On the 4th of June, Senior Eco-Nect hosted in Brussels its final conference : the Senior Eco-Nect Summit – Shaping Europe Silver Future.
The day started with a keynote speech from Julia Wadoux, policy manager at AGE Platform Europe, which is an advocacy organization aiming at promoting a society with equal opportunities for all ages. AGE Platform Europe is committed to fight ageism.
By tracing the political and regulatory context in Europe, she shared how the European institutions are taking seniors into account and how the challenges of an ageing society are being integrated into the political agenda. In fact, this issue is rarely addressed, and when it is, it is often from a health perspective, with senior citizens seen solely as patients.
This echoes the strategic objectives of the Senior Eco-Nect project: to develop the potential of the silver economy, particularly outside the health and care sectors, and to contribute to a better adaptation of society to ageing by bringing together all the organizations concerned in ecosystems conducive to collaboration.
To take these ambitions beyond the end of the project, Eurasanté, the project coordinator, presented the achievements and the broad outlines of a joint action plan, calling on new partners to join the adventure. The aim of the action plan is to create a truly European community of silver economy stakeholders and to facilitate and support projects and collaborations between and within eco-systems.
Good practices were also presented during the Summit.
IKIGAI 55 is an Erasmus + project promoting healthy lifestyle, preventive sports, and digital inclusion among seniors, by combining motivation theory, new training design and smart technologies.
L’adaptelier offers a clothing adaptation service so that people with specific needs (e.g. related to care or disability) can keep their own clothes and assert their identity.
ATENDO presented Peniche living, a new model of care homes with open doors, fully integrated in the neighborhood.
GRAN3DAD shared a specific methodology, ©️IFEELtheMethod, designed to change the care model in organizations, by enhancing self-determination.
Finally, the day ended with a panel discussion on the topic “Synergies in Silver: Sectorial Perspectives on Advancing the Senior Eco-Nect Agenda”. This discussion was led by Alberto Bichi (Executive Director at EPSI), alongside the following panelists : Iván Rarís Filgueira (Managing Director of Galician Health Cluster), Helen McGuirk (Head of the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence at Munster Technological University), Anna Grazia Laura (President of the European Network for Accessible Tourism), Boris Cizelj (Director of Knowledge Economy Network) and Fanny Boyaval (Innovation Officer at Clubster NHL).
