e-Active: Fostering competences to promote active ageing through a social participation e-tool

Population ageing is one of the most important changes facing our society and, according to the World Health Organisation (2020), there will be two billion people over the age of 60 by 2050. In general terms, the ageing process is characterised by decreased physiological activity and increased vulnerability (Alonso et al., 2007 and Fried et al., 2003). This vulnerability was exacerbated during confinement. Older people experienced more social restrictions (Wynants et al., 2020) that affected their physical, cognitive and psychological health and also their social relationships. In this situation, new technologies were a lifeline. They became essential tools for socialising, but their use is not equal. It is lower in older people (Seifert, Cotton, & Xie, 2021) despite its advantages. Given this fact, the e-Active project has aimed to extend the benefits of new technologies to older people by creating an electronic tool adapted to the needs of older people. In particular, the project has focused on improving their physical, cognitive and social health.

The overall objective of this project was to develop an electronic tool with activities that could promote active and healthy ageing through social participation. To this end, professionals working with older people were trained to be active agents. In addition, a digital tool was developed that could help professionals to promote active ageing and, in parallel, improve the digital skills of older people. Under this general objective, the project set out to achieve the following specific objectives: • Develop a user-friendly electronic tool for the elderly. • Fostering the skills of professionals through a training programme. • Promote active ageing, social and civic participation and the principles of environmental sustainability among older people in European societies. • To improve and increase the use of new technologies by older people.

The e-active project firstly organised several co-creation sessions (one with professionals and one with older people) in four European countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Italy and Spain). The results of these sessions allowed the elaboration of a syllabus that served as a basis for the development of the course for professionals "Promoting Active ageing through New Technologies", which consisted of 6 modules. which consisted of 6 modules and is available on the project website. It proposes a set of activities to promote digital skills, active ageing, social and civic participation. Finally, an electronic tool to promote active ageing was created and currently contains online activities on: physical exercise, memory stimulation and social participation. During the pilots, there were also face-to-face activities. Finally, 6 Multiplier events and a C1 were organised.

The e-Active project is organised around four results which have produced the following results. It should be noted that the results are available from the project website under a free licence (https://e-active.eu/es/). Result 1: A final report has been elaborated, gathering the conclusions of the 4 national reports on the results of the co-creation sessions, with older people and professionals, on the needs of older people, the needs of professionals and the best practices related to the use of e-tools for the social and civic participation of older people. With these results the syllabus of the course "Promoting Active ageing through New Technologies" was elaborated. Result 2: The contents of the course for professionals "Promoting Active ageing through New Technologies", which consists of 6 modules and is available on the project website in six different languages, have been developed. It contains both theory and practical activities to be carried out with older people. Outcome 3: A set of activities have been developed to promote digital skills and active ageing. The activities have been classified into three categories: physical, cognitive and social participation. The activities have incorporated e-tool (PR4) and during the pilots have been tested in both face-to-face and online modalities. Three pilots have been organised (Bulgaria, Italy and Poland) where both e-tool and its activities have been tested. Result 4: The development of a user-friendly electronic tool (in web app format) that could be adapted to various levels of digital skills of seniors that is available through the project website and includes the catalogue of activities created in PR3 (https://tool.e-active.eu/).