Have you seen our new learning materials for those who support ageing-in-place?

Have you seen our new learning materials for those who support ageing-in-place?

The Hands-on SHAFE consortium partners are delighted to announce the release of our online learning platform for informal and formal caregivers, volunteers, and other people who support or want to facilitate independent healthy living. The resources on the site can also be used as accompanying materials for in-person training.

Do you or your organisation wish to support those who work with older people, either as a volunteer or as an entrepreneur? Then the online and completely free-of-charge Hand-on SHAFE materials can be a great help for you! The hands-on SHAFE learning materials are targeted at "SHAFE facilitators". This is anyone of any age or background who is involved in supporting the active and healthy lifestyle of other people (e.g., older adults, people with impairments or disabilities), through the provision of support in different areas of life, or services and other regular wellness, lifestyle, or learning support to live independently. Our learning materials consist of nearly 30 learning units, that investigate and inform SHAFE facilitators about the following five topics:

• GENERAL (2 Learning units) - covers some general topics, such as the concept of smart healthy age-friendly environments (SHAFE), and how to communicate properly with older people
• SMART (8 Learning units) - focuses on mobile devices and smart home technology. This part of our content deliberately starts at a very basic level so that SHAFE facilitators can use these materials themselves with the people they support. It also/further progresses to more challenging topics such as smart locks and wearables as it informs about some useful functions of these technologies
• HEALTHY (5 learning units)  - explains how to live healthily, focusing on various important health and wellness topics that may arise as we age. For example, diets, mobility and cognition, therapies, or impairments.
• BUILT (7 learning units) - outlines how we can prepare our homes (new and retrofit), shared and public outdoor spaces and buildings and mobility between these, to be age-friendly and easily accessible for everybody.
• BUSINESS (7 learning units)- is targeted at silver economy entrepreneurs who see SHAFE as a business opportunity. This content brings them through all the different and most important steps of creating a viable age-friendly business.

We are also delighted to inform you that all the Hands-on SHAFE learning materials are translated into six European languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Polish and Portuguese.

We use six diverse personas to provide work examples that personalise the learning experience. All of these personas have different day-to-day issues and impairments and through meeting them within the learning contents, learners will directly acknowledge how to apply the gained information to support people in similar cases. You can meet the different created personas here, to find out more about them!

Each learning unit is developed as a stand-alone unit and includes an assessment so that learners can work towards gaining a Hands-on SHAFE certificate at two different levels in each of the above-mentioned learning areas. The BASIC certificate is the initial level for casual learners, while the PROFESSIONAL certificate is the more advanced level for professional learners. In addition, getting a SHAFE FACILITATOR certificate is possible. This is the most advanced level that compiles the knowledge achieved in all Hands-on SHAFE learning areas.

The learning materials are online, but we also provide handy PDFs of our content for you to print, so that you can also deliver the content in a traditional face-to-face workshop. Then the trainees can revise the content by using our online learning platform. 

A manual also guides you through the philosophy behind our approach and the different features of our learning resources. 

Would you like to hear more? Please have a look at our online learning platform at www.hands-on-shafe.eu. 

If you would like to create your own adaptation of our materials or translate the materials into another language, why not consider becoming an associated partner of Hands-on SHAFE? This will allow you to modify and adapt our offline learning materials to fit your personal or organisational requirements subject to agreement with the Hands-on SHAFE consortium members. Get in touch with us!

Hands-on SHAFE is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, Key Action 204 Adult Education programme.

The European Commission's support for this project and the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.