The project “GOLD- Good Practices for OLD People” aims to promote old aged people as an active part of the society, making them participate in social activities, maintain and improve their mental, physical and social skills, feel included and have the potential to offer and be valuable for the younger generations by sharing their experiences and life-long accumulated wisdom. “GOLD – Good Practices for OLD People”, is a project funded by the Erasmus+ programme aiming at promoting exchange of best practices for the social inclusion of old people as well as their mental and physical health maintenance and skills development.

European population is ageing with almost 20% of it over 65 years old. A large percentage of old people (especially those with health problems) are disconnected from the community. According to Eurostat’s data 32% of people over 65 live on their own compared to 14% of the total population. The Policy Brief for EU on Loneliness indicates that the elderly are more likely to face social isolation than other age groups compared to those aged 26 to 45. Adding to this, old people are 9% more likely not to engage in social activities. Social Isolation is mentioned as one of the main challenges in long term-care in Europe (Νational policies, 2018).

The objectives of the project are:

• exchange of best practices on social inclusion, life-long education, mental and physical health, access to social life and digital world for people over 65 years old.
• promote social interaction and intergenerational activities
• explore, share, promote all good practices that bring old people out of of isolation
• extend the skills and competences of adult educators and other personnel (social workers, psychotherapists, etc) as well as relatives and friends
• enhance intergenerational education and lifelong learning by giving prominence to activities and good practices focused to the experiences of the elderly and their social value for European cultural heritage through transferring of their memories to the younger generation.
• fight stereotypes about old people.

Upon the completion of the project, the following tools/outputs were created: