The project will be the opportunity for the seniors citizens age 60+ to show their opinion and ask the questions in the field of their special interest. The local government and the social policy makers will be able to hear, what the problems, life and expectations of the elderies look like. The participants – age 60+ – will create their newspaper and will have their own voice tribune to communicate with local authorities.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Lodz
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Senior citizens – people 60+, are the group, who is most affected by the exclussion and neglect in the sociaty. Their opportunity to be heart is not the same as of the younger generations – technological gap is unfortunately very deep, especially in Poland. It is necessary to do a lot to bring this group closer to the ITC, Internet and other social media, but also to give the opportunity to be visible in the social space in other ways, ig. traditional printed media. The necessity of this kind of activities have been already articulated by the seniors representatives. They are very eager to participate in the social local life and to be heart and visible in new forms and ways – to be a part of sociaty. The interest in such activities is connected with my edu-background-gerontology
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
There will be a few persons engaged in the project; members of our association as well as volunteers and other local partners in associations, social institutions and others: www.seniorzy-hipokamp.pl, www.2035.pl, FB: Grażyna Busse, FB: Magdalena Poulain, FB: Serdeczna Siec,
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The participants will create the printed media – local newspaper and learn, how to promote and spread that in Internet by Dropbox, Facebook, Blog. They will learn how to put the separate articles in the social media as well as how to be a creator of own blog. At the same time, the newspaper “Young in Hearts” will be available printed by the peers – senior citizens in Lodz city.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
We have already connected parterships with other institutions and persons active on the area of ageing and demographic challanes; The partnerships are:
– Seniors Association Jozefow – agricultural Group in the city
– Daily Stay Seniors House – Bednarska – Lodz
– Foundation 2035 – Lod- Seniors Clubs in Lodz
City Lodz authorities
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
As already searched, there are about 80 participants ready to take part in the project. The number will be growing, as we suspect, for there is a big interest in the project.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We bring to the project the expertise of ICT skills as well as traditional journalism skills. This mutual work will be the best solution to give the opportunity for the participats to have the familiar, well known contact platform and to learn the new, modern forms of communication and information. Our partner, 2035 Foundation, Ms. Magdalena Poulain is a journalist and the specialist of the ICT learning programms for persons aged 60+ ( Latarnicy Project in Polan)
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We have:
– the space for apprx. 60-80 persons, equipped with mobile Internet, 5 mobile computers, USB modems, professional editors programmes and graphics.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
I am working with the seniors groups and have a good knowledge concerning the current needs and problems. I represent the interests of the senior citizens in several local and national commitees; I am working on the developement of the programmes and policis concerning active and healthy ageing as well as demographic challanges.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The problems we can face, are connected with the lack of information and abilities concerning new technologies in the groups aged 60+. This age group is not familiar with new media and it is difficult sometimes, to overcome the fear and disaffection. Our strength is the professional support of the ICT teachers and gerontological knowledge of the main person – orginizer – Grazyna Busse
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We plan to create the questionaires before and after the projects’ activities. We will be able to estimate the knowledge, skills and attitude of the participants before they start the project's activities and afterwards, That will show us the progress and change in attitude and way of thinking in the group – what they learned, if or/and how they changed themselves. The participants will share the results and describe the project in Internet ( put the opinions, photos, also films) and show the good praxis for the other peers in regional. national community of the senior citizens, as well as the global one.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
1. First information meeting – September 2014 – 2nd week
2. Starting the workshops in journalistic activities – 3rd week Sep.
3. Completing the newspaper – printing – 4th week Sep. – October – 3rd week
4. Putting the newspaper and articles in Internet – creating the Facebook profiles of the participants and of the newspaper, creating the personal blogs – Nov. – 1st till 4th week
5. Evaluating of the project – checking of the results, discussing and summation of the project with participants – Dec. 1st and 2nd week
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
1. Workshops costs: materials, technical support, newspaper printing, coordinators – 4 persons assisted by the seniors activities during the workshops; snacks and drinks – every workshop – 3 hours
– totally: 12 workshops x 3 hours
– snacks and drinks – 400 USD
– materials and technical support – 500 USD
– coordinators/assistance – 4 persons x 200 USD = 800 USD
– printing of the newspaper – 1000 pcs = 500 USD
Total grant: 2,200 USD
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices can publish the information about our activities and inform other institutions and organizations about the project. We are interested in creating cooperation with other partners from Europe/ worldwide dealing with the ageing cociaties issues, working with people 60+.
Contact name
Grazyna Busse
Organization
Association HIPOKAMP
