DC NOISE present at Cities in Balance conference about Silver Hubs
DC Noise was present with an information stand during the Silver Hubs partner conference of Cities in Balance (CIB) in Leverkusen in early February. Silver hubs are centres or networks to enable people of age to live, work and invest in the cities of today. The Interreg IVB project “Cities in Balance” recognizes the increasing role of elderly in the ageing European societies and is therefore seeking ways to improve the living conditions for older people in cities. Silver hubs are designed to inform the elderly about services and facilities to increase their independence.
Both DC Noise and Cities in Balance cover the theme of ageing in European regions. For DC Noise, ageing is a major factor in demographic change in all its participating regions.
Shared knowledge is gained in the field of social care for the eldery. At the Silver Hub conference, Christian Carls (Diakonie Rheinland Westfalen-Lippe e.V.), expressed his concerns about loneliness of people of age, even when living in crowded metropolitan areas. Daily obstacles, as simply as non-leveled street crossings or self-help programmes running for in-crowds, are easily overseen by policy makers. Self-help programmes are often “open for everyone”, while nobody will feel oneself welcome to join, due to an unfamiliar environment. The step to get to know new people is often to big. Both Carls and Karin Nell (Netzwerk Seniorenarbeit Hagen) appealed for small scale and longer lasting projects to work on building interpersonal relationships.
The Southhampton City Council is hosting a project which is involved in house visits to elderly – similar to projects in Flanders and Oost-Groningen. Stephan Willingen (Bundesinstitut für Bau, Stadt und Raumforderung) addressed several successful housing projects which were subject of a case study for intergenerational building in city quarters. Similar topics are addressed by DC Noise partner Bremen and by the DC Noise transnational housing atlas.
The knowledge and experience gained by the Cities in Balance project will be of help for understanding processes and consequences of demographic change. The process of transnational learning will be strengthened by the active contribution of Cities in Balance during the Midterm Conference of DC Noise in Hamburg (March 24 2010) and possibly the exchange between both Interreg projects during the DC NOISE partner meeting in May 2010, hosted by DC Noise partner University of Abertay with a visit to the projects of the CIB partner Edinburgh’s chamber of commerce.
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