Project: Open Homes. Celebrating Together
Area 3. Building democratic culture and civic engagement at local level (including activism for environment and climate change)
There is no doubt that nursing homes play an important role in the community. However, they are often perceived as closed, anachronistic and isolated institutions. A nursing home is seldom the first choice for an NGO seeking a partner for joint activities. This stereotypical perception was tackled by the Pole Dialogu Foundation in their ‘Open Homes. Celebrating Together’ project.
But why ‘celebrating together’? The Foundation brought our attention to an important need in today’s society: in times of uncertainty, anxiety and changes that occur so rapidly, we crave warmth, kindness and positive messages that strengthen us and give us hope. Hence the idea of a ‘celebration’ and a local festivity for people and institutions that make up the local community.
Nursing homes as partner institutions
‘Open Homes. Celebrating Together’ proposes to look at nursing homes as institutions with unique resources and potential for local action. They are not only beneficiaries seeking support to solve their problems. They are also the space where meetings take place. They employ committed, caring and often very enterprising employees, who successfully tackle everyday challenges and deficits. And their residents are people with many years of experience, knowledge, skills and a desire to be needed.
The nursing homes participating in the project opened themselves up to local cooperation. “The phrase ‘open homes’ refers to the concept of neighbourliness, because our main idea was to connect the homes with local institutions, NGOs or other facilities. (…) We wanted to support nursing homes in establishing and strengthening local relationships,” says Marta Zabłocka, the project coordinator (source: Domy Otwarte – wykorzystać potencjał DPS-ów [wywiad]).
For the local community, cooperation with a nursing home is an opportunity to implement intergenerational activities, bringing together different resources and perspectives. It is also an educational potential: exchanging and acquiring the knowledge necessary to face the challenges of an ageing society – ‘learning how to grow old’.
The spectrum of institutions and organisations involved in activities with participating nursing homes was wide. These included the Rural Housewives’ Clubs, the Volunteer Fire Brigade, the museum, the County Office, the Cultural Centre, or the County Youth Council or local businesses.
Celebrating together
An innovative idea in the project is to develop a local celebration – a cyclical event that binds the community together and responds to the need for a positive experience. A local festivity is an opportunity to meet in a neighbourhood – one that brings people together and does not exclude anyone. It is about being together and doing something that brings joy and enriches the knowledge of local resources. It can be something different for each community: a festival, a concert, an open day, an exhibition, an intergenerational meeting or even a conference. It is about sharing resources and creating something of value together, and making sure that working together is a good experience that benefits everyone involved.
What happened in Karolinowo, Żyrardów and Sulejówek?
Nursing homes from Karolinowo and Żyrardów and the Senior Citizen’s Palace in Sulejówek were invited to participate in the project. The Pole Dialogu Foundation’s mentors, together with residents and staff of these three homes, carried out a diagnosis of the needs and potentials of the participating homes and their neighbourhood. Maps were prepared to mark institutions, organisations, places and other local actors with whom cooperation could be established. The Foundation helped the homes to build relationships with potential partners and coordinated the process of developing a new local celebration. In collaboration with the Cotopaxi Film Studio Association, film reports were made about each participating nursing home and a movie combining the stories of each.
Experiences from Norway
The Foundation established cooperation with the Bjerkaker Learning Lab, an NGO supporting seniors in Norway. The cooperation resulted in a study visit, during which institutions running various activities for people over 60 were visited. You can hear about how these facilities operate and what kind of support older adults can receive in Norway in two documentaries: Open Homes. Celebrating Together – Majorstuen Seniorarena i Open Homes. Celebrating Together – Oppsal treffsenter 60 pluss. Sturla Bjerkaker, the manager of the Bjerkaker Learning Lab, interviewed as part of the project describes senior policy in Norway and the systemic solutions for older adults in his country.
Invitation to follow-up
A publication entitled ‘Open Homes. Celebrating Together – an invitation to follow-up’ was elaborated as part of the project. The authors encourage further nursing homes to use the experiences and results of the project to carry out a diagnosis and develop their own local celebration. They show the benefits of nursing homes’ opening up to cooperation. They suggest how – step by step – to create a map, establish relationships and build community. They encourage joint, joyful celebrations.
“I am aware that not all nursing homes are doing well and that systemic changes are needed. At the same time, guided by the spirit of our project – we want to appeal to the agency of the people who make up those homes. To break stereotypes. To share the good news. To create a space for inclusion and for nursing homes and the people who work with them to speak up and tell their stories,” Marta Zabłocka concludes.
The project’s website: http://poledialogu.org.pl/domy-otwarte-wspolne-swietowanie/
Open Homes. Celebrating Together – an invitation to follow-up: https://poledialogu.org.pl/domy-otwarte-wspolne-swietowanie-publikacja-zapraszajaca-do-kontynuacji-projektu/
An ageing society – also in Norway (interview with Sturla Bjerkaker included in the ‘Open Homes. Celebrating Together – an invitation to follow-up’, pp. 58-68)
Domy Otwarte – wykorzystać potencjał DPS-ów – an interview with Marta Zabłocka, coordinator of the ‘Open Homes. Celebrating Together’ project
More information about the project >>
Photos: Julia Czarnecka / Pole Dialogu Foundation and The Nursing home in Żyrardów
