EST – European Senior Together Project. Final meeting in Hungary at EU Parliament – November 2023 – Budapest

The European EST has enabled numerous exchanges between associations of European senior experts.

A European project promoted by Gianmaria Scapin – VSP Italy through Europe in 2019 was presented in 2021 and initiated three years later by Francois Routhe Oteci France in 2022.
Six associations from different European countries worked together from June 2022 to the end of 2023
as part of a European ERASMUS + project: this is the EST (“European Senior Together”) project initiated
by Oteci. The objective was to encourage the creation of associations such as ours Oteci in Eastern
European countries and more generally to exchange between associations on development methods and
ideas. The emphasis was placed on actions aimed at encouraging and developing the action of retired
senior professionals through voluntary associations in favor of the younger generation.

Associations participating
Stowarzyszenie Centrum Wolontariatu (Poland) SCW
Önkintes Kozpont Alapatitvany (Hungary) ÖKA
Senior Experten Service (Germany) SES
Vsp odv (Turin) VSP
Seniores Italia Lazio odv (Rome) SENIORES

The progress of the project
The six associations met 4 times in different cities corresponding to the headquarters or delegations of
four of them

Turin 7.8 June 9, 2022
Bonn December 13, 14 and 15, 2022
Lyon May 22, 23, 24, 2023
Budapest November 7, 8 and 9, 2023

Project results
The associations most advanced in mentoring actions for young people were the German association
SES, which has been mentoring apprentices for years, and Oteci, which developed an analogous program
(“ORA”).

During 2023, the 4 other associations launched with determination into pilot mentoring actions drawing
on German and French experiences. They have achieved significant success and will continue and expand
their mentoring actions in 2024 by increasing contacts with new partners.
Oteci developments were particularly appreciated by the participating associations. The Emage-me
application, widely used in AURA, will be developed in Germany and Turin. SES will also draw inspiration
from the ORA WEB site for its future development. Finally everyone discovered Oteci’s training to make
pitches for young people which was new for them.

Four toolboxes available
All of the discussions and presentations made it possible to summarize “4 toolboxes” (in English)
available to all:

The creation and development of associations of senior experts
Mentoring actions from senior experts
Actions in schools and universities by senior experts
Actions to help small businesses from senior experts
New friendships and exchanges that will continue
Beyond the technical exchanges, all participants were pleasantly surprised by the convergence of their concerns. They promised to stay in touch and continue to collaborate in the future.

What has been done so far?

A “kick off” meeting in Turin (7-9 June 2022). Definition of objectives and steps. First direct knowledge of the persons in the Associations;

A second meeting in Bonn (13-15 December 2022 ). Presentation of ORA in France and VERA in Germany on similar objectives and fields. Exchange of first project’s experiences.

A third meeting in Lyon, ( 22- 25 of may 2023) gave updated reports of actions and the opportunity to learn from French top witnesses stimulating approaches towards the objectives, as well as from German experiences.