The Final Conference of the Big Foot Project_General Project Presentation

www.bigfoot-project.eu

CROSSING GENERATIONS, CROSSING MOUNTAINS

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CROSSING GENERATIONS, CROSSING MOUNTAINS


- Migration of younger people to urban areas due to the lack of job opportunities

- Socio-cultural marginalization of elderly people, loss of their role as promoters of the local knowledge and traditions

- Lack of opportunities of dialogue among generations and of valorization of existing younger and older inhabitants competences

in order to support sustainable community development

Loss of Intergenerational connections

Sustainable development challenges

Rural Mountain Community Challenge


How? Intergenerational Community Service Learning

•Tool focused on community integration and social dialogue

•Tool aimed at maintaining physically and mentally active lives of older people

•Tool aimed at making them feel they are actually useful to society and not a burden

•Thus that in turn gives them a drive to contribute to community development, while improving at the same time the wellbeing of younger generations.


• Valorizes skills and knowledge of older and younger generations

• Combines in Big Foot traditional knowledge with modern communication tools and expertise in order to enable innovative, creative and productive joint solutions for local sustainable development

The Intergenerational Learning Approach thus


Gubbio, ITALY

Trikala, Greece

Berkovitsa, Bulgaria

Participating Communities


• Local families: through participatory mappings of the territory (answering to questions as: What can be found on our territory ? Where ? What do we want to valorise ? Transmit to the others ?

What do we want to learn?)

• Elderly people: as heritage trainers

• Younger people: as heritage travelers

• Community in general and stakeholders: as heritage beneficiaries

Who was involved


"Participatory Mapping“: communities consultation

– Analysis of local perspectives, community needs and asses of the local environmental, historical and cultural resources

– Bottom up approach

– Dependent on the participation of the community members

– Should reflect their perception endogenous development

– Overview of those learning interventions young and elderly people are interested in, based also on local know-how, which may boost the local development in the long term

Methodology towardsAn Intergenerational Learning Approach


Participatory mapping has been used to develop the Learning and training intervention in the three communities:

– a combination of experiential learning and community service opportunities: focused first on the community needs and integrating them with the seniors experience, fostering the dialogue and solidarity among the generations;

– Elderly locals have acted as trainers of younger people, guardians and messengers of traditional knowledge and specific local culture to the younger generations, tourists and interested stakeholders

Methodology Learning and Training


Bulgaria - Berkovitsa Italy - Gubbio Greece - Trikala

- Excursions and field trips, discovering the surrounding mountains, plant and animal species, learning the names of the mountains, rivers, and the associated history and folklore, as potential touristic routes and destinations

- ICT courses

- Learning about local food production and traditional recipes through Intergenerational Cooking Courses and Lectures;

- Storytelling about the Traditional Intangible Heritage of the Community;- ICT courses

Special class and visit, hiking trips around four thematic sessions:a. Traditional local products and gastronomy;b. Culture: Folklore and traditional handcraft;c. Historical monuments-rural heritage;d. Natural environment and rural tourism.

The Intergenerational Experiments


• Training possibilities and thus tested solutions for the elderly and younger inhabitants to be socially involved and economically active;

• A Transferability Tool Kit: transferring the project experience to other rural areas– printed and digital;

• Intergenerational Approach Handbook;

• Project Website, Communities Livelihood Platform and Facebook Page;

• Guides on intangible heritage and different multimedia material

Results and Outputs


• The purpose of the project is directly linked to the EU Regional policy and especially the idea of the “community led local development”

• Furthermore, it suits perfectly to the current period, defined as a European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations

• It embeds the concept of Sustainable Development of the Local Community (increasing the social cohesion, producing an economic impact and fostering the environment protection) in an Intergenerational prospective

Contribution to the Local Development and EU policies


• Economic development: increasing the added value of existing activities, diversification of local economies (tourism promotion);

• Valorization of human capital: transmission of activities to younger generations; promoting entrepreneurship, development of skills;

• Sustainable management of natural resources, such as through improved dialogue between the community and protected area managers;

• Promotion of culture, local heritage and traditions: ensuring intergenerational communication, maintaining a balance between economic development

Expected Long-Term impact

The Final Conference of the Big Foot Project_General Project Presentation

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