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Organisation of Exchange Week
Implementation
Each week needs a “proper” start and a “proper” ending. The official greeting
takes place at the beginning. An initial getting to know each other of participants,
the involved organisations, the programme and the organisational
scope of the week have to be organised. A joint evaluation of goal questions
takes place at the end of the week. This could and should be followed by celebrations
as well as an official farewell.
The organisation of the week during manual work-oriented intergenerational
exchanges depends on the choice of cooperation partners who recruit
the children and adolescents, and on their time available. If one of the cooperation
partners is a school, the time spent on the craft/intergenerational section
of the exchange will be in the morning. This makes things easier for the
exchange organisation, because children and adolescents are at school anyhow
and the school management or participating teachers are responsible for the
exchange organisation. If the cooperation partner is a youth centre or a different
facility that is active outside school, the recruitment of adolescents can
pose a problem, as they usually don’t make use of the entire range of offers
and would therefore have to plan their personal time according to a complete
project week. In this case the partner organisation has to make major efforts
to convince and motivate the youths.
Lunch breaks should be long enough to ensure a sufficient period of rest
for the elderly participants.
Mornings and afternoons, which are not reserved for manual work/intergenerational
activities, serve the exploration of the country and region. The
range of possibilities includes socio-touristic sightseeing, expert discussions
and personal invitations by the hosts. If the intercultural get-together is a
central theme of the exchange, which it is expected to be, then a theoretical
reflection of this topic should be included in the programme on the basis of
joint experiences.
Brief mood queries should be conducted at the beginning or end of the
daily schedules in order to register possible problems in the group. This gives
those in charge the opportunity to react to programme changes or the insertion
of brief exercise units aimed at resolving certain problems.
The evening programme depends on the interests of the elderly. While
some will prefer a visit to cultural events, others would rather spend a “happy
hour” together. In any case, an official programme on two to three days seems
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