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Working with Older Volunteers in Manual Intergenerational Projects<br />
exchange in Vigy received a slightly less<br />
favourable evaluation. The French elderly<br />
were not included in the planning process<br />
because the French senior citizen organisations<br />
were also just guests like the others<br />
and, furthermore, consisted of participants<br />
from all over France. This again shows the<br />
importance of integrating the elderly in the<br />
planning process of tasks. Moreover, on the<br />
last day of the exchange an appointment<br />
was re-scheduled, which prevented one<br />
group from completing their (self-added)<br />
goal, which in turn caused some discontent.<br />
Participants’ evaluation of exchanges<br />
The projects were organised in such a way<br />
that they connected to the specific skills of<br />
the elderly, which in turn enabled them to<br />
guide the young. On the other hand they<br />
also included new aspects for the seniors<br />
themselves who could accept these as challenges.<br />
In this respect the integration of the<br />
elderly in the planning process of activities<br />
proved successful.<br />
Furthermore, in most cases the project<br />
work also corresponded to interests of the<br />
adolescents. The project week meant a break<br />
from everyday school life and many pupils<br />
preferred the practical work to abstract learning.<br />
The young also profited directly from<br />
the project work because in many cases the<br />
school equipment was improved. This is of<br />
course a motivation-promoting factor. In<br />
addition, children and adolescents learned<br />
new techniques and, as one teacher emphasised,<br />
the project work helped some pupils<br />
in terms of their future job orientation.<br />
Since the method of encouraging communication<br />
by the involvement in manual<br />
work has proved successful it should by<br />
all means be retained for future activities.<br />
Again, it is important to include the elderly<br />
and the schools in the planning process.<br />
3. Intergenerational Cooperation<br />
Intergenerational cooperation was determined<br />
as a second central method to encourage<br />
communication processes. The idea to<br />
do so proved successful, however, slightly<br />
different than planned. The youths were<br />
supposed to function as a bridge by acting<br />
as interpreters when faced with communication<br />
problems. The idea behind it was<br />
that due to increased mobility demands<br />
youths nowadays develop foreign language<br />
skills much sooner than senior citizens<br />
and are often less inhibited in using their<br />
skills, even if these are very limited. However,<br />
English was not the lingua franca of<br />
the exchanges, Czech is rarely taught in<br />
German schools and French-speaking pupils<br />
were not specifically involved. Nevertheless,<br />
pupils were still able to function as<br />
interpreters, for instance the children with<br />
migrational backgro<strong>und</strong>s in Hamm who<br />
spoke Russian or Polish or, if they were<br />
Exchange Hamm, intergenerational rest<br />
Final Report 33