Seniors For Education is a common project of adult education institutions, who deliver lifelong learning to people at all ages. Challenges which people over 65 years old are facing in their national and local environment have led partners to propose the project addressing social and civic disengagement of seniors.The project idea unites the power of raising awareness campaigns and trainings to contribute to better use of potential of seniors in favour of the local community. On the other hand this idea is integrated in the processes of lifelong learning and continuous personal development of the elderly, with the support of various organizations and institutions. The project address main problems of seniors accross partner countries, i.e.: low participation in lifelong learning, still undervalued life and provessional expeirience of seniors, misconceptions which create negative image of the old age, isolation and marginalization of seniors, outdated basic social and ICT skills, etc. The project envisages development of training programs for seniors and launching the Senior Friendly School campaing which altogether forms a model of cooperation of seniors/senior organizations and schools in order to improve social and civic engagement of seniors in local community and raise awareness of the old age. Project aim is to create by December 2022 innovative opportunities for social activation and civic engagement of the seniors, through offering quality social skills development opportunities in the framework of training programs, preparing the seniors for the role of ambassadors of the established Senior-Friendly School/University campaign and trainers/facilitators or workshops for school kids. specific goals have been defined: 1. Develop basic trainers competences among 60 seniors to support them in establishing long lasting intergenerational connections and in building understanding of the old age in local communities, by delivery of lectures and workshops for school kids, based on on storytelling, utilising seniors’ life experience and already possessed knowledge in various areas. 2. Building positive intergenerational relations between the elderly and youth by developing and implementation with minimum 60 schools the social campaign Senior-Fiendly School, engaging seniors in collaboration with schools in the role of lecturer/workshop facilitator or ambassadors of the campaign. 3. Shaping social competences among 60 seniors, including communication, active listening, empathy, presentation and basic marketing skills, to promote and expand the Senior-Friendly school campaing 4. Shaping seniors’ ICT skills through trainings in use of ICT tools for lectures/workshops delivery. 5. Expanding the offer of seniors organizations by providing them with new training and activating opportunities for their participants. 6. Shaping positive image of seniors and the old age and building potential of the seniors as active participants of social, economic and public life of the society. 7. Improvement 12 adult trainers skills in training delivery for the seniors, organization and implementation of awareness raising campaigns and storytelling 8. Increase access of the seniors to knowledge related to leading trainings for kids, storytelling and Senior-Friendly school campaign through virtual handbook (IO3) Innovation reflects in the model of cooperation between schools and seniors in the form of raising awareness campaing Senior Friendly School, applying innovative Story Seekers method, work-based learning and applying ICT in seniors education. The following target groups will be involved: 1. Project partners staff – 12 persons 2. seniors - 120 4. schools – 60 institutions 5. seniors/representatives of adult education institutions participating in multiplier events, key actors, policy makers, educational authorities etc. - 120 The following outputs are planned to be developed: IO1. Train the trainer course for seniors-trainers shaping basic trainers skills, social skills and ICT skills IO2. Model of Senior Friendly School and training course for seniors-ambassadors of the campaign IO3 Virtual handbook as a follow up educatonal material for seniors Partners will organize jst event to prepare themselves for pilot implementation of products. They also intend to organize 2 dissemination workshops for schools and one for senior organizations to extend the impact of the SFS Capaign. The partnership is a mix of public and private adult education institutions of different cultual bacground which produce the european added value of intercultural cooperation. The project will have direct impact on seniors an shools in local community, enabling increased engagement of the seniors in social an civic life of the society. It wil also infuence partner orgnaizations other actors of adult learning sector. The project has strong potential of transferability to other countries, by using the model of Senior-Fiendly School campaing.
We aimed to create innovative opportunities for social activation and civic engagement of the seniors, through offering quality social skills development opportunities in the framework of training programs, preparing the seniors for the role of ambassadors of the established Senior-Friendly School/University campaign and trainers/facilitators or workshops for school kids. Specifically, we aimed to: 1. Develop basic trainers competencies among 60 seniors to support them in establishing long-lasting intergenerational connections 2. Build positive intergenerational relations between the elderly and youth 3. Shape social competencies among 60 seniors, to promote and expand the Senior-Friendly School campaign 4. Shape seniors’ ICT skills 5. Expand the offer of senior organizations by providing them with new training and activating opportunities for their participants. 6. Shape a positive image of seniors and old age and build the potential of the seniors as active participants of the social, economic, and public life of the society. 7. Improve 12 adult trainers' skills 8. Increase access of the seniors to knowledge related to leading training for kids, storytelling, and Senior-Friendly school campaign through the virtual handbook
We applied for this project because we knew that active ageing is one of the priorities of the EC policies, aimed at helping people to stay in charge of their own lives for as long as possible, and to contribute to the economy and society. In relation to partner countries the observed problems and needs of the seniors in all partner countries are similar across all cultures. In our opinion (based on the needs analysis) there was a need to: - change the pessimistic view of being old among young people. - there are lot of misconceptions related to older people, which influence their social and civic activity. - suport the increase in education and training among oder people was observed (people age 65 -74 – 2% PL, 4% Slovenia, 5% Ireland) - counteract the slow adoption of the new technologies is still observed in adult learning (almost half of EU seniors didn’t use internet in 2017) - counteract ageism and outdated social norms that result in isolation and marginalization of older adults - implement new and creative ways to not only tap into seniors’ wisdom but also to provide opportunities for lifelong learning and meaningful engagement across the lifespan. - improve the outdated basic skills including social skills.