Your treasure - Our treasure

Motto: We must restore the honour of experience, wisdom and intergenerational dialogue.

(Frank Schirrmacher)

Background: The „population ageing process”, characterised by an increase in the age of the population and a decrease in the number of children born is a common phenomenon throughout Europe. The most affected area on the continent is Southern Europe, which is hit hard by the migration of young people. Our partners have been chosen from this area. In recent years, more and more young Hungarians have left small towns in the countryside for larger cities or migrated abroad looking for job opportunities, which have exacerbated problems such as the accelerated aging of the population. So far Hungary has responded very slowly to this process. Thus reflecting on and addressing the issue has become an urgent duty of our cultural institutions and our partner institutions. Main aims: – to prepare the participating institutions for working with and engaging the elderly in a structured and conscious way – to acquire effective methods of discovering, raising awareness of and transmitting the values of older generations – to develop and expand the competences of our cultural professionals to enable them to: – engage with the elderly, – to motivate the elderly to take advantage of non-formal learning opportunities – to apply the methods of experiential learning Long term goals: – to develop a new strategy for collaborating with older people – to develop an own method that reaches the elderly in general not only those with greater cultural interest Methods: The organizations would like to implement an exchange of good practice that allows Hungarian partners to draw on the experiences and methodological knowledge of foreign professionals and prepare their employees for the work in the field of teaching the elderly. The HUN partners already have experience obtained while applying cultural, primarily museum related themes and methods during events organized and implemented with the elderly, and they are ready to share them. During the exchange, we are primarily interested in non-formal learning methods, which enable the members of the target group to learn more about themselves, and to engage in active recreation and enjoy themselves.

In our work with older people the object is regarded as a tool (and a common language), that awakens the memory which is the transferring material that helps to bring the hidden values to the surface. The members of this age group possess various kinds of cultural treasures, the existence of which most of them are not aware of. Through the present project, we wish to raise the awareness of the elderly that the experience and knowledge they carry has great cultural value, to identify these values, to organize them in a system and to present and explain them (e.g. in the form of exhibitions, virtual exhibitions) to the community and the future generations. Digital technique is an important tool in achieving our goals, which will be introduced to the participants during the preparation for the joined exhibitions and the connecting events. The joint realization of exhibitions has a huge community-building power as during the process your treasure becomes our treasure. Museologists add a lot to the new method. Their knowledge enables them to define values because they work in vaults of collective memories and experience (museums).

Participants

The Cultural Centre of Kunszentmárton (henceforth: CCK) is a budgetary institute which undertakes multiple tasks. Parts of the institute are a museum, a library, a cultural centre and a kindergarten. Currently, in 9 buildings, 27 employees, 23 public employees and volunteers work to meet the demands of the local and surrounding area’s (Tiszazug subregion) residents. Colleagues participating in the tender come from the museum’s staff (5 people), but all (26) of our institute’s colleagues, who are cultural education, library or kindergarten professionals, will be partaking in the project payoffs. Our institute has many years of earnest experience with the education of young children and teenagers and has achieved notable success in this field. The museum has received the national museum-pedagogical certificate of merit twice. (2014, 2017). Our kindergarten was one among 12 kindergartens of the country, given the Award Kincses Kultúróvoda 2016 (Cultural Treasure Kindergarten 2016), due to the innovative collaboration with our cultural institutes. Our museum has collected multiple national, county and local awards, thanks to our outstanding museum-pedagogical and cultural community building activities. Our Study Repository, which won the title of Tourism virtue of the county, serves as a learning opportunity for the elderly, as well. Our regular and periodic exhibitions, interactive guided tours, museum lessons, activities and events provide entertainment and learning opportunities from kindergarten-age to the elderly. The biggest challenge our institute faces today is the more emphatic caring for and engaging with senior citizens due to our town’s gradual ageing, in which we would like to use museumandragogical means, means of geronto-andragogy, as well as methods of the cultural fields.

Our primary experiences with EU tenders (tenders TÁMOP 3.2.8/10/B-2010-2004, 3.2.13-12/1- 2012-0422) come from programmes organised for students from various educational institutions. These tenders made it possible for us to purchase a rich utensil set, which is used by adult visitors, as well. The Study Repository (tender TIOP 1.2.2.-11/1-2012-0063, 2014.) is a building which is accessible for persons with disabilities (and it is also an info-communicative one). It is formed to be elder-friendly (very well lit, places to sit and rest for a while), which made it possible to take part in our programmes for the members of this age group, too. Our programme series ‘Crafts without bounds’ took place from 2005 to 2011 in international collaboration and was led by our director as the programme’s curator. The most beautiful handicraft products of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county were shown on ten foreign and six domestic exhibitions and handicraft fairs with the help of museologists from the county and NGOs. Gabriella Pusztai won the Europe Award of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County for the programme series.

Active Citizens Partnership is an NGO based in North Eastern Greece and has office in Athens. We have extensive experience to design and support programs that address contemporary training and social needs at national and European level. With the assistance of the State and the European Union have developed measures to prevent and tackle social problems and assist vulnerable groups. In order to provide a high quality service develops and operates innovative activities relating to:

  • Studies and research in the field of non-formal education and training
  • Development and implementation of technology enhanced training
  • Greek language program for refugees and immigrants
  • Entrepreneurship counseling and mentoring with special focus on unemployed and women.
  • Psychosocial support and counselling for immigrants, refugees, homeless, long-term unemployed, people with religious or cultural characteristics, etc.
  • Counselling for employees to improve their job conditions
  • Counselling programs for long-term unemployed women and women threatened by unemployment.
  • Programs for young people with learning disabilities from minority groups.
  • Training for immigrants, refugees, people with religious and cultural characteristics such as Rom people, Greek Muslims, homeless etc
  • Programs to strengthen the capacity of access to employment for people affected by poverty and social exclusion.

ACP has 5 full time staff and more than 10 part time employees working on different projects. ACP implements projects all over Greece especially in Northeastern Greece and Athens. As lead partner of Local Employment Project “Anagennisi” we had been certified by Regional Government of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace for its Managerial Capability System. Managerial Capability System was designed and implemented to meet the requirements of Hellenic Standard ELOT 1429:2008 and the guides for implementation ELOT 1431-1:2008 and ELOT 1431-2:2008 in order for the company to prove its ability in implementing projects of public interest (technical projects, studies, procurements and services) under jurisdiction of Local Authorities and to constantly improve its effectiveness along the operation and monitoring of its actions and procedures.

Future Focus Ltd is based in the garden city of Floriana.

The strengths of the training centre lie in the caring professions, and in line with the demand for courses, it offers programmes mainly on a part-time basis for carers working in private homes, in state hospitals and in other settings.
Future Focus has been working in the field of elderly care for around 15 years and due to the popularity of the courses, classes are often fully booked.

USO is a non-formal education institution with a major role in the community, created in 1994, open to all people in the county, over 55 years of age, from the most varied social backgrounds and levels of education. Uso has around 100 teachers ( 99% are unpaid), 600 students, 160 classes and four staff (paid).

Through the various disciplines, it aims to stimulate curiosity, thinking, reflection and critical thinking, with the intention of opening new horizons to its students, making them effective in action, truly participating in the community, in the form of various actions: volunteering, social entrepreneurship, local intervention in different organisms and activities, made available to the whole community.

USO offers a wide variety of themes and disciplines, covering Physical Activities (dance, lian gong, chi kung, pilates, ...), various Plastic Arts classes, Performing Arts (Singing, Music, Cinema, Theater and various instruments), Physical, Mental and Emotional Health Education , foreign Languages, Philosophy, History, Geography, Law, Traditional Arts , aiming to foster a more participative life and thus promoting self-esteem.

The USO is guided by practices and knowledge of fundamental updating and innovation in cultural development, such as:

  • to combat myths related to old age and aging processes
  • develop active participation
  • motivate social interaction
  • provoke generational interaction
  • Encourage human values of solidarity and sharing
  • preservation of a collective memory
  • to relativize judgments, to respect differences, to facilitate integrations, to promote discussions...

The Martfu city Cultural Center and Library is a complex cultural institution, which is responsible for the rich cultural life of the citizens of Martfű. Equipped with great infrastructure and located in an imposing building, operates the library, along with a local- and industrial history collection, a cinema and the office of the local news media. All areas of culture, education and Leisure is available for all age groups. The goal of the institution’s cultural programs, is to grow the cultural awareness of all visitors, provide opportunity to understand it, provide entertainment and active recreation inside with its community events. It also took the responsibility to host and organize local events, national holidays, twin town meetings and international programs. It’s also the operator of the Martfű house of Craftsmanship, that comprises of a gingerbread baking workshop and a folk furniture exhibition hall. All these tasks are handled by 12 permanent and 8 employees from the public work program. Or main policy is to build cultural development as a significant social development program. We believe that culture have a significant influence on the individual, the community and the Society. We believe, that the meaningful cultural life sustains the healthy working of our community, our modernization progress, and enriches the life of the citizens of our city. The museum collections goal is to strengthen the identity of our citizens, pointing out the importance of cultural heritage. it plays a central role of planning events and programs. Using the past to gain wisdom on problems in the present times: Choice of role in the society, intergenerational relationship, alienation. The institution is a central for civil organizations. It supports more than 10 organizations, most of them comprising of senior citizens. The Cultural Center provides a location for linguistic, scientific, mental-hygienic lectures and courses. Among the Motional, artistic and heritage-preserving groups, the groups related to the library and or local heritage collection, we provide meaningful leisure time activities and opportunity for learning for all age groups. Visitors of regularly scheduled events exceeds 600 and our larger events draws in 2000-3000 people. Elderly people are regular visitors of events, they actively participate in performances, exhibitions, and holiday celebrations, museum and library events as part of a civil group, or individually.

The Mezőtúr Cultural and Sport Public Benefit Nonprofit Ltd. was founded by the Municipality of Mezőtúr in 2009. The company has 22 employees including altogether 8 graduates in the field of public education, community development and public collection. Its tasks include public education at local level, the maintenance of the Túr Pottery Museum and the rural heritage building, and the organization of sports events. The headquarters of the company is the town community centre, which houses most of the local CSOs the members of the majority of which are mainly pensioners. Therefore it can be stated that the institution is the centre of cultural life of the elderly community. There is a heritage conservation group that nurtures old traditions; a folk embroidery group, a folk singing group, a photo club – with more than 100 members altogether. It is also in close contact with the Bodoki Fodor Local History Association, which manages the town’s local history collection, and also runs a genealogy club which comprises members of the older generation and has 15-20 core members gathering on a weekly basis. It organizes balls, excursions, quiz events and performances for the groups. The Túr Pottery Museum is the museum of the town, the collection of which comprises the material and documentary material of the local ceramic culture and is one of the largest public collections of its kind in the country. In addition to exhibitions and professional events, the museum education program is a significant part of the institution's work - we have been organizing such events for visitors between kindergarten and retirement age for 15 years now. 3 members of our staff is involved in the organization of these programmes that attract around 500-600 participants a year.

AIFED is a regional organization working in the field of education, culture, inclusion and employment in Granada, Spain. It is an initiative of some experimented educators to create a non-profitable association with a humanist character, which increases entrepreneurship training, based in experiences of our campaign worker to make a good corporate resume.

We work mainly in the promotion and management of training, innovation and employment on different fields of education, culture and active ageing. We have a large experience working with professional and personal itineraries through formation for adults and young people in order to strengthen their skills. AIFED develops European and national programs, cultural activities and employment support. We promote the development and promotion of Improve Programs and support e- learning in the vocational education and training. AIFED, also, has largely work in the field of update on training, and we count with specialist in this area, including the intercultural phenomenon too. AIFED has participated as lead partner for dissemination, designing strategies for dissemination, creating templates, publishing articles, being active on social media. In the field of new technologies, ICT, we have developed interactive web platforms in the framework of several projects, to improve the key skills of young people in non-formal education, making videos and teaching materials for this web. (Leonardo daVinci Multilateral project YOTE 2013 - 540327- ES-LLP, Progress Project Building Bridges from School to Employment) 2012 VP/2011/010/0755

Events

Short report on the project.
Why is the Your treasure - Our treasure program important to us? A short report on the work of the project.
Click Here
Maltese interviews
The participants were interviewed during the LTT in Malta.
Each of them told us about their experiences and lessons learned.
Click Here

Gallery

Martfű LTT

13-17 June 2022.

Malta LTT

2-6 May 2022

Portugal LTT

21-24 February 2022

Spain LTT

14-18 september 2021.

Greece LTT

6-11 September 2021

Links

Active Citizens Partnership - Greece

Universidade Sénior de Oeiras - Portugal

Kunszentmártoni Általános Művelődési Központ
Hungary

Martfű Városi Művelődési Központ és Könyvtár
Hungary

Mezőtúri Kőzművelődési és Sport Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft.
Hungary