SILVER CITY partners firstly establish local stakeholder platforms with municipalities, employment services, senior representation groups, training providers and local employers, leading to sustainable cooperation models/agreements. This is important, because the project outputs shall be elaborated together with local stakeholders, in due partnership.
SILVER CITY is a strategy planning and policy oriented project, a transnational cooperation project. However we have small scale investments in the frame of the local pilots, this is not about infrastructure building. This project is about exchange and learning of good practices related to active ageing. This project is about learning.
Active ageing is defined by the World Health Organization (Active Ageing - A Policy Framework, 2002) as the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. It allows people to realize their potential for well-being throughout their lives and to participate in society according to their needs, desires and capabilities, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they need assistance. The well-known and dramatic demographic changes in Europe present certain challenges and opportunities as well. Population ageing may increase pressure on public budgets and pension systems. Old age is very often associated with illness and dependency, and older people can feel excluded from employment as well as from family and community life. There is a fear that accelerated ageing of Europe's societies could lead to the older generations becoming too heavy burden on younger, working-age people and that this could result in tensions between the generations.
