Eighteen percent of Gorzów Wielkopolski residents are senior – most single and suffering of poor financial conditions. Local organisations support around 5% of the needy. The All-Polish Children of War Congress (Strzelce Krajeńskie, 2013) showcased the need to better social and material circumstances of the community in question. Organisational experience and questionnaire studies prove that senior citizens wish to integrate, develop and activate.
The project purpose was to prevent the exclusion and improve the quality of life for senior citizens, children of war generation in particular.
The physical condition and rate of intra- and inter-generational integration of the elderly were improved; they became more active in their communities. Works began to form the Elders Council of Gorzów; seniors’ postulates were included in the city’s Social Policy Strategy.
The following were delivered: daily (5 days a week) joint breakfasts, education classes (music, dance, psychosocial skills, theatre, manual skills, sports – ca. 30 participants), 6 healthy lifestyle, psychology, and gerontology lectures (43 attendants), 2 cinema and 5 theatre trips, 1 philharmonic outing (40 spectators each), field trip to Cracow, Wieliczka and Oświęcim (38 persons), autumn outdoor trip (40 attendants), St. Andrew’s Day and carnival parties (for 60 and 70 senior citizens, respectively), and a Grandmother’s and Grandfather’s Day theatrical event with performance (380 viewers). Thirty seniors started to be engaged in volunteer work and animation of joint activities with kindergarten and schoolchildren, the disabled, and other senior citizens (53 meetings). Two marches (300 participants each) were co-organised with veterans’ and pensioners’ entities, closing with an appeal to the City Council of Gorzów to form an Elders Council and include senior-friendly entries in the city’s social strategy.
Project beneficiaries included 62 persons (50 women, 12 men) aged 60-92 from Gorzów Wielkopolski and the local area.