Artistic theoretical input and practical workshops sessions (artists and museums). Project-based learning. 3) Co-working with peers : creating artistic workshops for the elderly people with recycled materials / use of ICT (virtual art gallery) / creation of materials. We will enhance pro-active involvement. Sharing good social-care practices. 4) Immersion in a senior centre : youth-led animations. 6) Evaluation of the of the short term impacts. Each team will gather materials in order to write a "Handbook of good practices" which will be released at the end of the project. It will help schools, students teachers, social carers to build other intergenerational projects. Our results, the Handbook of Good Practices written by the pupils and our teaching resources will be transferred through EPRP and on Open Education Europa Portal to ensure sutainability of the project. Finally, EUROPASS (and ECVT if possible) documents will be used as recognition of mobility.
The project aimed at implementing inclusive workshops for elderly people and trained the pupils expelled from culture or the idea of belonging to the European society. We relied on studies showing loneliness in our societies ("Social participation and social isolation" Eurostat). In 2018, Make.org Foundation and E-Twinning have developed a first programme about twinning between classes from different rural areas and nursing houses (France). Our objectives are inspired by this initiative: to encourage the citizenship of teens to fight against ageism / to promote local approaches / to facilitate the dissemination of good practices. Although comparisons between countries remain difficult, it is nonetheless certain that the isolation of the elderly is a common problem and that it is essential to share our practices. Artistic education and the discovery of a different culture should serve the objectives of cohesion and thus avoid dropping out of the most vulnerable ones. The partners have thus made the choice to place the cultural dimension as a powerful and playful educational tool in schools and with other organisations. The mobilities also aimed to practice English for students in a different context and to open students' minds by giving them the opportunity of living together and cooperate in the same tolerance project. The "good practices guide" is the result of cooperation, reflection on professional practices, an increase in skills. Its aim was to make students question the tools that work or need to be improved (quality approach) and can be reused by European actors. We also wanted to sustain the cooperation between retirement homes and establishments (training periods).
Following the priorities of the Erasmus+ programme, our project was oriented towards inclusion and diversity. All countries face ageing with social, medical and economic consequences. Studies have reached to the conclusion that "social connections are critical in our daily lives" (https://www.elsevier.com) and the isolation caused by the pandemic has complicated the situation in nursing homes. Every teacher involved shared the same citizenship values but as teachers mainly working in health and social care schools, we were probably aware of the dangerous issues of a split society. Our students come from rural lower-class families with no easy access to culture or interest in learning foreign languages. EU countries have pledged to reduce the proportion of early school dropouts (10,2% in 2019, https://education.ec.europa.eu/), our project aimed at fighting social obstacles by attractive peer-learning activities providing self-achievement, developing attractiveness of VET (healthcare workers shortages) and increase future working skills. The lack of language competences remains one "of the main barriers to the participation in europe education, training and youth opportunities" (https://ec.europa.eu). Sharing strategies on an international scale was also a great value for teachers.