Good practices for a long-lived company

Longevity increasingly connotes everyone's personal and family life experience. This is a significant change both in the experience of each individual and in the more general social arrangements that therefore requires a reconsideration of educational policies and practices, focusing on learning that embraces the entire life span of the subjects.

Education, understood as a continuous training process, becomes a fundamental pillar for building a society capable of valuing the elderly, not as "patients" or "consumers", but as active resources and protagonists of social change, but also to allow those who are not yet elderly to imagine a long life, with adequate degrees of well-being. The protagonism of each one in this sense becomes decisive, both within the most significant relationships, family and friends, and in the public, civic and solidarity dimensions.

A team of researchers from the University Centre worked on this issue as part of a large Learning, Education, and Active Aging (LEAA) project within the Age-It programme, which focused on the importance of promoting skills, knowledge and lifestyles that support people to live an autonomous and satisfying life even in the advanced stages of life. preventing conditions of fragility and social isolation through an empowering approach. Through an interdisciplinary approach - pedagogical, sociological, psychological and clinical - the LEAA group explores the theme of longevity not only as a demographic phenomenon, but as an epistemological category through which to rethink individual and collective well-being.

Among LEAA's most significant actions, a mapping of good education practices for active ageing was conducted between December 2023 and May 2024 . Through a qualitative and quantitative research, 50 educational and training practices promoted by 43 organizations (public administrations no. 13, third sector associations no. 30 and companies no. 7) mainly located in Northern and Central Italy were identified. The mapped practices address essential needs, such as combating isolation, supporting caregivers, promoting autonomy and social inclusion. The initiatives have therefore been grouped into three main profiles: 1) Empowerment of frailty: which includes activities aimed at improving the quality of life of frail and dependent elderly people; 2) Empowerment of innovation: with initiatives oriented towards digital literacy and innovative solutions; 3) Empowerment of participation: through projects that promote continuous learning and active citizenship, stimulating a sense of belonging and social commitment. The main results of the work carried out in the team are being published in the Journal of Gerontology  (edited by Boffo, Bertani, Bramanti, Chattat, Formenti).

The research that was presented at the conference Accompanying longevity. Good Educational and Training Practices for Active Ageing held in Florence on 26-27 September 2024, with the participation of numerous experts and professionals engaged in the promotion of innovative policies for active ageing, thus highlighted not only the potential of existing practices, but also systemic criticalities, such as the lack of coordination between the actors involved and the precariousness of funding for educational and training projects. However, it has strongly brought out the possibility of transforming longevity into an opportunity, overcoming stereotypes and building a new narrative in which the elderly are the protagonists not only of their own lives but of the broader social fabric.