Puppetry as a Way to Stimulate Relationships between Generations

Project location: SPAIN, Barcelona
Project start date: January 2019 - Project end date: December 2019
Project number: 2018-032
Beneficiary: Asociación Solidaria Con La Tercera Edad De Barcelona

ASTE BCN Works to improve the quality of life of the older adults through volunteer programs with young students.

The association started its activities in 2015, and since then it has developed five different areas of improvement: accompaniment, leisure time, self-esteem, stimulation and education for older people.

The association has 60 partners, it is federated in different networks (FCVS,FATEC) and collaborates with ten universities, ten residences, and other training schools through which they can make their projects known.

ASTE BCN is part of the Catalan Federation of Social Volunteers that has a platform where projects can be posted to allow its dissemination.

ASTE's mission addresses several issues: the ageing of the population, longevity, isolation, outdatedness, passivity, the need for human relationships and social participation.

The association has found that in recent years there has been a marked increase in the population of the elderly, and this has generated a clear interest in knowing the ways to provide welfare to this increasingly numerous group.

Without a doubt, well-being leads the person to increase their self-esteem. It seems clear that any contribution to improving the physical and psychological well-being of older people will have a positive effect on their self-esteem and, therefore, on their general condition. Within the group of older people, people living in residential centres are living conditions that involve a certain complexity. The first problem is the social isolation of this group, that sometimes is lived as confinement. Often the rest of society ignores them, seeing them as inactive citizens, antiquated and as an economic and social burden.

This project is framed within the association’s programs of entertainment and motivation.

Entertainment: is a program that develops specific events in the residences with the aim of breaking the routines and entertain residents in their daily life.

Motivation: is a program that develops workshops that stimulate residents at a cognitive and physical level.

The project will be carried out in the ten residences with which ASTE has signed a collaboration agreement, located in the city of Barcelona.

The project includes two activities:

- Organization of a puppet creation workshop (stimulation program)

- Representation of a play with puppets (entertainment program)

The association has a technical team of two people who will lead the workshop with two experts in the field who have a puppet theatre company, the professional team of the center (psychologist, social educator) and a group of volunteers from the theatre school that will participate in the workshop with the elderly. The project consists in the realization of a puppet-making workshop in the residences, and later improvisation featuring residents and young volunteers.

There will also be a cycle of puppet shows of 45-50 minutes by the company NAKU, a company with which the association collaborates,  in different homes.

With this project, which received a grant from the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, Delegació a Catalunya, the association expects to reach around 350 elderly, carrying out 11 shows over the year.