They learn to surf the net, cook and attend inter-generational workshops - as part of projects implemented under the Programme for Social Engagement of the Elderly (ASOS).

Jędrzejów. The room with computer workstations is full with course participants. They are the senior citizens who participate in the e-SENIOR 2.0 project - the elderly want to be up to date with the technology and possibilities offered by the Internet. The courses are taught in small groups of ten people each, so as to be practical. Senior citizens work on computers, tablets and smartphones. They learn how to create and use e-mail accounts. They also like to use social media - says Iwona Sobczyk, director of the Vocational Training Centres in Jędrzejów and Kielce.

Recently, within the framework of the Government Programme  for Social Engagement of the Elderly (ASOS), the centre implemented the e-SENIOR project encouraging senior citizens to actively engage in knowledge and skills learning.

Cooking together regardless of age

NGOs and other organisations supporting the elderly may apply for ASOS funds. Last year, 1,330 projects were submitted to the ASOS programme. In 2018, co-financing was granted to 325 projects, amounting to app. 38 million PLN. The beneficiaries of the activities were more than 114,000 persons. The 2018 edition of the programme financed projects under the following four priorities: senior citizen education (88 projects received co-financing), social engagement promoting intra- and inter-generational integration (98 projects were co-financed), social participation of the elderly (65 projects) and social services for the elderly (74 projects).

In Lubaczów, the “Inter-generational tastes of life” project was implemented between March and December 2018, for a group of 12 senior citizens and 12 teenagers. The idea was to promote inter-generational integration through cooking together as well as to promote healthy lifestyle. “We started with integration workshops, because we noticed that the two groups had a stereotypical perception of each other. The stereotypes concerned mainly the age. The participants spent a few days together on a trip to Nasutów near Lublin, in order to get to know each other better”, says Beata Paluszek from the Lubaczów Social Initiatives Centre “Our Future”.

The project also covered culinary workshops, family picnic and meetings about healthy lifestyle and healthy eating. “Interestingly, we reached out to the local community with some of our activities. The senior citizens and youth prepared St Andrew’s day party for students in one of the local primary schools as well as Christmas Eve dinner on the town square for the town residents. Before that, there was a picnic and social kitchen”, she says. At the end of the project, a calendar with recipes for local delicacies was compiled.

For the participants, it was also a unique experience. “Talking to juniors, as we called our youth, was fantastic. It turned out that they wanted to get to know us as quickly as we wanted to get to know them. They shared their energy with us and I felt as if I was a few years younger”, says Józef Leszczyński, a senior citizen. Cooking for the local community was also a valuable experience. “We were emotional about the event, because we wanted to do our best. When crowds came to the Christmas Eve dinner and quickly ate everything, we felt very happy”, he says. Józef Leszczyński’s wife supported him in the project. “She liked listening to my stories about the workshops”, he adds. The young people had similar impressions. Wiktoria Reizer, a young participant of the workshops and a member of the youth town council, says: “I was attracted to the project by the possibility of inter-generational cooperation. Also, I wanted to improve my cooking skills”. According to Wiktoria Reizer, abolishing stereotypes about one another was an important element of the meetings. “I think senior citizens are interesting people and still very energetic”, she adds.
Healthy cooking and healthy lifestyle were also the object of the “Through kitchen to health” project implemented by the Biosynergy Foundation.

Like a grandparent with a grandchild

ASOS projects attract crowds of people. Monika Kowner of the Łódź Heart Garden Foundation, which implemented a project for grandparents and grandchildren from March to October last year, says: “The project was very popular. We had 60 participants, senior citizens and their grandchildren aged 6 to 12 years. “It is amasing that the participants learned to spend time with each other, even though before, they had no idea how to do it. Grandparents together with grandchildren participated in sports and leisure activities, cultural events and creative workshops, and they learned computer skills and English and Chinese languages”, says Monika Kowner. “Spending time together created deep bonds not only between senior citizens and grandchildren, but also between the participants of the project.  It is important that all the age groups opened up to relations. Senior citizens could exchange their experiences and forgot about their loneliness”, she adds.

Safe senior citizen

Senior citizens, even though they may not realise that, still have a lot of things to do. These include also civic duties. The project “Senior citizen - development of civic engagement among the elderly” offered training on the issues of demography and active ageing as well as a module on volunteer work and more complex forms of social activity. The project was implemented in six municipalities of the Łódzkie voivodeship: Styków, Zgierz, Łódź, Rusiec, Mokrsko and Błaszki.

In Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, the “Carrousel for senior citizens” project was implemented.  Apart from handcraft and singing and theatre workshops, it offered educational meetings on the issues of senior citizen safety.
“Our workshops and meetings were attended by sixty senior citizens. We not only wanted to increase the activity of the participants through sports and creative activities, but also to engage them in educational meetings with police officers and consumer rights specialists. We raised the participants’ awareness of the fact that they may become victims of so-called grandchild, police officer or Social Security frauds”, says Robert Credo of the Cultural Activity Association “Carrousel”. First-aid courses and free dietitian tests and consultations were also popular. He adds: “Senior citizens are a very active group and all they need is some help developing their interests”.