The "Seniors in Action" project is implemented by the "Go outside" Foundation and 3 social partners: from Slovenia, Romania and Spain during 25 months, that is from December 2020 to December 2022. The project is addressed to seniors and to the staff of educational staff of partner organizations - in total at least 40 people will be involved. The idea of the project was born from the need to conduct extensive activities for the benefit of seniors, due to the increasing proportion of seniors in the communities of European countries. The overall goal of the project is to develop civic awareness, involvement and socio-educational activity of seniors in order to use their potential, increase participation and prevent social exclusion of people over 55 years of age. The project envisages carrying out: - 4 international project meetings for a total of min. 8 people from the project management staff, - 1 short training mobility for employees for a total of min. 12 participants of the education team of the project partners, - 4 planned trips of the type "Combined mobility of adult learners" for a total of at least 24 project participants aged 55+, - conducting 184 lesson hours of classes / workshops / educational trainings under all mobility implemented in the project. As part of individual mobility, various issues related to providing support to seniors, their education and shaping entrepreneurial attitudes, engaging in citizenship matters, including volunteering or overcoming psychological barriers and restrictions related to the so-called "third century". The result of the project will be the exchange of experience between both involved partners and seniors participating in activities and mobility, improving multilateral cooperation in an international environment and increasing awareness of the cultural diversity of the Partner countries. The long-term effect of the project will be the organization and conduct of high-quality forms of support for seniors aimed at reducing the risk of social exclusion of this group of people.
The main objective of the project was to develop civic awareness, involvement and socio-educational activity of seniors in order to use their potential, increase participation and and to prevent social exclusion of people over 55 years of age. Specific objectives of the project: - taking effective actions to increase self-esteem and self-improvement of people aged 55+, - learning how to stimulate ingenuity and provoke further action by older people, - learning about innovative methods of overcoming barriers of the “crisis of the third age” - the need to strengthen European partnership. At the same time, the project supported capacity building of people working with older people and practitioners in this field, promoted work with older people and informal and non-formal learning at European, national, regional and local levels; promoted entrepreneurship, volunteering and creative learning among older people.
We applied for the project because we wanted to open the foundation for activities on a wider European scale. We wanted the foundation staff to enrich their knowledge about working with seniors through the exchange of practices and experiences between partners. We turned to similar organisations across Europe, which have similar problems and needs in their activities. By exchanging ideas and developing joint actions, we had the opportunity to inspire seniors to become more socially active in their small homelands. To this end, we have launched an Erasmus+ project for the first time. We have invited partners who have a lot of experience in working with seniors and respond to our needs and who would contribute experience in taking effective actions to increase self-esteem and self-improvement of people aged 60+, methods to stimulate ingenuity and provoke further actions by older people. We wanted to learn about innovative methods of overcoming barriers. "crisis of the third age", promoting non-formal education, volunteering, developing educational programmes, animation activities, working with seniors using the methods used by our project partners. We wanted our staff to have the opportunity to get acquainted with the experiences related to working with seniors and also to get acquainted with the ways of integrating seniors with the local community. While implementing the project, we wanted to develop the level of civic awareness, and socio-educational activity of seniors in order to use the potential, increase participation and counteract social exclusion of people over 60 years of age. In addition, we really wanted to get acquainted with the culture, customs of other countries. Through the implementation of the project, we wanted to present the Foundation and our ideas to other organisations from EU countries, as well as to pass on our knowledge and skills in the field of working with seniors and sensitise them to their needs. We also wanted our employees and volunteers not only to develop themselves by participating in in the project strengthened their belief in their own abilities and had greater confidence in actions to improve their workshop, introduce new methods and forms of work.