'Start early' is the main message
from project partners at the close of BALL, a two-year project led by the Evris
Foundation in Iceland, in which Reykjavik (Iceland) and Lublin (Poland)
Universities of the Third Age and the Permanent University of the University of
Alicante (UPUA) also participated. The project
(pdf file) addressed the urgent need to establish directives and best practices
for preparing individuals early for retirement, stressing the importance of
on-going learning, environment and cultural factors, and knowledge sharing.
The figures indicate that in welfare
societies a person aged 50-55 has between ten and fifteen years before
retirement, and then twenty more years of a full and active life after that. It
is essential, then, that we ask ourselves what we want to do with our time
during this period of our lives; what might we need to train in beforehand,
from financial and legal issues, to preventive health, social skills, leisure
activities, dependence prevention.
One of the researcher ConcepciĆ³n
Bru stresses the importance of carrying out awareness-raising campaigns on the
value of the third age in society, aimed both at the general public and those
approaching retirement: "More and more people are living longer and in
better health [and] the sudden stop in the activity you have spent your whole
life engaged in" can lead to depression
and related mental health issues.
Encouraging physical activity and
inspiring a sense of inclusion and purpose is the overarching goal of the BALL
project, but the key for Bru is that retirees, or those approaching retirement,
are able to "reinvent themselves. Engage in something they've never done
before, like volunteering. If you prepare yourself in good time and with good
organisation and guidance, a better retirement is possible".
The idea, Bru tells us, is to
continue work in the EU to put these recommendations into practice. Indeed,
they are already being implemented by companies that took part in the project,
as well as at an institutional level, via the regional ministry of education
and the University of Alicante. Not to mention at the UPUA itself: "Much
of the material we already teach is straight out of the project
recommendations. This is why they asked us to participate, for our
experience" (Bru).
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