Community Scouts

With this project, we aimed to develop a toolkit that would be available online for citizens who wanted to support older adults living in their communities. The toolkit's goal was to equip citizen...

With this project, we aimed to develop a toolkit that would be available online for citizens who wanted to support older adults living in their communities. The toolkit's goal was to equip citizens with the skills to become Community Scouts and equip community professionals with the right training tools to do so. Professionals would then be able to train citizens to organise social activities in their neighbourhoods to enhance social cohesion, assist older adults with daily tasks, and act as a bridge between older adults and professionals by notifying them when professional support was needed. Ultimately, this project aimed to contribute to enabling older adults to continue living independently at home for longer by fostering social connections, providing support, and ensuring timely professional intervention when necessary.

We have conducted the following activities: 1. Kick-off meeting in Gouda – Led by AFEdemy to set objectives and roles. 2. Focus group with community scouts – Led by AFEdemy to define the content and format of the training toolkit. 3. Desk study on training content – Led by ISIS to gather relevant materials and best practices. 4. Transnational partner meeting in Germany – Led by ISIS to review progress and coordinate efforts. 5. Development of the training toolkit – Led by AFEdemy based on earlier findings. 6. Testing of the training toolkit – Led by VmZ with the target population to assess effectiveness. 7. Finalisation of the training and toolkit – Led by AFEdemy, incorporating feedback from testing.

As part of this project, we have developed the following resources: - Guides in Dutch, English, and German for professionals who want to get started working with citizens as volunteers in the community. - Guides in Dutch, English, and German for citizens who want to become active in their communities to support vulnerable neighbours. - Infographics in Dutch, English, and German for professionals to provide clear, visual guidance on engaging and working with community volunteers. - Infographics in Dutch, English, and German for citizens, offering simple, visual steps on how to become active in their communities and support vulnerable neighbours. - An evaluation questionnaire in Dutch, English, and German for professionals to assess their workshops, sessions, and training activities for volunteers. This serves as an add-on to the guides, helping professionals improve their training approaches based on participant feedback. - A video series consisting of six videos featuring four citizens and two professionals All the outputs can be found on www.communityscouts.eu and on the Erasmus+ results platform.