Final Cycle of Exchange for the COPE Project – Romanian experience

We had a really great morning at the final Cycle of Exchange for the Culture on Prescription Project (COPE) organised by our partners GEAC (Romania) with an emphasis on the experience from the Theater Therapy& Workshop. The event was attended by 25 people from 10 countries, representatives of the project partners and other actors interested in the subject.

Juliana Louceiro from SHINE presented an overview of the COPE project, while Iuliana Iliescu from GEAC made a presentation on the situation of older people, loneliness and social isolation, as well as social prescribing in Romania.

Victor Tapeanu, artist, producer and co-founder of the Cuibul Artiștilor, talked, as a facilitator, about his and the participant's experience in the Theatre Therapy workshop. We learned that the older people enjoyed themselves and had a beautiful and beneficial experience that formed a community that remained active even after the course was completed. The participants had the opportunity to explore and discover themselves and to be more open.

Victor works mainly with young people, and he emphasises the need for more intergenerational engagement as a mechanism to inform a healthy community.

Two organizations that work with GEAC also shared their experience of their work for the benefit of older people.

Iuliana Rada, Program Manager at The Margareta of Romania Royal Foundation (FRMR), presented some background information on FRMR, which has 33 years of experience in the social field. FRMR is one of the few non-governmental Romanian organizations that run social programs in an intergenerational approach dedicated to older adults, with the support of volunteers.

Iuliana also mentioned, Telefonul Varstnicului - the first free phone line dedicated to older people, where they can find out answers to various questions, receive practical information or simply have the opportunity to have a chat.

A guest organisation - The Generations Community Center is a project which transforms after-school day centres into micro-communities which bring children, youth and older people together to work on social problems.

The second guest organization, the CARP Omenia Association, was represented by Andreea Ștefan, a social worker, who presented the opportunities and activities that Omenia Day Center provides to pensioners living in District 5 of Bucharest, in order to improve their well-being: socialization activities, painting, crocheting, literary activities, English and IT courses, trips and participation in various festivals, etc.

Romania is still at the beginning of a journey in terms of social and cultural prescription, so it needs to generate debate and influence decision-makers to develop public policies that address issues or isolation and loneliness and inform national practice.

For more information about the project https://culture-on-prescription.eu/.