(in)VISIBLE TALENTS: Encouraging and recognising the contributions of people 80+ Erasmus Project

Project Title

(in)VISIBLE TALENTS: Encouraging and recognising the contributions of people 80+

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

Context & Objectives
invisible talents is based on the observation that older and especially very old people tend to become invisible in our society. They have left the workforce, they are less present on our streets, they have almost vanished from the media. The older a person gets the more he/she is less likely to be regarded as someone who has something to give and to participate meaningfully.

In contrast to that, we think that everybody has something to give. Older and very old people carry with them a treasure of memories, experiences, knowledge and competencies (‘talents’). We believe that giving older people the opportunity to (re-)discover and contribute all the experience, knowledge and talents they have acquired in their long lives – as men and women with families, friends, paid and voluntary work, studies, hobbies and passions – not only makes our society richer and more colorful but also combats negative stereotyping and ageism.

Given this background, the main idea of our project was to make the talents of older and very old people – in communities and organisations – (more) visible and to enhance their social participation. We supported older people and organisations working directly with older and very old people to:
• self-reflect the status quo of participation and engagement opportunities in their organisation.
• develop concrete activities that promote the engagement of older people and make their talents visible.

Activities
To achieve these objectives, partners in five EU countries realised reflection workshops and meetings with 27 organizations in residential and community settings. In cooperation with organisations activities to boost the visibility and estimation of older men and women have been developed. When we worked with organisations, it was very important both for us and them to stress the fact that making talents visible does not require huge sums of money and other resources or major organisational transformations. Interventions in partner countries involved activities that
• make older people think about their interests and talents (e.g. Dream Factory meetings, workshops),
• stimulate the reflection of stakeholders, staff and citizens (e.g. workshops, events)
• make talents visible to many (e.g. videos, booklets, portrays of older people, newspaper articles) and
• support organisations in needs-based planning.

Detailed information on the invisible talents approach and activities implemented are summarized in the Brochure “Everybody has something to give”. Furthermore, an E-Presentation provides background information, inspirational examples and practical tools to increase the visibility of older people’s talents in their communities and in organisations. The invisible talents team has also developed an Online Self-Reflection Tool – a quick, free and anonymous online test that provides organisations with the possibility to see in a few minutes how they are doing with regard to the participation of older people and to start a reflection process about possible ways to improve this participation. A choice of the methods applied with the organisations and older people in the self-reflection processes, e.g. in workshops, can be found in the Toolbox. These tools inspire to fight ageism, (re-)discover wishes and interests and take a step towards the increased visibility of older men and women. Translations of all outcomes in the national languages of the five partners are accessible on the invisible talents website: www.invisible-talents.eu.

Partners
invisible talents was implemented by partners working in the fields of social policy and research, socialgerontology and adult education in Austria (queraum. cultural and social research), Germany (ISIS Sozialforschung · Sozialberatung · Politikberatung ), Italy (Lunaria), Lithuania (Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas) and the Netherlands (Stichting Bij de Tijd).

Results & impact
In total 200 professionals, such as social workers, professional carers, professionals working with older volunteers, representatives of communities, stakeholders and 127 older people participated in our reflection workshops and meetings. In cooperation with organisations in total 23 activities have been realised, involving 129 staff members, 10 students and 670 older and very old people. Furthermore, 134 older people, experts and practitioners have been involved in interviews and national multiplier events. That means, in total up to 1270 people directly benefited from the invisible talents project.
Furthermore, a high number of stakeholders were involved in our dissemination activities. On EU level, due to cooperation with AGE Platform Europe, governmental organizations, policy makers and interest groups have been regularly informed on the project and outcomes. Sustainability is guaranteed as (cooperation-) partners are motivated to contniue their activities and stand up for the social participation and visibility of older people.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 295089 Eur

Project Coordinator

queraum. kultur- und sozialforschung | Giedenbacher Stadler-Vida OG & Country: AT

Project Partners

• LUNARIA ASSOCIAZIONE DI PROMOZIONE SOCIALE
• ISIS GMBH
• VYTAUTO DIDZIOJO UNIVERSITETAS
• Stichting Bij de Tijd