EngAge at any age - Denmark

Our partner from Denmark, SOSU, began their intergenerational activity within the first project result. We invite you read below about their experience.

We conducted 4 workshops with a total of 23 participants in the age range 18-62 years. The workshops were based on dialog and mindmaps created by each group, and the overall topic were ageism, and the experience of this topic in their everyday life including worklife.

Both younger and older participants had heard of ageism, but didn’t think much of it in their daily life. They all agreed that the topic should be a bigger part of education, daily discussions and communication in society, and that we have to be more aware of the topic in order to change things in society.
They also stated that in Denmark, when we talk about ageism, the focus is on the older generation, despite the fact, that the young participants have also experienced it in their daily life.

All participants agreed that we can learn a lot from each other, if we have different ages and cultural backgrounds. The older generation has lifelong learning and skills they can share with the younger generation to widen the perspective, whereas the younger generation are very skilled digitally and might also have some new innovative thoughts on the workplace, routines, society etc. Also, when talking about activities, it is important to have a focus on the different learning competences for example that the activities must be facilitated at a speed all generations can embrace, so it is not too fast or too slow. The focus must be on the specific activity, rather than on the age- and cultural differentials. 
Older and younger participants stated, that ageism was a matter for all regardless of age – they had all experienced it in different way. They all stated that they are positive in participating in activities across age, gender and culture.