Sofia we care

"We want to do Taiji again!"

2010-08-06T02:16:00.000-07:00

July 24th, a chilly windy Saturday afternoon, the SWC team organized a gathering in Sofia with help from Tiina, an intern in Sofia. A lot of young people joined us and we were a little more than twenty, enjoying home-made cakes and trying out calm movements of Chinese Taiji brought by Janne from Hub Helsinki. The elders loved Taiji and said they would like to do it again. We'll see if we can find some Taiji practicer to go to Sofia on a regular basis.

Photos from the Coffee and Taiji afternoon are published here.

2010-08-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

The Sofia We Care project is a voluntary action that started in spring 2010. The goal is make the elders' needs and wishes heard, and to encourage the elder community and young people interested in working with elders to collectively make these wishes come true. To this aim, we test using social media as a lightweight channel for communication. The aim is to make the action as self-organized as possible.

Meanwhile, the project team is considering possible extensions of the project, to other service homes, to existing volunteer organizations, or in the form of another School of Social Innovation.

For the remaining period of autumn 2010, we have two interrelated goals:

1)
WHAT: Follow up on the wishes of residents at Sofia that were expressed through the questionnaires, idea box, group interviews, and one on one talks. Involve the residents in organizing the actions whenever possible, and try to get new volunteers.
- pets for visit (dog buddies)
- teach a willing resident to use computer and advertise events on Facebook
- let this resident act as a contact person for some event(s)
- organize a walk that residents with rollators can participate in
- chatting with outsiders
- chatting with young people
- knitting workshop
- teach photography
- trips to nature
- story day
- sewing club

WHO: Yan and Riitta are responsible for the continuation. Hanna is already active with dog buddies. Duong, Lore, and Irina are willing to participate in events. A Sofia resident is willing to act as a contact person within the service home. Whenever possible, Riitta and Yan will involve residents and volunteers in taking the concrete action.

2)
WHAT: Try out social media in bringing together young and old. Start up a Facebook community around the Sofia We Care page, and see if it works for:
a) bringing young and old to the same events,
b) finding people to fulfill the listed wishes of the service home residents (goal 1)
c) making new volunteers become interested
WHO: Riitta and Yan will set up a Facebook page Sofia We Care, and start advertising some events there. They will encourage the contactt person and volunteers to advertise future events there.
WHY: to have an online platform for listing wishes from the residents that anyone can fulfill

Goals for the autumn

2010-06-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

Our main goals this autumn:

Finding out what are the special things about Sofia that make it such a wonderful place for elders to live in - black and white about money and resources, philosophy and attitudes, communality, participation etc.
Spreading the word to other service homes, that such good life is attainable without substantially more resources than the average service home has available. Methods: website, info package, possibly intervention package - we'll go visit a home or two and invite the residents to become active about their own lives.

And a minor goal:

Continue working with Sofia not to let them down - story day for elders and relatives in the end of the summer. Concept: elders and relatives collect stories from one another; the stories are written on leaf-shaped notes and attached to a large tree poster on the wall - the story tree. The stories are also made available online on the Sofia web page (for those families who are happy with having them published). In this similar vein, there could be events

Decided we need to find a few more people to work with us on these goals. Contacted Hanna Westerlund to begin with.

Decided we need to set up a NON-PUBLIC ONLINE resource that everyone in the project can upload content in --> WIKI? Riitta will set it up hopefully within a week

Decided to go and meet Tiina Kuisma at Sofia once more before she leaves for holidays tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd June

Online album for the project

2010-06-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

We just uploaded some photos we took while working on the project with people in School of Social Innovation. And also some photos taken on the Laajasalo Day. Check them out in here.

A link: a wrap-up of projects in School of Social Innovation

2010-06-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

Aalto Social Impact published on its website a very nice wrap-up of the projects in School of Social Innovation, where the project of SofiaWeCare started. Here' s the link and what it says about our project:

First up was Riitta, presenting Sofia, we care, a retirement home project she worked on with her teammates Duong, Hanna, and Yan in partnership with Tiina, the “devoted director” of the Sofia elderly care home. The problem was how to address the loneliness and isolation often felt by the elderly. Along the way, through a creative discovery process, the team learned that there are many other things the elderly would like to change in their lives and their environment, but they weren't necessarily going to say it directly. The group used questionnaires, idea boxes, and group discussions, and found a lot of surprises.

“It is so important that they can feel real empowerment...and they are not objects, but subjects in their own lives,” said Tiina. She watched her residents become animated, lively, filled with a sense of purpose when they were filling out the questionnaires and deciding things for themselves.

Working with the residents is crucial. Take, for example, having someone to talk to. The team devised a sign that residents could hang on their door to invite others to come in. But it turns out that the residents don't want to talk to each other, they want to talk to outsiders so that they can share their secrets without any of their neighbours finding out!

The team decided that the quickest way to implement such a companionship service was to just do it themselves.

“You realize, this person knows so much,” said Hanna, who spent several sessions talking to the residents one on one. They have lived interesting lives, have many skills, and most of all, time. Harnessing these things is what the Sofia project is all about.

Stay tuned for the Sofia residents' blog, facebook page, and Granny Hug YouTube video, which is all in the works! For this team, five weeks was only enough time to start a few things, but they plan on working throughout the year on developing their partnership with the residents, and even convincing other, less lively retirement homes to follow their example.

Project presentation

2010-05-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

Sofia project presentation on slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/touamarou/sofia-final-presentation-rt-7

a care service provider - Mummit

2010-05-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

Mummit employs grannies -retirees aged above 55 to provide caring services to elders and children. Here's the website: www.mummit.fi

SWC team back to work after Vappu break

2010-05-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

After the final presentation in Hub, three people joined our team. Christine, Irina, Lorendana and Stefania, oh no, that's...four!

The new team had the first meeting on May 5th in Hub to brainstorm how we should move on with the project - we're eager to. As we've realized, it is important to know what the elders would really need us to do instead of thinking up things for them. But anyways, we concluded with a few things that we think might be good to go with:

-- Meet with Tiina and get to know more about the Laajasalo day event and see what we could do for it.

We emailed Tiina telling her that we're back to work again, and she was calling for help! There doesn't seem many people who're exited about doing things for the elders. So, we are needed!

-- Develop a website/blog for Sofia through which more people can get to know it as a lively and welcoming elderly home. It could also provide as a tool for Sofia to organize events and invite outsiders.

-- Make a video or something like that to promote elderly homes like Sofia and raise awareness of the issue of elderly care. Duong would be making a free hug campaign with her school friends and Sofia will be part of it.

-- Create more self-empowerment tools for Sofia so that the residents can be active in making a difference for themselves and others in the society. This is inspired by how the survey and idea box we gave out had made them think and participant in Sofia matters. We had in mind the idea of bringing volunteers to Sofia and we will continue to think about this. But elders can also be active makers instead of just passive receivers of services. After all, many of them do have a lot to contribute to the society.

We'll soon visit Sofia again to have the results of the surveys and discuss with Tiina about what we would really do next.

Laajasalo day 22.5.2010

2010-04-21T01:38:00.001-07:00

Laajasalo day 22.5.2010
10 am - 2 pm
Muurahaisenpolku 4

Sofia service home will participate in a local fair in Laajasalo, Helsinki, on May 22nd by sharing FREE HUGS

"When did you last hug your granny?"

Location: in and around Ylistalo house, Muurahaisenpolku 4
just across the street from Sofia home, Kuvernöörintie 14

http://www.laajasalo.net/ajankohtaista/

Likeminded projects for elderly welfare

2010-04-21T01:33:00.001-07:00

http://soitamummolle.wordpress.com/

Project presentation Tuesday 27.4.2010 at 6pm

2010-04-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

The Sofia project will be presented

on Tuesday 27.4.2010 at 6pm

at HUB Helsinki, Aleksanterinkatu 18
http://www.hubhelsinki.fi/

along with other projects from the School of Social Innovation,
http://dschool.sebidesigns.com/

The Sofia project

2010-04-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

The Sofia project arose from the desire to increase interaction between young and old, to reduce the loneliness of elders in our society, and to observe the positive aspects of Western elderly care. In Asian cultures, children are expected care for their aging parents. The Western system of public and private elderly homes and caretaking services reduces the burden on relatives, but it separates the generations and may leave the elders feeling lonely. The Sofia project showcases a well-run private service home whose residents have much to be content about. We try to make the residents’ life even better by helping them speak out their wishes and needs . We are also delighted to spread the word about this style of elderly home that we would also wish to live in when our time is ripe!