From 7-11 October 2019, in the frame of the Erasmus+ AFE-Activists project, a delegation of 13 older people from Lithuania, Italy, Germany and Austria visited the city of The Hague in The Netherlands. The Hague was the first Dutch city that became member of the WHO Global Network on Age-friendly Cities and Communities. The delegation included people between the ages of 60 and 75, who are active in their own community as member of the city council, older people’s council or volunteer.
In The Hague the delegation met representatives of the local municipality and discussed age-friendly and senior-friendly local policies. Joost van Hoof, a professor from The Hague University of Applied Sciences, gave them a lecture on age-friendly cities and urban ageing. Then they visited the Laakse Lente, a private, ‘open living room’ neighborhood initiative for seniors. The diversity of The Hague’s residents was apparent in the delgation’s visit to the community centre in Mandelaplein located in the Transvaal neighbourhood. Other visits and topics included the multifunctional library (Library Escamp), fall prevention and identifying elder abuse from the public health authority (GGD Haaglanden), and products for people with dementia (second-hand shop annex ‘dementheek’).
You can explore the full programme following here.
According to their evaluations, the participants had an intense but also inspiring and informative week in The Hague from which they will take home several practices and lessons learned to apply in their own communities and cities.
The AFE-Activists project is an Erasmus+ funded project, coordinated by the Senior’s Initiative from Kaunas, Lithuania and runs from 2018 till 2020. The project will deliver a training package on advocacy, handbook on training advocacy and a handbook to organize learning experiences.
In March 2020 another delegation of older people will visit age-friendly city Udine in Italy.