New Program Creation: Intergenerational Program between the Elderly and Children

Under the guidance of a historian and educational personnel, kindergarten students met with members of the Skopelos Open Protection Center for the Elderly (OPCE) in order to collect stories, cultural traditions, and historical events. The children had been prepared by the educational personnel in order to ask questions to the seniors and attract their interest. In turn, the seniors were prepared for the activity by Plegma with one-on-one interviews in order to select the final participants. The basic criteria that were taken into consideration were: their desire to relay their stories, their acquiescence to be recorded, and their coherent manner of narration. 70 members of the Skopelos OPCE participated in this event, with 10 members ultimately chosen to narrate and record their stories. Upon returning to school, the children, while listening to the recordings, drew what excited them the most. These visual works were exhibited at the Vakratsa Museum between the 26th and the 31st of August 2017 and were published in a bilingual edition (Greek and English). Through this initiative, OPCE members were rewarded by a stimulating interaction with the children as well as a great deal of importance being given to their experiences. In turn, the children learned to ask significant questions and to derive stories while learning that history can be interesting.