<< Background >>According to Art. 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, any ‘discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited’. Where ageism occurs, older adults – especially those with functional restrictions, chronic diseases and disabilities – often feel excluded from society and face major hurdles to their social participation. In addition to the untapped contributions these groups could make, research shows that ageism has harmful effects on both the physical and mental health of older adults. Ageism has been shown to impact on one's life expectancy, and to cause cardiovascular stress, lowered levels of self-efficacy and productivity.Across the EU, policies and practices still reflect ageist prejudices and deprioritise, disregard or even exclude older adults. Structural ageism is a form of systematic stereotyping and discrimination and can be defined as a way in which society and its institutions sustain ageist attitudes. It can be found, among others, in the legal system, the media and the economy, but also in the Third Sector. It takes the form of upper age limits, the inadequate provision of services for the needs of older people, failure to take situations or aspirations of individuals into account when making decisions or allocating resources, and the segregation of people in later life due to a lack of real choice to remain present and active in their communities.Ageing is a universal experience. Hence anyone who lives long enough to be labelled as ‘old’ will potentially be a victim of ageism and likely to experience stereotyping, stigmatisation and discrimination. According to a still prevailing perspective in society, old age is considered a personal problem, not that of the environment that does not adequately respond to our human diversity. Ageism involves systematic discrimination against people on the grounds of their age, often in close relation to ableism that defines people with certain disabilities as inferior and assign or deny them specific abilities, skills, or character orientations. As with other discrimination, ageism takes various forms ranging from stereotyping to mistreatment and abuse. Moreover, ageism leads to violations of human rights on the grounds of age that often go unnoticed or are accepted, also by older people themselves who may be unaware of their rights being breached. In this context, the negative effects of ageism tend to be denied or are not considered to be as serious and harmful as other forms of discrimination.Older people need to be encouraged to reflect their own negative biases towards old age and to be protected from condescending attitudes and practices that often go together with patronising. This applies to an extremely high degree when old age goes together with vulnerability and they depend on the support by others. However, persons engaged in the social or healthcare sector as staff, volunteers or informal carers are not free of ageist attitudes.Ageism is a phenomenon that is found in all European countries and is in need to be tackled not only in one of the Member States.By working towards the planned project results, our transnational cooperation offers opportunities for mutual learning and developing strategies that respond to a similar challenge in different cultural settings. In this context, the SAA project is also addressing vital needs of the partner organisations involved.<< Objectives >>The consortium members share the belief, that measures are needed to promote self-reflection efforts among persons of all age-groups and to develop an understanding for the harm that can result from ageism. By implementing the project, we want to achieve the following results for particular target groups:• We want to develop a learning game that is particularly directed at paid staff and volunteers in social and healthcare organisations who are usually highly burdened by workloads and short of time. Taking their strains into account we intend to offer them an informal learning experience with a playful approach in order to increase their understanding of ageism and enable them to reflect on their attitudes and practices.• Although the game can be applied as a stand-alone tool, its effects will deepen if applied in a non-formal learning environment. A toolkit for adult educators will give support in conducting workshops in which the SAA game is applied. The tools will also consider the special needs of associations and lobby-groups of seniors to run such workshops as facilitators. They are in direct touch with older people, with colleagues from the Third Sector, and with decision-makers in authorities which puts them in a position to make attractive educational offers. • Ageism is pervasive, and many old people are not aware of their discrimination or even share ageist attitudes. Therefore, we want to create a game that will be intuitive and easy-to-handle and can be used to initiate self-reflection and a new view to age diversity. Older adults in particular need support in (re-)developing self-assurance and confidence in their own strengths, talents and abilities.In summary, the SAA project aims to create a low-threshold and playful access to the experiential worlds of older adults, especially when suffering from functional restrictions, chronic diseases and disability. This serves to promote a self-reflective and emphatic examination of the topic through an educational game. For this purpose, accompanying material for stakeholders in adult education, decision-makers in associations and municipalities as well as for the broad public is intended to add to the personal impacts of playing the game.In addition to this, at European and international level, we want to be a best practice example for tackling the problem of ageism in a playful and non-accusatory way, and inspire other organisations to also apply the SAA game. Additionally, the gained experiences and project results will enrich the discourse in the field of adult education and research. The SAA consortium members can present the educational game, its underlying methodology and project outcomes in terms of accompanying material and the feedback from learners and other stakeholders in social and healthcare provision. By doing so, we also want to strengthen our local, regional, national and European networks, broaden our portfolios with new and attractive offers to our primary audiences from the social and healthcare sectors, train their staff and volunteers, provide the opportunity to share experiences across borders and hence help them to better fulfil their missions.<< Implementation >>In order to achieve the project objectives and deliver the planned results, we will elaborate four Project Results. They form different components for an integrated training offer but can be also used independently from each other:• To find out more about the impacts of ageist situations and strategies how to cope with them, we will collect experience reports, testimonials, frequently used allegations, argumentation patterns and forms of self-protection. The results will also provide a solid basis for developing the scenes of the game. They will be documented in national summaries and synthesised in a European compendium. The deliverable will be edited as online publication and contribution to the public discourse, and it will serve as a basis for PR2.• We will create an interactive learning platform with the SAA game at its core that will be accompanied by a library and materials for adult educators, including a workshop curriculum, a trainer manual and a template for certificates, and for stakeholders at political level. In developing the game and e-learning platform, the project partners will make use of co-creation methodologies to include the voice of older people. For the development of the scenes of the game, we will conduct workshops with persons who have experienced ageism and are ready to share its impacts. They will also assess the scenes elaborated by the responsible partners and initiate improvements if necessary. In the second step, the scripts and scenarios will be translated into technical qualification. The beta version of the game will be tested in local workshops with staff and volunteers from the social and healthcare sector. Based on these results, the alpha version will be completed, and the learning platform will be equipped with accompanying documents and media.• For using the game in a non-formal learning setting, we will develop a toolkit for trainers including a curriculum and trainer manual with instructions on how to make use of the game. Adult educators who are not yet experienced in applying digital media will be provided with aids for using digital media in general and the SAA learning games. A specific section will deal with needs of members of lobby-groups of seniors to conduct workshops for the target groups in the social and healthcare sector. Like the beta version of the game, PR3 will be tested by local learners and adapted where necessary.• Further support will be given to policy-makers as well as lobby groups and associations in educational and socio-political fields that are elementary to spread knowledge about the existence of these learning opportunity and to foster its implementation. To do so, we will elaborate recommendations on how to promote diversity and empathy for victims of ageism and to facilitate the usage of the game and the learning platform. Multiplier events at national and European level will also be used as communication and dissemination channels.Horizontal tasks accompanying the whole process of the implementation of pilot courses and the delivery of results embrace:• Project management and coordination, including regular communication among partners and the promotion of an open, outcome-oriented working atmosphere;• Quality assurance by peer reviews, the feedback of learners at the end of the courses and other measures specified in a quality plan;• Sharing and promotion activities by all project partners at local, regional, national and European levels to reach out to relevant stakeholders as well as the interested public under the lead of a dissemination manager according to a sharing and promotion plan.<< Results >>Upon completion of the project, four core outputs will have been established:• The compendium 'Responding to ageism' based on personal experiences of being a target of age discrimination as well as of strategies to cope with the situation.• The SAA interactive learning platform with the learning game at its core and further material for learners, adult educators, policy-makers in authorities and associations, and the broad public.• The toolkit for trainers with all necessary material to implement the game in workshops, also enabling members of seniors lobby-groups to offer trainings.• Recommendations for policy-makers, lobby-groups and associations to tackle the problems of ageism.The SAA tool will enable learners from the social and healthcare sector to identify forms of age discrimination. They will be encouraged to reflect on their attitudes and to reconsider parts of them that may be problematic. Through learning about the perspectives and feelings of those concerned by discrimination, they will develop empathy and gain knowledge about ageism as a harmful and discriminatory phenomenon that is influencing the way they think, feel and interact with older persons. Hence, learners are supported to change their practices towards less stigmatising, more respectful and inclusive mindset and attitudes of older adults.Adult educators will be provided with a free and state-of-the-art tool including a framework for self-reflective discussions among their staff and the players of the game. They will be able to include them in existing educational modules or use the game elements to create new workshops on related issues. Lobby-groups of seniors will be supported to take on multiplying and training functions for staff and volunteers of social and healthcare providers. Through their contacts with social associations and local authorities, they are in an excellent position to identify ageist situations and behaviours and offer support and training with the tools developed in this project.Policy-makers will be provided with a brochure on problems and solutions to ageist practices as well as the relevance of anti-discriminatory educational work and how to support it. By encouraging involvement and education for everyone, they can contribute age diversity in our societies. Lobby-groups, NGOs and initiatives will gain information, arguments and strategies to reinforce this development. Through various dissemination and communication means, the broad public will be made more aware of the pervasiveness of ageism. The SAA game will contribute to a strengthening of tolerance of diversity and non-discrimination in coping with older adults by training empathy and the ability to change perspective. The project outcomes will be reinforced at local, regional, national and European level through the on-going activities and their communication (newsletters, social media, articles, the involvement of governmental organisations, adult educators, lobby-groups, etc.) Ideally, this will lead to a more inclusive public environment which is respectful of diverse age groups and abilities, and to changes in the knowledge, attitudes as well as personal and professional practices.Last but not least, by developing new practices and methods to combat ageism, the SAA consortium members along with their associated partners will have strengthened their links at European level, introduced their staff - most importantly: new colleagues - to transnational work experiences, and broadened their expertise and range of services by another attractive educational offer.

Mentoring Across Borders (MAB) aims to support, through lifelong learning, the educational, professional and personal development of people by developing, testing and validating an intergenerational, cross-border mentoring programme occurring between older, experienced people (mentors, 50+) and young mentees (18-30y.o.) at risk of marginalization. MAB builds on the successful outcomes of the Erasmus+ EvolYou project by enhancing its best practices and transferring its innovation on a pan-European level by:a. Redefining, improving and formalizing the mentoring methodology. b. Setting-up a pan-European mentoring network, comprised of voluntary or senior associations and NGOs across Europe, that will act as Mentoring Hubs between mentors and mentees. c. Developing a web-based Mentoring Platform, to facilitate the onboarding of participants (organizations, mentors, mentees) to the mentoring programme and enable cross-country matching between mentors and mentees. d. Implementing and evaluating the proposed mentoring programme for at least six months with the involvement of 120 mentors and 120 mentees from East and Southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania and Poland), where the impact of the programme on improving the employability of youngsters will be more evident. e. Achieving pan-European visibility of the project, to promote active citizenship of older people and advocate on the benefits of the proposed approach for young adults (NEETs) to policy makers and stakeholders across Europe. Through the partnership of Western, Eastern and Southern European organizations, the project provides an excellent opportunity for participating organizations to exchange experiences and best practices with peer organizations across Europe, to increase the quality and relevance of their activities, develop and reinforce their networks of partners and increase their capacity to operate at transnational level.