1st Panel in Timisoara, Romania

The first panel was organized in the building of CARP (The Pensioners House For Mutual Help) in Timisoara, Romania. Over 100 seniors participated to the panel many of them being members of the Cultural Association ‘Constantin Brancusi’ and CARP. CARP leaders were very kind and put a very large room at our disposal with audio-video equipment. Some of our distinguished guests were: Professor Horia Ciocarlie (‘Politehnica’ University and also ACCB President, ), Associate Professor Constantin Strunga (Teaching Training Department of The West University of Timisoara),representatives from the University of Craiova’s TSTD (Alexandru Strunga, Teaching Assistant and national project coordinator), the president of Seniors’ League from Timisoara, CARP leaders and other representatives from ONGs that are supporting seniors. The seniors were delighted to participate, one of the reasons being that this panel is the first that addresses their concrete problems (not only educational, which is the case with previous European projects from Romania, but also social). Another great advantage in the opinion of our seniors is that DANET focuses on an transcultural approach, connecting seniors across Europe.
We organized our panel in 2 parts: a) the main discussion (applicative sub-panel), in which our guests discussed the problems and the seniors expressed their input and b) a secondary discussion, round table (methdological sub-panel) between seniors and experts (professors and practicians) in adult education focused on how to address these problems through networking: creating bridges between Universities, NGOs, seniors Associations, local authorities etc.

Together we addressed many topics like:

what does it mean ‘active ageing’ and ‘intergenerational communication’ for Romanian seniors, taking as a starting point the role of arts as a mediator between young and old people and as a positive factor for active aging. We would like to clarify here that our Associations work is not focused on artistic and cultural performance but on artistic and cultural education. More, our President is an Informatics Professor, so we have the opportunity to develop also science courses for seniors, in collaboration with local universities.
the topics were analyzed from multiple perspectives: sociological, psychological, pedagogical, economical, moral, religious and so on;
what is the role of our main educational activity – cenaclul - in active aging and interegerational education and communication;
the main results of the panel highlighted the importance of artistic creation (confirming other studies in geragogy regarding this subject) as an important solution to address these topics; we discussed concrete cases of ACCB’s members who are poets, actors, writers and scientists;
we have developed strategies to create more educational events for both young and old people (and an action plan);
we also observed the diverse points of view over these topics, but also similarities; the comments will be published in our magazines: Coloana Infinitului and Noesis.