Title of the project:Silver Guru (Italy)

The Silver Guru project was an action directed to senior citizens addressed to reduce their digital-divide and improve their social and cultural inclusion using social media to stay more connected with the young generations.

About the project

Content

Funded by Lazio Region Administration, Silver Guru project has the aim to offer to senior citizens new opportunities to feel active and included in the community. A non-formal training pathway delivered by young mentors about the Social Media and Digital Culture as a tool to connect, share information, develop knowledge and keep in touch with the real life of the young generation. Thanks to the location (a public theatre in a park) the senior participants were also involved in audience development activities.
Duration from 25/3/2015 to 30/9/2015
Location: Rome, Teatro Villa Pamphilj, theatre owned by the Concil of Rome, and managed at that time by Teatro Verde and Donna Olimpia Music School
Field/discipline: Social Media, digital culture, networking and audience development

The actors

The project was run by the Association Mulab (2 sr. mentor and 5 jr mentors), Association Il Flauto Magico (2 senior tutor, 1 administrator) and Teatro Verde (1 senior tutor). Mulab’s junior mentor all came from the Young Guru Project and they were skilled in mentoring. The training was non-formal and informal and we often used open spaces.

The people who received the most significant impact

The project had a good impact on the 12 old persons involved, giving them an opportunity to 1) learn and communicate in different ways 2) be in dialogue with many and unknown young people. The impact was also noticeable on the young mentors. They learned the importance of the listening at different experience of older generations and becoming more aware about the different ways/styles of communication.

The context

In Rome it is hard for the different generations to have contacts. Each group lives his live on their own. Senior citizens are often digitally excluded and the young people don’t know how to live slowly, reflecting on things, with different times. The two generations have very different attitudes towards the issue of work. The older generation fought for workers’ rights, while the younger seldom succeed in finding a job.