Šk.Loka event nr.6

Report

Event No. 6

Škofja Loka, August 25th – 28th 2022

Final conclusions of the Project and the General Meeting of the association of the European towns “DOUZELAGE”

Participation: The event involved 242 citizens, including 99 participants and organization stuff from Škofja Loka, 1 participant from Bashkia Kruje, 4 participants from Stadtgemeinde Judenburg, Austria, 9 participants from Stadt Bad Kötzting, Germany, 4 participants from Asiklkala Kunta, Finland, 6 participants from Douzelage Bandoren, Ireland, 8 participants from Mesto Sušice, Czech Republic, 6 participants from Municipality of Rokiškis, Lithuania, 7 participants from Koszeg Varos Onkormanyzata, Hungary, 7 participants from Holstebro Douzelage, Danmark, 5 participants from Tryavna, Bulgaria, 6 participants from Orasul Siret, Romania, 15 participants from Vereniging Meerssen, Netherlands, 6 participants from Chojna, Poland, 2 participants from Agros, Cyprus, 4 participants from Rovinj-Rovigo, Croatia, 6 participants from Sesimbra, Portugal, 5 participants from Altea, Spain, 7 participants from Granville, France, 10 participants from Marsaskala, Malta, 3 participants from Niederanven, Luxembourg, 3 participants from Oxelosund, Sweden, 12 participants from Sherbourne, United Kingdom, 3 participants from Sigulda, Latvia and 4 participants from Turi, Estonia.

Location: The event took place in Škofja Loka in the cultural centrum Sokolski dom, in Gymnasia Škofja Loka, and youth center Rdeča ostriga.

Short description: The event should be organized already in the year 2020 and 2021, but due the Coronavirus postponed and finally organized. The three days’ event opened with the photo exhibition on Thursday, August 25, 2022. Next two days had been organized meetings and workshops separated on the three locations for the three groups of participants: Officials, Teachers, and Students. The workshops of all groups were presented also to Seniors.

Report of the General Meeting of officials. 

So we were delighted that we have succeeded this year. We were glad that our friends and partners from all over Europe finally managed to get together in our town and shared their clear vision of cooperation.

In these highly uncertain times of the war in Europe - the consequences of which have been directly felt by some of our partner towns - we gathered and worked together – we testified the friendship and solidarity of all nations!

Together – through the presentation of the conclusions of the international 'Juniors for Seniors - active aging' project – we also tried to find solutions to another extremely contemporary challenge: how to establish, preserve and strengthen

active cooperation between young people and the elderly!

This year's General Meeting of the Douzelage took place in Škofja Loka, starting on Thursday the 25th of August, and ending on Saturday, the 27th. As a part of the General Meeting, naturally, the Youth Meeting was held as well.

Although the GM has officially begun on Thursday the 25th, quite a few delegates had already arrived in Škofja Loka on Wednesday. With these delegates, we had a relaxed dinner and took it easy for the evening so that we would be fresh for the next day's start of the GM.

The official launch of the GM took place in Sokolski dom in Škofja Loka, where there was an opening of the exhibition of the previous Douzelage photo contests. After the hosts' acceptance speeches we all had dinner and got to know each other.

The main topics/key challenges of these high-quality projects were: seniors' e-educations, (public/accessible) transport, accessibility, and living conditions for seniors and youth.

And we were looking for solutions through the lens of four focus groups: officials, teachers, students, and seniors.

On Friday, August 25th we organized a Common session the final conclusions of the project were presented and discussed with all participants, several ambassadors of EU member states representatives of Slovenian senior organizations, and guests.

The organizers were praised for their extensive work and very hands-on reports. With these reports (that include appropriate/comparable solutions, conclusions, suggestions, and good practices) municipalities can start right away taking the necessary

measures, following the examples from different towns.

Education Meeting Report

Having been appointed an EM chair ad interim last October in Cyprus, I was personally very honored and privileged to tailor the EM program.

The EM program was created in accordance with the main topic Europe for Citizens - Juniors for seniors: Active Ageing with a team of Škofja Loka Grammar School teachers. We wanted to share our school practices, local NGOs with their various activities and finally,

the guest teachers from 26 EU countries were asked to share their examples of juniors for seniors' cooperation and the new challenges they cope with.

Several workshops were organized at Škofja Loka Grammar school where we discussed many possibilities the schools in EU have when speaking of the elderly: various school projects, voluntary work in local communities and elderly home institutions, and different activities in their local community centers.

On the other side, Slovene NGOs (Škofja Loka Pensioners’ Association Centre, Adult Education Centre, and others) presented their local and national schemes on the Slovene elderly care institutional system and intergenerational support for the elderly, and volunteers’ associations. 

In the discussion that followed it turned out that we all share more or less the same practices when speaking of cross-generation activities in different Douzelage towns.

One of our workshops focuses on local cultural heritage. Ms. Cirila Šmid, a local craftswoman, prepared all the necessary ingredients and materials for the teachers to model their own honey bread hearts decorated with two shaped local flowers. Despite her age (80) and the language barrier, she managed

very successfully (with some help, to be honest) to transfer her knowledge to others. We, the teachers, turned into the roles of students, following her instructions – a very classroom-like situation – learning new skills. When finished, she took our honey bread home, baked them, and finally

covered them in honey. The next morning, they were all nicely gift-wrapped and given back to the owners. The workshop was a great success.  

We decided to invite an expert on our teenagers, dr. Žan Lep, Pedagogical Institute Ljubljana, who prepared a lecture for EM participants: We should talk about the zoomers. The EM participants all teach in secondary schools, which means that we all share the same problems since young people born after 2000

(i.e. the zoomers) are alike throughout Europe.

Finally, there was time for the guest teachers to present their local practices. We realized that every town (and consequently) every school with the help of local NGOs, municipalities, and also nationally through a wide range of different activities, projects and programs take active care of the elderly.

Since my chair of EM was in ad interim, we had to elect a new one. The only application was handed in by our colleague Mrs. Riikka Penttilä from Asikkala, Finland. She was given our full support for the next mandate to be the EM chair. To celebrate our meeting, we had a unique opportunity to listen to

Mrs. Rachel Milestone from Sherborn, Great Britain, and her short piano performance in our school hall.

“Very instructive, useful and interesting” was our guests’ comment at the end of the meeting. Personally, I was very pleased my team prepared and realized the EM program very successfully.

We all look forward to meeting with the next GM in Rovinj, Croatia, in 2023.

 Jože Bogataj, headmaster

Škofja Loka Grammar School, Slovenia

Friday was the most intense day when it comes to activities of the Youth Meeting. The first part of the activities took place at MKC Pri rdeči ostrigi. To start of we got to know each other through some ice-breaker games in order to feel more relaxed and familiar with each other. What followed was a lovely presentation of the delegates from Bulgaria, who showed us exactly how they ensure great intergenerational coexistance and active ageing. In a group we then talked about our own experiances and good practices in that field. After the workshops and later lunch, we had some relaxing activities – handcraft workshops at Center DUO for one group and beach volley for the other. In the afternoon all of the participants were welcomed in a common session in Kino Sora, where they listened to the findings and conclusions of the project »Juniors for seniors – active ageing«, which has been in action since 2019, and has come to a close with the last meeting in Škofja Loka. After a group photo session all the delegations joined for dinner at Starman, where food and beverages were acompanied by a great athmosphere from a local band. The Youth delegates upon finishing dinner went on to proceed ther evening in MKC Pri rdeči ostrigi, where they had a small party organised for them, which they thoroughly enjoyed. 

Saturday started with Escape city – Škofja Loka edition, which was a great way of getting to know the town. Completing the escape, delegates gathered for Youth elections, where the new youth president was elected – mr. Zino Vreysen. He then went on to adress the general meeting and assemble his council. In the afternoon, delegates were free to choose their own activities. Most opted for either a visit of our capital Ljubljana, or to take a swimm in the Poljanska Sora river in Škofja Loka.

The event's official closing was on Saturday evening at a gala dinner, where all the participants recieved certificates of participation.

The Youth Meeting was for the bigger part organized by mr. Sergej Novak from Škofja Loka, with some help from mr. Evelin Koev from Bulgaria, at the time an active member on the council.

EUROPE FOR CITIZENS, JUNIORS FOR SENIORS – ACTIVE AGING PROJECTS SESSION IN ASIKKALA
MEMO 16.9.2022

List of participants as an annex
1. Marja Koivisto, wellbeing coordinator of Asikkala opened the session and welcomed all participants to the discussion

2. Merja Palokangas-Viitanen, Eero Ala-Heikkilä and Saimi Vesterinen, members of Asikkalas 2022 Deuzelage-delegation told about their experience at the seminars and meetings in Skofja Loka.

3. Miha Jese, project manager juniors for seniors – active aging, attended the session via Teams.
Miha Jese presented the project to the participants and told about different sessions in other cities that had taken place during this project.
We heard about different sessions, primary targets and conclusions of the project. It became very clear that we´re facing the same kind of challenges and difficulties about aging all over
Europe and that all participants have tried to solve them by themselves.

We can use each others ideas and experience to tackle this challenge together. Projects main targets; intergenerational co-operation and seniors e-education, mobility and accessibility,
accommodation for seniors and youth are targets/ challenges that we have

to discus about and solve also in Asikkala.

4. Discussion
Project is very interesting, very important topics for us in Asikkala right now.
Some ideas:
- Computer-course for senior-associations meetings lead by students – it should be very easy, very non-professional, more suitable for older person. Possibility to try and learn with youth.
- Our high school student do a musical production in their studies every year – We should figure out different venues to show the musical, so that it would be accessible for elderly too.
- Help at home by young volunteers for example to get the tv working or how to set up a computer desk
- We should organice more meetings like this and find out different methods to activate both juniors and seniors.
- Different joint clubs for juniors and seniors – for example cooking, arts and crafts, knitting, reading, nature etc.
- Voluntary courses of different subjects to high schoolers, that would include some “workshops” with elderly.
- Joint musical productions or stand up- comedy for all ages
- joint club or a meeting where we could talk about different traditions and modern ways to celebrate Christmas, Easter, Midsommerfest, All saints day, Independents day etc. – dig deep in the history of
these celebrations and to think how to put together older and modern ways to celebrate.
- Volunteering at the seniors center Olo – our guidance student Sauli spoke about his experience in activating seniors at the everyday surroundings and couraged everyone to come by and see it themselves – this would make
it easier for juniors to meet older people – less prejudice both ways!

TOGETHER WE CAN DO EVERYTHING!