Cooperation

The Finnish Consortium of Intercultural Elderly Care

Finnish active ENIEC network members have founded together with a consortium of intercultural elderly care in Finland. Six partner organizations, included our Multicultural Memory Centre MUKES, in the field of intercultural elderly care have joined forces more officially to work together to strengthen and promote the work and expertise of working with older migrants in Finland.

We have established the Finnish Consortium of Intercultural Elderly Care together with 6 different organizations here in Finland. In this exceptional autumn, we have been working at a fast pace in advocating the equity of older migrants in Finnish society. The members of the Consortium have met with multiple important national organizations in order to make our work known and to affect some concerns that there are with older migrants and how they are seen, or actually not seen, almost invisible in our society and the Nordic welfare state.

We have worked closely together and not every member of the consortium has been able to take part in every meeting or discussion. But the excellent thing about having a close network is that you don’t always need or have to take part in everything yourself, but you can trust that your network and colleagues will discuss important issues on your behalf as well. Together we are stronger and we simply have a bigger impact.

The network of our consortium has given us more space and more ways of making efficient advocacy work. In other words, we can be present in many different situations, meetings, and networks, and hence bring out our ideas and expertise more than before.

Text by Susanna Lehtovaara

Read the article about our consortium in the ENIEC newsletter here: Making more noise about older migrants in Finland

MUKES collaborative partners and networks

ENIEC European Network on Intercultural Elderly Care

ENIEC is a non-profit European network of professionals that seeks to secure the rights of elderly people with a foreign ethnic or minority background in Europe. It constitutes an informal platform for members to exchange ideas, experiences and practices with the aim of so securing that elderly migrants and minorities across Europe can live in an environment of tolerance, intercultural understanding and respect.

ENIEC articles, news:

In the article THE TALLINN FUND - HOW DID WE GET THERE? Siiri Jaakson, as a Chair of the organizing committee 2020, is sharing the story of our Finnish ENIEC team to explain the background of the Tallinn Fund.

Our ENIEC Finnish team is grateful that the increase in our funding has found the right outcome. We believe, that the Tallinn Fund will provide the basis for new cooperation projects and will bring together even more common brainstorms in the ENIEC network.

Let’s be active, let’s think together and write projects to participate in the Tallinn Fund!

written by Siiri Jaakson

Tallinn AM 2020 team - Siiri Jaakson with Tuulikki Hakala, Eva Rönkkö, Susanna Lehtovaara, Inka Lehtonen and Alina Ahtamo.

Read the article here: THE TALLINN FUND – HOW DID WE GET THERE? 30th April 2021

The Legacy of Cultural Contexts in the Lives and Identities of Minority Older Persons in Europe

Cultural factors and social identities as a source of support for older people

The year was 2018 when I gave the consent of the ENIEC board to take responsibility and organize AM2020 in Tallinn. We started working with the ENIEC Finnish team soon after.
Thanks to our organizational work, cooperation with different persons and companies in Tallinn and Estonia, we were ready to start AM as planned by March 2020. And then there was the pandemic, and we were forced to cancel our event.
We learned a lot from this organizational work. Our selection of AM topics led us to new research and themes that influence the attitude between East and West to this day.
Of course, it is a pity that we could not share all the intriguing themes from a new perspective with colleagues. However, there is some material to shared by us on the ENIEC website.

Siiri Jaakson, Chair of the organizing committee AM2020 Tallinn

Read more about our AM2020 program here: The Legacy of Cultural Contexts in the Lives and Identities of Minority Older Persons in Europe

Pass In On Network

The Positive Aging movement stresses the importance of encouraging older adults to be proactive in support of all of the factors contributing to healthy aging: finding passion and purpose, creative expression, meaningful work, lifelong learning, community recognition and accessibility, physical and mental exercise. The Pass It On Network emphasizes the capacity of older adults to self-organize and help themselves and others find or create what’s needed to thrive. This website has been developed to encourage older adults to care for themselves and each other and their communities.

Our Global Network
We are older adults who believe that the work of elders is to “pass it on” – sharing our know-how with others, capitalizing on what works, and shaping positive expectations for meaningful work and learning lifelong. Our peer network connects people around the globe with a common interest in actualizing positive ageing. Energy flows to and from nodes where the action is and pulsates differently at any given time. We have no hierarchy. We gather advisors and liaisons regularly through scheduled Zoom calls and in our virtual global community that provides free worldwide communication for community members. We publish a newsletter for all who are interested and offer community membership for those who want to dive deeper and be involved in writing this new chapter of the human life span – active, positive ageing with meaningful work paid or unpaid through the last breath.

Country Liaisons
Country Liaisons cultivate and represent their own constituencies in their countries. They are the go-betweens for a two-way flow of information to advance positive ageing. Our dream is to have a Country Liaison in every state around the world.

Siiri Jaakson belongs to the Country Liaisons by representing Finland in Pass It On Network