Diminishing social isolation of the elderly
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Purpose of the project
The purpose of the project is to diminish loneliness and social isolation of elderly people and build the bridge between young and old by bringing them together and offer them opportunities for quality time and various developing activities.

Budget
67 332.90 euros, Active Citizens Fund (ACF) support 59 951.46 euros

Project lead partner
NGO Jututaja

Duration
January 1, 2022 until July 31, 2023

Contact
Ederi Ojasoo ederi@jututaja.ee

Project partners

• Viru haigla AS managed institutions called Pihlakodu located in Nõmme, Viimsi and Tabasalu
• Tallinn University

Sub-objectives of the project

• To increase the social activity of the elderly and reduce their loneliness; increase the digital competences and opportunities for older people to communicate remotely; support the social innovation in Estonia.
• Cooperation with Netherlands and Finland by exchanging experiences and best practices, creating joint campaigns.’
• To provide meaningful activities for young people in the community, to improve their communication skills and to increase their respect for the older generation. Increase links between the generations in the same community. 
• Conduct a survey to study more about the loneliness among older people in order to influence policy-making decisions on that field. 

Main activities

• To find active young people in cooperation with partner universities, to train them to communicate with elderly.
• Training activities for young people (first aid, communication with the elderly, dementia, digital skills training, etc.) 
• Increasing the digital competences of the elderly, acquisition of the necessary digital tools, (eg. tablets), training young people to be digimentors. 
• To find seniors who need social activities (eg. a visit to the zoo, a visit to nature, a visit to a museum, etc.) and to do joint activities with them. There will be group meetings and one-on-one meetings.
• Collecting stories of older people and publishing them if possible.
• Joint marketing activities in cooperation with the Finnish Ikäinstituutti (eg. a joint campaign). 
• Organizing a study visit to the Humanitas Deventer care home in Netherlands, to get acquainted with well-functioning model of intergenerational cooperation. 
• Carrying out a population survey, to map the problem of loneliness of the elderly, to assess the impact of our activities and to get feedback on the problem of loneliness of elderly people. 

Funded by
The project “Diminishing social isolation of elderly” is supported by the Active Citizens Fund (ACF) Estonia. ACF programme is funded by Iceland, Liectenstein and Norway in 15 European Union countries in Central and South Europe and also in the Baltics. The fund contributes to achieving the general goals of the European Economic Area to diminish economic and social injustice and strengthening the relations between the funding countries and the countries who receive the support. ACF is operated in Estonia by Open Estonian Foundation and Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations. 

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