These questions are in the focus of our new project “SenGA – Seniors in Green Action – from Hands to Minds to Souls” (2022-1-BG01-KA220-ADU-000085169). The partnership includes 6 organisations from 5 European countries – Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitry Panitza” and Creativity and Educational Studio ARTIED from Bulgaria, Forum CSRD from the Republic of North Macedonia, Adam Mickiewicza University from Poland, ASSET BASILICATA from Italy, and STP Consulting from Spain.
The project long-term objective is 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 elders, so as to support their active aging and social inclusion.
During the project we will:
- Develop an interactive ToT Handbook how to engage elder people in creative
recycling and ‘green’ activities, which will collect all produced materials and project results. - Develop Guidelines how to engage senior adult learners in non-formal education on the topics of recycling and circular economy. They will include 2 parts:
- Basic principles of environmental protection, sustainability, recycling and circular economy.
- Creating suitable learning environment for elder adult learners and basic principles of effective engagement of seniors in educational and community-based activities.
- Create a Resource Library with best practices and hands-on examples of community-based environmental and artistic activities initiated or run by seniors.
- Create 6 sets with exemplar hands-on activities based on circular economy and creative recycling, and suitable for senior adult learners. Each set will include 3 activities for creative recycling of different types of resources, suitable for elder people. These might be fabric and garment, metallic elements, CDs and DVDs, plastics, paper and cardboard, wooden materials and furniture or glass and mirror pieces and objects. They could also include sewing, embroidering, patchworking, woodcarving, assembling, or other suitable craftworks.
- Develop an additional module with 3 lessons on how to turn a non-formal craft activity into an entrepreneurship initiative.
- Conduct 10 creative workshops for pilot testing of the developed sets of activities. They will be recorded and a series of short videos with practical case studies of creative ‘green’ activities using the approach “FROM ELDERS TO ELDERS” will be created.
- Lay the foundations of a nonformal network of ‘SENIOR GREEN AMBASSADORS’ and peer-to-peer educators.
The results, which we want to achieve, are:
- To increase the awareness among seniors and experts and educators working with them about recycling, circular economy and ‘green’ and environmentally friendly solutions.
- To equip them with an interactive ToT Handbook how to engage elder people in creative recycling and ‘green’ activities and with methodological Guidelines how to engage senior adult learners in non-formal education on the topics of recycling and circular economy.
- To provide 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.
- To promote the concepts of active aging and ‘green’ solutions and to encourage seniors to become ambassadors of the idea among their peers.
For more information, please check our Facebook profile and the project website at www.activegreenseniors.eu
The project “SenGA – Seniors in Green Action – from Hands to Minds to Souls” (2022-1-BG01-KA220-ADU-000085169) is co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the EU, through the Bulgarian National Agency.
2022-1-BG01-KA220-ADU-000085169 
This project has been co-funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.