Objectives
The EU project Senior-Guides was carried out between 2009 and 2011. The project consortium consisted of Austrian partner organisations (queraum, SeniorInnenbüro Graz, Volkshilfe Steiermark) and other partners based in Germany, Italy, Lithuania and the UK and was supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. The project aimed at qualifying older volunteers to develop and carry out information tours for peers to inform them about relevant services and organisations in their community.
Based on the positive experiences collected in the EU project, the "Senior Guides" will now be implemented in the Viennese district Leopoldstadt. This new Vienna-based project will focus on the issue of health promotion.
Implementation
The first part of the new "Senior Guides" project will be dedicated to a revision of the training curriculum and the integration of health promotion as training content. In the second part of the project, the volunteers will develop their "Health Tours" that they will in the future provide for older citizens of the Leopoldstadt.
"Senior Guides in Vienna" will give service providers and other organisations that are visited on the informations tours the possibility to reach the target group of older people. Senior Guides that do already voluntary work for service providers and other voluntary organisations will be empowered to transfer their new knowledge and skills to their organisations and their staff.