About the project

Social Circles aims to combat loneliness in older adults by using adult education as a tool. Adult education provides a multifaceted approach, offering social interaction, purpose, and continuous learning. It seeks to overcome barriers to adult education participation by providing support through a bespoke suite of educational resources. Overall, the project strives to build inclusive learning environments, increase adult education uptake, and encourage community engagement among older adults.

Objectives

• Fighting loneliness among older adults using adult learning as a tool.
• Social Circles aims to overcome barriers to participation in adult education by providing support through a tailored range of educational resources.
• The project aims to create inclusive learning environments, increase participation in adult education and promote community engagement between older adults.

Activities

• A bespoke Community Coaching Programme that provides educational and emotional support.
• Bite-sized micro-learning resources.
• Educators’ Toolbox.
• Community learning festivals.

Results

The project aims to combat loneliness among older adults through adult education. It will develop a toolbox of micro-learning resources (WP2), a community coaching program (WP3), organise Community Learning Festivals (WP4) and produce a robust Recommendations Paper (WP5). These initiatives promote local learning centres, engage older learners and break barriers to education participation. The project targets adult educators to become community leaders, coaches and promoters of lifelong learning.

Impact

• Social Circles aims to re-engage older adult learners in adult education initiatives to help re-establish the social circles they may have lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Creating and promoting learning opportunities among all citizens and organisations.
• Promoting local learning hubs and innovative learning spaces.
• Increasing the number of participants and improving inclusion and accessibility.

Partners

• Be – Creative association (coordinator, Sweden)
• IC Geoss (Slovenia)
• The Rural Hub CLG (Ireland)
• Skills Elevation FHB (Germany)
• M3 MCube association (France)
• Insieme per la Solidarietà Roma 1 (Italy)

Project duration: 1.11.2024 till 31.10.2026