On Thursday June 10th, EuropeActive organised the second partners’ meeting of the “Active Ageing Communities” project. The ambition of this Erasmus+ project is to create communities for healthy and active older people in fitness centres from 6 European countries, and in different community settings. Over 2 years it will involve around 500 older adults through a comprehensive programme set up by experts from the University of Southern Denmark, addressing behavioural, mental, and socioeconomic barriers to physical activity in later life by proposing a mix of methodologies from already successful projects together with the new piloting based on an innovative intergenerational approach.
After a short update on administration and finances, the meeting was an opportunity to present in detail the operational version of the AAC programme, and its accompanying manual, which is designed with four different modules: educational awareness; social inclusion and connectiveness; exercise; and behavioural change. The programme will specifically help to reduce levels of social isolation and exclusion of older people, whilst also promoting the importance of regular physical activity and healthy lifestyles.
During the meeting, partners also outlined their plans and strategies for the implementation of the programme in their respective countries over the next 9 months. Now that clubs have started to re-open in Europe after continued closure due to the COVD-19 pandemic, the implementation will begin shortly in the selected 18 fitness centres and sport clubs in the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal.
Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months: https://www.europeactive-euaffairs.eu/projects/active-ageing-communities