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Project: Rozwiązywanie problemów ludzi starszych/ Solving problems of older people
Applicant(s) and Partners(s) Please note: Detailed information about applicant(s) and partner(s) -- including address, website, and contact details; mission statement, including long-term objectives of organization comprehensively; summary of activities relevant to this project; and, responsibilities in this project, including project leader/team CVs - is to be enclosed on separate pages and included at the end of the application. Applicant :Name (in Polish and in English ): Towarzystwo Edukacyjne “Wiedza Powszechna” (Educational Association “Common Knowledge”) Partner Kaliningradskaja riegionalnaja obszczestwiennaja “Błagopołuczije Siemji” Objective: improving the situation of older people (over 50 years) in Kaliningrad district Target groups: - directly: people meeting in their everyday work with problems of older people, workers of welfare service, medical service, government and self-administration, educational institutions and labour market institutions, NGOs from Kaliningrad district (25 people) with the participation of the corresponding staff (25 people); indirectly: people above 50 years old from Kalinigrad district (ca. 260,000). Main operation: media campaign calling people attention to this issue; comparative research on public opinion conducted on a stochastic sample of Gdańsk and Kalinigrad residents (each sample covering 300 people). This research focuses on the way of perceiving older people, their situation and function in the society, their problems and ways of their solving as well as stereotypes concerning getting older and the old age; diagnosis of situation among people being over 50 years old, prepared by experts; 3-day working seminar aimed for people dealing with social policy in the scope of solving problems of old people as well as for people working for older group of society, including the participation of ONZ representatives, local authorities and NGOs. The effect will, inter alia, involve the following: working out and accepting establishment documents for setting up the international coalition for incorporating ONZ rules for older people; working out and printing materials being the project product, i.e.: the report on public opinion research, experts papers containing recommendations, document related to setting up the international coalition incorporating ONZ guidelines concerning older people. Expected results: change in thinking about problems of older people among the group dealing with social policy in the scope of solving problems of older people as well as among people working with older population in Kaliningrad district, acquiring new knowledge and skills (50 people) dissemination the knowledge of older people’s problems and recommendations elaborated by ONZ during the promotional campaign; working out and dissemination “Handbook for a worker dealing with problems of older people ” (300 copies) nb. maximum 300 words Project Content Background/context of this Project Kaliningrad specific features are related to its geographical location as well as political background. In accordance with a census conducted in 2002, about 955,300 residents live in Kaliningrad district, of which 78% live in urban areas. Kaliningrad district is inhabited by 97 different nationalities and ethnical groups. Russians make the biggest group and they comprise 80% of the total population. Kaliningrad district being Russian enclave among European Union countries takes part in so called “Russian demographic disaster”. Since 1992, where the highest Russian population was noted down, the history has been observing systematic decrease in population. In years 1992-2002, the Russian population decreased by nearly 5 M people. Therefore, last decade of 20th century is recognized by demographers as one of four major population decreased. Of course, Russian society is ageing at various speed. In southern regions of Russia there is a positive birth-rate, especially in Muslim society. And Russians know as the nation are decreasing. What is important, the contemporary demographic crisis, contrary to previous crises, has been caused by social factors such as: living conditions, alcoholism, transformation stress or lack of proper health care. Moreover, according to predictions there should the further decrease of Russian people and their population is to achieve ca. 100 M up to 2050. Inhibition of this negative tendency is done not by increased birth-rate but prolongation of the average life rate of Russians. Thus, the age structure of the society is changing significantly. Every year, the per cent of retired people will be increasing and will reach about 30% in 2050, what in comparison with 18% in 1989 is a significant change. As far as in 1989 about 25% of population was represented by people below 16 years old, and nowadays there is hardly 18%. However, a decrease from 57% to 61,3% in production age has been observed. There is also increase in the number of people in so called post-production age from 18,5% to 20,5%. These demographic features are related to Kaliningrad district as well. Data for Kaliningrad district are consistent with national tendency. Generally, about 226,000 people being 50 years old and more live in Kaliningrad distrct (constituting nearly 24% of general population). In this group, there are ca. 68,500 people active on the labour market (about 30%) and about 76,000 handicapped people (34%). The society is getting older and thus, problems with social functioning appear among older people. The majority of society perceive the old age as the decadency period, some discrimination behaviours toward older people can be noticed, e.g. on the labour market, in service sector (including financial service) and finally they are excluded from the ordinary social life. There is neither sufficient actions providing the proper medical care nor activities aiming to involve seniors in active social life. Older people very often happen to live in poverty and negligence, they suffer from insufficient care. Similar situations can be met both in Poland as throughout the rest of Europe. United Nations, where WHO is highly specialized, presented the Frame Politics concerning Active Ageing in Madrid on 8-12 April 2002. This strategy focuses on the following issues:
preventing and reducing the burden of being handicapped, suffering from chronic diseases and premature deaths; decreasing risk factors connected with not infectious illnesses and functional weakness which appear at certain age and simultaneous improvement in pro-health indicators; implementing strategies and policies which provide the continuous care for people suffering from chronic diseases and disabled people; providing trainings and education for caretakers giving both formal and informal care; providing and ensuring protection, safety and respect for the dignity of ageing people; ensuring that people, when getting older, will maintain the ability to participate in economical development, actions in various sectors and to participate fully in social and family life. During ONZ meeting two documents were accepted: 1. Political declaration, where governments of particular counties expressed their readiness to act on national and international area in the framework of 3 following priorities: Older people and development Development of health and healthy conditions at older age Ensuring, enabling and supporting friendly environments for old people 2. 2nd International Action Plan concerning active ageing, which determines achieving specific targets and undertaking defined actions.
Although the problem of ageing is one of the tasks belonging to duties of particular countries governments, United Nations ensure support for incorporating this plan. Idea of this project is to disseminate the knowledge about United Nations opinion on older people’s problems and to incorporate recommendations elaborated by ONZ into local social policies, in this case the social policy in Kaliningrad district.
Activities to be conducted within this Project 1. Organizational preparation: the meeting of partners’ working group – making detailed arrangements, detailed division of tasks and works programme project promotion – preparing information for mass media, posters printing, making contacts with mass media, preparing www site for the project logistical background – providing communication, administrative service, technical workers, accommodation and catering for participants
2. Content-related preparation – work of experts (gathering and making the analysis of available data on the situation of older people), preparing research tools to examine sociological situation, the analysis of legal conditions and actions within social policy
3. Public opinion research – comparative research on public opinion conducted on a stochastic sample of Gdańsk and Kaliningrad residents (each group of 300 people respectively) concerning the issue of perceiving older people, their situation and social roles, problems and ways of solving them as well as stereotypes related to getting older and the old age; computing results, preparing the report
4. preparing the diagnosis of situation by experts on the basis of previously collected information and results of public opinion research
5. 3-day working seminar in Gdańsk directed to people dealing with social policy in the scope of solving problems of older people and to people, including ONZ representatives, local authorities and NGOs, working for the older social group. The participants (about 50 people, 25 from each partner country). 1st day – experts’ speeches presentation and promotion of millennium development objectives involving problems of older people; WHO strategy on solving problems of older people; Presentation results of law analysis; Exchange of information and experience 2nd day - ”Against discrimination of older people” – working seminar for people dealing with problems of older society. The aim of these working seminar is to make people aware of the existing factors and discriminatory behaviours as well as to work out counteract actions 3rd day participants discussion on the attempt to set up an international coalition for incorporating ONZ rules for older people and future operation of this coalition elaboration and acceptance of documents establishing the international coalition for incorporating ONZ rules for older people
6. working out and printing materials being the project product “Handbook for a worker dealing with problems of older people” which include the diagnosis of experts and their recommendations for practical actions within social policy, lectures from working seminar and the report from public opinion research, documents relating to establishment of international coalition for incorporating ONZ rules for older people (300 copies, bilingual version) and their dissemination in interested environment.
7. project evaluation – evaluation questionnaire directed to project participants, evaluation meeting with project executors, assessment of results, intentions for future Target audience and beneficiaries of this Project Target groups : directly: people meeting in their everyday work with problems of older people, workers of welfare service, medical service, government and self-administration, educational institutions and labour market institutions, NGOs from Kaliningrad district (25 people) with the participation of the corresponding staff (25 people); indirectly: people above 50 years old from Kaliningrad district (ca. 260,000) Working language(s) and translation(s) of this Project Russian and Polish are working languages. . Polish party will provide translation and interpretation: Consecutive and simultaneous interpretations, translation of project materials. Results and Evaluation of Results What are the expected practical short- and medium-term results of this project? acquiring knowledge about perceiving the problem of ageing and older people by means of public opinion, identification of existing stereotypes; preparing the diagnosis of older people situation in Kaliningrad district by experts and their recommendations for social policy; participation in the working seminar enables change of one’s awareness and acquiring new knowledge on ageing and older people problems by the work of 25 people working or acting socially for older people; preparing and disseminating “Handbook for a worker dealing with problems of older people” (300 copies) in paper version and available on the project web; preparing programme and establishment documents for creating the international coalition for older people. What are the anticipated long-term results of this project? setting up the international coalition for older people; changes in social policy in Kaliningrad district in harmony with ONZ and WHO directives; paying older people attention to human rights and discrimination problems towards older people due to the media campaign – gradual change of stereotypes. What will be the local impact of this project? change in the way of thinking of people and institutions working with older people in Kaliningrad district in harmony with ONZ and WHO directives; gradual changes in social policy actions in Kaliningrad district. What will be the international impact of this project? this project is aimed to build friendly neighbourhood as due to its realization there will be possible exchange of information and experience as well as integration of environments working for older people in Kaliningrad district and Gdańsk; establishment of the international coalition for older people will make the real base for cooperation and realization of joined projects for Polish and Russian parties. What methodology will the applicant use to evaluate this project? In case of direct short-term project objectives, the evaluation will conducted by evaluation meeting of Polish and Russian executors and by evaluation survey directed to the participants of particular tasks. Regarding long-term goals, the evaluation will be carried out in the form of long-term monitoring and annual contacts with Russian participants. What indicators will the applicant use to measure the results of this project? It will be affirmed whether these indicators correspond with the application assumptions. Participation indicators: 25 people from Russian party and 25 people from Polish party. Operational indicators: 1 research on public opinion (300 respondents from each party). One 3-day workshop. Product indicator: 1 report from public opinion research, 1 diagnosis prepared by experts, 1 “Handbook for a worker dealing with problems of older people”. In perspective, NGO platform – international coalition for older people – is to be built. What follow-up is planned to continue tracking this project’s impact after its completion? This project will be continued by actions being its consequence. The establishment of the international coalition for older people will act as a forum for information and experience exchange as well as the base for shaping, preparing and realizing joined programmes depending on specified needs.
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