Nineteen partner institutions from eight countries around the Baltic Sea launched this project: Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
With demographic change - recently defined as one of the four key challenges for European regions by the EC - and the current economic crisis looming, the cities and regions of the BSR have to find creative ways of disclosing and utilizing unused opportunities.
One of these hidden potentials are people in the prime of their lives – the so called “Best Agers” (defined in the project as people aged 55 and older).
As previous projects have shown, the population of the Baltic Sea Region will rapidly become older and the 55+ age groups will experience large growth rates in the near future. The result will be a pool of older professionals who are healthier than ever, well-educated and motivated and who can be mobilised to counteract the negative effects of demographic change –shrinking regional workforces and the socalled "brain drain". The project will survey successful approaches and goodpractice examples, develop them further and transfer them to the partner regions with low-key Best Ager involvement.
Part of the project are also conferences and events, press releases, a website and a Facebook page, a Webinar-sequence for business planning and a newsletter. A special Mentor Programme in Denmark has already educated more that 80 mentors for young employees.
More information on the project and activities: www.best-agers-project.eu | Facebook page of Best Agers