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Working with Older Volunteers in Manual Intergenerational Projects
3. Participant service during the project
Problems and obstacles
• Participants are dissatisfied and feel insecure with regard to the programme
and the service during the project
Information
• Senior citizens – partially because of physical limitations but also because
of increased needs – often want a higher level of service with intensive
supervision by the tour guide. Since mobility barriers are often not of
physical, but of emotional origin, they may be overcome with professional
help.
Recommendations
• Detailed planning and explanation in advance and reliability in the course
of action contribute to the participants’ satisfaction.
• Especially for senior citizens intensive support by an experienced project
supervisor is required who should always be open to conversation and even
attend leisure activities. More so than with younger participants, close contact
on a personal level and relationships based on trust and competence
are called for.
• A high level of service (“all inclusive”) should be provided which aims at
overcoming barriers, yet leaves enough space for individual participation.
• The participants’ regular contribution to daily planning avoids discord and
conflict.
4. Follow-up meetings
Problems and obstacles
• Lack of sustainability of programmes for everyday life; unmet demands
of participants
Information
• Many older participants would like to integrate the experience and knowledge
attained in the projects into their daily lives, so that they might apply
this in the future.
Recommendations
• From the participants’ point of view follow-up meetings make sense if
programme contents are revised and the participants get information on
how to integrate the results into their daily lives.
• An evaluation by the participants especially from the perspective of senior
citizens might be the starting point for further projects with similar target
groups for both coordinators and other participants. A publication of the
results might be useful to other information multipliers.
Set of Methods 79