This is a combined development and research project to expand the scope of Elderlearn and to generate insight into the importance of Elderlearn to elderly Danes. The purpose of Elderlearn is to fight loneliness among the impaired elderly through contact with foreigners who are in the process of learning Danish.

The Danish-language student will conduct private visits on a weekly basis for a conversation in Danish with the elderly volunteer. By means of conversation, Elderlearn provides meaningful relationships which allow the impaired elderly to help others and become a resource in society through volunteering.

Until now, elderly volunteers were found solely among care home residents. This project means to introduce the initiative to senior citizens receiving home care in order to increase the possibility of participation.

While promoting Elderlearn, the Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe) at University of Copenhagen will raise awareness of the importance of Elderlearn in the social lives of elderly volunteers – among the existing targeted group of care home residents as well as those receiving home care. The project will examine the quality of good social relationships between elderly volunteers and Danish-language students, and how those relationships are established.

Elderlearn will apply this know-how for the further development of the initiative. The research will clarify how impaired elderly people’s experiences and capabilities may be activated in order to benefit themselves and the society which they continue to be part of.

Meet Zahra Shahabi, a 30-year-old Danish-language student, as she visits 73-year-old Jette Butters, https://www.egv.dk/diverse/394-laering-uden-alder