Project Context
Low fertility rate and increasing life expectancy are two issues which directly influence a higher number of older people in the total population. The problem of the population ageing affects the modern Europe and remains a major challenge for the economy and social security systems of the European society. An increasing share of the older people implicates the need to undertake actions aimed to engage the potential of the older people in frames of the social and civil activity. Allowing people to stay active as they grow older and continue contributing to society is a key issue in order to tackle the challenge of demographic ageing. Volunteering answers to the need to strengthen older persons' resources and potential for active participation in society. It is recognised as non-formal learning activity, which develop skills, and key competences (communication, social and civil competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, learning to learn).
Goals
The main aim of the project is to strengthen the volunteering activity among the over 50 people. It will be accomplished by international cooperation of the staff of participating organizations, who will be exploring the theme of volunteering by exchanging ideas, knowledge, experience and good practices.
The specific goals are aimed at:
- getting familiar with some basic law regulations and statistic data on the volunteering in the partners’ countries;
- exploring the methods of work with the Over 50s volunteers in partners’ countries;
- learning about obstacles, which restrict the voluntary activity among the Over 50s;
- gaining information about attitude of entities organizing voluntary work towards the Over 50s volunteers;
- promoting volunteering in partners’ countries through dissemination events, leaflet and brochure of good practices.
Target group
The target group consists of educators/trainers/coaches active in the adult education, volunteer coordinators, project managers, practitioners working in the field of volunteering and active ageing, advisors, decision-makers from the participating organisatons. The staff will be exploring the theme of volunteering by exchanging ideas, knowledge, experience and good practices.
Activities
The main project activities will be concerned with:
- preparing the official project website;
- publishing leaflet informing about the project;
- organizing and participating in transnational project meetings - analyzing the project topics, teamwork and active participation in workshops and in discussions;
- developing two questionnaires in order to carry out opinion polls among the volunteers over the age of 50 and those who haven’t volunteered yet and entities being involved in organizing the voluntary work;
- carrying out two survey polls by each partner organization among the volunteers over the age of 50 and those who haven’t volunteered yet and entities being involved in organizing the voluntary work;
- organizing events aimed at promoting active citizenship of the Over 50s people (workshops, seminars, conferences);
- creating and disseminating the brochure containing the descriptions of good practices in the field of the over 50s volunteering in partner countries.
Results
In the course of the project the following outputs will be achieved: project website, meeting minutes, ppt presentations, thematic workshops for the meeting participants, leaflet, questionnaire for the assessment of predisposition to perform a voluntary work, two different questionnaires for opinion polls, set of recommendations about the scope of a comprehensive training course in the field of volunteering, dissemination activities aimed at promoting volunteering in partners’ countries, final project report, brochure.
The expected outcomes include: exchange of ideas and good practices in the field of volunteering, new work experience and international experience (cultural competences) gained by the participants, knowledge sharing among the partners: improved or new knowledge/information/ competences in the field of the Over 50s volunteering and active aging, improvement of language, communication, team – building skills of participants, exchange of ideas with network of local expert groups (local/regional entities involved in volunteering and active aging).
Partners
Voivodeship Labour Office in Katowice – Coordinator, Poland;
E-Seniors Association, Partner, France;Initiatives Network Association (Asociacija "Iniciatyvu tinklas"), Partner, Lithuania; National Volunteer Centre (Önkéntes Központ Alapítvány), Partner, Hungary; Volunteer Centre (Centrum dobrovolníctva), Partner, Slovakia; Volunteer Centre (Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca), Romania
Strategic Partnership “Ways to enhance active aging through volunteering – WEActiveVol” (Erasmus+ Programme) Project number 2016-1-PL01-KA204-026166 Duration: 01.10.2016-31.03.2018
