To this end, the Marshal’s Office of the Podlaskie Province organized a workshop for representatives of regional and local organizations and institutions involved in social welfare and social services—the so-called stakeholders. The meeting took place on June 8 in Białystok.
The workshop was moderated and led by Rafał Średziński—a trainer, president of the “My dla Innych”/ We for Others / Association, and social activist.
“Effective support for older adults and caregivers requires a local system of services, not isolated actions. This system should combine coordination, community-based services, housing, transportation, telecare, caregiver support, neighborhood volunteering, social engagement, and the voices of seniors themselves,” he noted.
The workshops were preceded by a survey conducted simultaneously across all partner regions. The results of this survey were presented during the workshops and served as a starting point for further work. The work was participatory in nature. Participants proposed ideas, shared experiences, identified resources and barriers, and worked on preliminary action plans. The need to involve young people was emphasized—not only through volunteering but as a pathway for young people to enter the labor market and to create real job opportunities for them.
The workshop’s outcomes include a series of recommendations to be incorporated into strategic documents at the regional level, as well as into EU-led initiatives such as Right to Stay.
As Rafał Średziński summarized, the right to age with dignity in one’s local community should be treated not as a narrow social welfare issue, but as an element of regional development.
The meeting among practitioners allowed for the collection of material for further work on the project, including the preparation of the Local Territorial Strategy—the foundational document for conducting a pilot initiative in the region.