We have ideas for creative
and active senior years!


The Golden Age Atlas Program was run between November 2002 and September 2003 by the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland in cooperation with the Klon/Jawor Association. The Program was co-financed by the European Union through the Phare ACCESS 2000 Program.

Over the past 50 years the number of senior citizens doubled in Poland. In 1950, individuals aged 60 or over constituted 8.2 percent of the total population, while in 2002 that figure was at almost 17 percent. According to the forecasts of the Central Statistical Office (GUS), in 2020 senior citizens will constitute approx. 22 percent of the populace.
In our opinion, senior citizens' issues are not discussed often enough in Poland and there are no significant programs targeting that group. Senior citizens are usually not wealthy and lonely, which makes them stay home remaining inactive.
Actions taken by social organizations can help improve the situation of senior citizens. In Poland, very few associations or foundation run programs for seniors. Apart from financial barriers, often the main obstacle for such initiatives is the lack of solid knowledge on how to help seniors effectively, how to encourage them to be active and help others.

Running the Golden Age Atlas Program, we intended to:
- test what initiatives engaging senior citizens are implemented in various places around Poland;
- promote the most interesting examples for effective work with seniors;
- strengthen the exchange of information between those organizations and institutions which work with senior citizens.

At the onset of the program, questionnaires were mailed out to organizations and institutions from all over the country, with a request to describe their activities undertaken with the aim of helping seniors. We wanted to gather the descriptions of those programs which were found interesting, effective and worth sharing by organizers themselves. In this way, we collected information about 385 initiatives of this kind. NGOs, public institutions, businesses, individuals and informal groups were offered to join the program.

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TARGET GROUP:
The elderly people and organizations targeting at such people

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Seniors Initiative Database, available on the NGO portal [www]