As part of the Erasmus project, Caring & Sharing Communities were to be designed and established in 5 selected pilot communities in the three partner countries Germany, Austria and Italy. To this end, citizen participation processes were to be carried out, accompanied by trained employees of the partner organisations. As part of the participation processes, the process facilitators qualify committed local citizens to develop needs-based, location-specific concepts and to set up Caring & Sharing Communities - e.g. as a citizens' association - and to manage and lead them sustainably. Volunteers and future employees in the Caring & Sharing Communities will receive tailored training for their respective activities, e.g. as interviewers for neighbourhood visits or as everyday companions to support people in their own homes. The aim was to create a multipliable model process that can be used by other process facilitators as a basis for further community processes in rural regions using the (training) materials developed and tested during the project.
The background to the project is the situation of disadvantaged people in rural regions of Europe. There is a lack of shopping facilities, medical/social care, mobility services, opportunities to meet people, advice centres and care and support services. This severely restricts the quality of life of many people. The restrictions become serious when people are not (or no longer) independently mobile. Their ability to participate is extremely limited and the risk of social isolation is high. Demographic change is exacerbating the situation because it is hitting rural communities particularly hard. Changing family structures mean that the potential for family care and support is diminishing. The Kuratorium Deutsche Altershilfe has called for a paradigm shift in the direction of senior citizens' policy if it is to meet the needs of older people and at the same time be financially sustainable. This was taken up in the German government's 7th Report on the Elderly (2017), which focussed on the care and shared responsibility of the local authority - in line with the guiding principle of a caring community.