Seniors in Green Action – from Hands to Minds to Souls

"<< Background >>In March 2020, the EU Commission proposed the European Green Deal and a new plan for transition to circular and low carbon economy. According to Eurostat, in 2019 European countries accumulated about 502 kg waste per person. Data show that only 30 % of it is recycled. On the other side, nowadays more Europeans live longer, are healthier and want to be active. According to Eurostat forecasts, by 2060, 40 % of Europe’s population will be 55+. The projected old-age dependency ratio, 2100 shows that the fastest aging trends are for Poland and Italy, followed by Spain. Bulgaria is also above the EU-average levels. The figures for North Macedonia show increase of elders too.At the same time, many marketing researches show that ‘baby-boomers’ (who are now at the age of 65+) and the so called ‘Generation X’ are among the biggest consumers. They are also less aware about pollution and recycling, as usually ""green"" educational programmes and initiatives are focused on young people. With the SenGA project we wanted to increase the awareness of seniors about sustainable development, recycling, circular economy and “green” and environmentally friendly solutions in their daily lives. << Objectives >>SenGA’s long-term objective was to increase the awareness of seniors and experts and educators working with them about recycling, circular economy and ""green"" and environmentally friendly solutions and to create educational resources in the field suitable for them, so as to support their active aging and social inclusion.Specific objectives:1. Improving teaching competences of non-formal and informal adult educators, training professionals, social workers and assistants who work with elders. 2. Creating opportunities for elder adult learners to increase their awareness about creative recycling, circular economy and different types of activities which they could do for active aging, inclusion and socialization. 3. Creating a non-formal network of ""senior green ambassadors"" of the idea of active aging, creative recycling and circular economy, who want to take the lead and become non-formal peer-to-peer educators.4. Promoting cross-sector, inter-generational and transnational cooperation and exchange of experience, best practices and lesson learned between partner countries, and educational and training centres from formal, non-formal and informal education.<< Implementation >>The project was divided into 4 work packages. WP 1: Project ManagementWP2: Developing Guidelines and a Resource Library how to engage senior adult learners in environmentally friendly activities, and how to take the lead and be active among their peers and communitiesWP3: Developing an interactive ToT Handbook how to engage elder people in creative recycling and ‘green’ activitiesA1) Development of 6 sets with exemplar hands-on activities based on circular economy and creative recycling, and suitable for senior adult learners and an additional module with 3 lessons and a case study on how to turn a non-formal craft activity into an entrepreneurship initiative.A2) Organisation of 10 creative workshops (2 per country) for pilot testing of the developed sets of activities and creation of a series of short videos with practical case studies of creative ‘green’ activities using the approach “FROM ELDERS TO ELDERS”.A3) Developed interactive ToT Handbook how to engage elder people in creative recycling and ‘green’ activities, which collects all produced materials and project results.WP 4: Dissemination and multiplication of results<< Results >>The results, which we achieved, are: 1) Increased the awareness among seniors and experts and educators working with them about recycling, circular economy and ""green"" and environmentally friendly solutions; 2) Equipped them with an interactive ToT Handbook how to engage elder people in creative recycling and ‘green’ activities and methodological guidelines how to engage senior adult learners in non-formal education on the topics of recycling and circular economy; 3) Provided them with a variety of recourses, exemplar hands-on activities and practical video case studies in the field of creative recycling suitable for elder people; 4) Promoted the concepts of active aging and ""green"" solutions and to encourage seniors to become ambassadors of the idea among their peers."