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The autumn of life is associated with inactivity or loneliness. Fortunately, senior clubs that organize meetings, workshops and lessons for people of mature age are becoming more and more popular. Profits? New friends, better mood and no boredom!
What is a senior club?
A seniors club or a retirement club is nothing more than a meeting place for people of mature age. It is not therapeutic, therefore it does not require a referral from a doctor. It does have a social dimension, however. The statute of the senior club may provide for the admission of people over 60 years of age, but it also happens that people even XNUMX years old can sign up.
Senior clubs operate at parishes, housing cooperatives, cultural centers or foundations such as the Polish Association of Pensioners and Disabled People or the Polish Red Cross. Signing up to the senior club usually does not require fees, and if it does, it is symbolic. However, it happens that you have to pay a fee for going to a museum or cinema. Most often, however, centers manage to obtain external financing for a senior club. The Act on Social Assistance provides for, among other things, funding from the ministry responsible for social affairs as part of state programs – currently it is the “Senior +” program.
Day centers for the elderly. How do they work and who can use them?
Senior club – functioning
The seniors club has no rehabilitation or treatment dimension. However, it is a space intended for older people, where they can meet, spend time together, and even acquire new skills during training and workshops. The schedule of classes in the senior club is usually planned for a week or several weeks in advance, so it is easy for seniors to check if any of the proposals are interesting for them. What activities can the seniors club offer them? Among others, dance lessons, learning foreign languages, literary circles, computer workshops and art classes.
Holidays for seniors. Where to go to rest?
Senior club – why is it worth signing up?
Older people are often alienated. They no longer live with their children, do not work, and have often lost their spouses. This is a situation that is synthesized for lowered self-esteem, depressive states or simply no idea how to fill a large amount of free time. Senior clubs can help a lot.
It is not uncommon to refer to the senior club as a support center. This is where older people who are or feel lonely can come. Working in a group allows you to return to social life and make new friends. In a group of peers, seniors do not feel incapacitated and can confront problems that are typical for them. Senior clubs are also filled with free time, often helping to find the meaning of life and take up new challenges.
Senior club – how to create?
The opening of a senior club, if applying for funding is considered, may only take place at formalized centers, such as foundations, parishes, councils of municipalities or estates, cultural centers or housing cooperatives.
To set up a seniors club, you can:
- set up a foundation or association (time-consuming option and requires funds to start),
- joining an active foundation, association or center whose activities are thematically related to helping the elderly.
See also: Classes for seniors. Ideas for spending time and improving your health