on our minds

Within our I-KNOW-HOW project, we work closely together with Westerlicht (an organisation that has set up centres for people who have (had) cancer). 27 September is an important day for Westerlicht. That is when their various locations will be digitally connected by means of screens.

When to present a book about social innovation with as one of its most central themes the fact that you should always keep moving and keep changing and innovating? A book like that is never finished. And yet it was on Thursday 13 July when Hans de Bruin presented the online book ‘We Got to Move’.

The Social Theory forms the basis of just about anything we do within the Solidarity University. It is a theory that embraces change and movement and is therefore hard to capture in words or text, let alone in the shape of a publication. That is why we decided to make it an online book in which new and advancing insights can be incorporated. Its title references the necessity to start moving and be open for change: We Got to Move.

Although the HAIRE project is finished, we are, of course not quite finished with it yet. The project is just too huge for that. We are still in touch with the people from ’s-Heerenhoek who were involved in HAIRE, for instance. And we are also still in touch with our international project partners. That is one of the reasons why there was a great exchange day at the end of June. We welcomed a large delegation from Belgium. In our neighbouring country, a HAIRE project was set up in the municipality of Laakdal.

After three years, the international part of the EMPOWERCARE project is coming to an end. Currently, we as a project team are busy with the final stages of that part of the project. This feels like a good time to tell you about some of the results and about the things we learned along the way and we would like to thank all parties involved.

The HAIRE Project is in its final stages. 1 March there will be a Final Conference in Ghent: The Future of Healthy Ageing.

Smerdiek Zorgt. Where to start? Some days everything just falls into place and that was definitely what happened on 10 January during Smerdiek Zorgt regarding public interest, enthusiastic reactions and rounding of the EMPOWERCARE project as a whole.

Recently, we organised a public co-creation session which turned out to be a day filled with moments of recognition, both for us and the participants. It was a momentous occasion we had really been looking forward to. It was more than just sharing experiences; what became clear for all parties involved, was just what can be achieved by sharing experiences (and therefore shared knowledge). Participants had very direct insight into their own contribution to the project as a whole. Or, as participant Martien Luteijn put it into words: “It was truly great to see people realise: ‘I can make a valid and vital contribution to all this’.”