11-12 April 2022
On the 11th and 12th of April, the HOPE project consortium organized the first transnational project meeting in Rotterdam. Partners from across Europe, including ISRAA, Altera Vita, ENSA, Amadora, and the Hogeschool Rotterdam participated. During these two days, activities and working visits to associated partners in Rotterdam were organized by the project coordinator.
Day One – 11th of April, 2022
The official kick-off of the project took place on the 11th of April on the 40th floor of the Rotterdam building by project coordinator Vildana Gacic. The coordinators presented their respective project results, such as the e-learning, MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), guidelines, database, and policy recommendations. The framework for day 2, known as Critical Friend Review was also presented.
Discussions took place about the role of the project with respect to the targeted elderly groups in each country, especially on how to effectively reach elderly for the focus groups. Partners agreed that it is, “Important to take an intergenerational, multidisciplinary, holistic approach to tackling hese social issues”. Another important discussion was held during the research framework presentation. Partners highlighted the importance of including the building/construction sector as an associated partner in the project, as they are involved significantly, in the health of elderly in later stage of their lives; Organization of a knowledge exchange between these sectors from different partner countries was also discussed as a valuable idea. The first day was concluded with a dinner with the directors of the associated partners Laurens Living and SOL Network.
Day Two – 12th of April 2022
The second day began at a SOL Network location, where the kick-off for the day was done by project coordinator Josine van den Bogaard. Following this introduction, the Director of Prevention and Welfare, Yvonne van Duijnhoven presented the current Dutch healthcare and climate adaptation systems; both of which were perfect backdrops for the HOPE Project, in the words of Mrs. van Duijnhoven. Representatives from SOL, and Genero Network also presented their organizations.
Partners undertook the first step of the Critical Friend Review framework; generating questions for the directors of APs Laurens and SOL later in the day. The partners moved to location 2, a Laurens facility, the living organization was presented, followed by a speech by Vice-Mayor Christine Eskes. The final half of day 2 split the partners into two different groups; one would interview SOL caregivers and the SOL director, while the other would interview caregivers and a director from the Laurens Living. Following the interviews, each group would discuss the answers to the questions, and would then choose their favorite aspects of the organization, and some areas in which they could challenge themselves to improve. The final task of the day was to present this feedback to the respective organizations. Partners were especially impressed with “the level of autonomy nurses are afforded” which spoke to “the responsibility and education of the nurses”. A challenge was said to be the (lack of-) urgency related to tackling heatwaves.
Overall, this first TPM was a large success. Informative discussions were held, and partners were impressed with the associated partners and how they worked with elderly, with some partners stating that they had found inspiration on how to do it right, and that it was now only a matter of changing their governmental structures to accommodate those working structures.