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TRAMP – Transnational Mobility of Older People in Europe
7. Elucidating New European
Goals by Means of Intergenerational
Projects
Against the background of demographic
development, the promotion of intergenerational
relations and the solidarity of
generations is a relevant and burning issue
on the EU agenda. Most of the interviewed
participants considered the inclusion of
children and adolescents the main success
factor in encouraging communication with
the elderly. The adolescents were able to assume
the role of language mediators when
facing seniors who spoke English (which
was only occasionally the case), or if they
had chosen German or French as subjects
in school or if they spoke Russian or French
due to their migrational background. Furthermore,
their openness and curiosity provided
crucial communication incentives.
The interaction between the groups frequently
caused mutual astonishment: the
elderly experienced the young as committed
and enthusiastic – the young in turn
experienced the elderly as agile and committed.
The images the groups had of each
other considerably changed for the better.
The intergenerational proportion should be
increased beyond the practical work. So far,
very few adolescents have been present during
the afternoon programmes of the projects
due to the schools being responsible
for their selection.
8. Creating New Experiences with
Informal Learning, Providing
Orientation with Non-Formal
Learning
Due to the practical cooperation in manual
work projects, the exchanges provide a large
field for informal learning. They create new
learning locations and procure experiences
in intercultural and intergenerational situations.
“The seminars and the overall high
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satisfaction of participants demonstrate
the capacity of the concept to unite people
from different European cultures and different
generations in a common communication-intensive
learning context by applying
methods of manual work and intergenerational
dialogue. However, the implementation
also showed that meta-communication
exercises, thus intercultural training, raised
the awareness to interpret experiences of
difference, which are usually experienced as
“strangely” necessary during the everyday
seminar contact. Based on this experience a
further development of exchange seminars
is urgently recommended.” (Conclusion of
evaluation report). In other words, intercultural
training must be incorporated as
an inherent part of exchanges. Intercultural
as well as intergenerational contacts need to
be discussed and reflected. Only then is it
possible to meaningfully interpret and assess
moral concepts which underlie the actual
observed behaviour. This requires a national
preparation of both guests and hosts
and a post processing with participants and
organisers.
9. Promoting Short-Term and
Clearly Structured Stays
Elderly people can cope much more easily
with short-term exchanges. For example,
organisers of the SVP programme at KLAS
could only find a few participants who wanted
to stay for 3 to 9 weeks, which is clearly
too long. In the Czech Republic many
elderly work beyond the age of 65 or look
after partners. At KLAS people were asked
whether they wanted to join the SVP programme,
but nobody wanted to stay away
that long. An optimal time period is one
week or a stay of up to 10 days. Analyses
regarding the new voluntar port in Germany
reveal that short-term voluntar projects
suit the interests of senior citizens better