The Social Gerontology and Gerontogogics Association of Slovenia

Who we are?

• We are a non-government, non-profit national organisation with humanitarian goals, working in the public interest in the field of social security.
• Our mission is to set up conditions and possibilities for quality life of the elderly in the field of interpersonal relationships and intergenerational connectedness, and preparing the middle generation for their own old age.
• We invite and train volunteers for working as the elderly people self-help groups supervisors. We are developing the local networks of the elderly people self-help groups and merging them into regional networks and the national network.

Tasks and Goals

• Developing local and regional networks as well as the national network of the elderly people self-help groups,
• creating conditions for active life in the old age,
• creating the networks of activities for satisfying the non-material needs in the age of gerontoboom,
• preparing the middle generation for their own old age,
• developing the society for all ages,
• training and educating people for becoming elderly people self-help groups supervisors and for being able to organise the local networks,
• developing voluntary work,
• developing and cherishing the atmosphere of co-operation, support and the acceptance of differences,
• lowering the exclusion of the elderly,
• setting up new programs for developing intergenerational solidarity,
• developing social gerontology and gerontogogics.

The Project Development until now

1987	The first group became active on 5 March 1987 in the Home for the Elderly in Izola.
1988	The experiences of good practical work were presented in the "Socialno delo" (“Social Work”) magazine, no. 4/88. After the article was published, the groups in Izola got numerous visits, and that was followed by organising similar groups and by co-operation among the participants of the groups.
1989	The first such group in its home environment was founded in 1989 in the region of Ilirska Bistrica.
1991	Od leta 1989 do 1991 je potekal akcijsko raziskovalni projekt, ki se je zaključil z izdajo priročnika Skupine starih za samopomoč.
1992	The association was founded in 1992 and registered as an association of expert workers.
1995	In the Social Gerontology and Gerontogogics Association of Slovenia we accepted the ethical principles in 1995.
2001	In 2001 we acquired the status of a charity organisation that works in the public interest. Today expert workers, participants in the field of social security and many other volunteers are included in the Association.
2002	In 2002 442 elderly people self-help groups have been active in Slovenia, supervised by 670 supervisors trained for that purpose.

Ethical Principles

In the Social Gerontology and Gerontogogics Association of Slovenia we accepted the following ethical principles in 1995:

• the principle of voluntary work,
• the principle of meaningful old age,
• the principle of co-operation between all generations,
• the principle of mutual connectedness and unity within the Association and the fundamental benevolence towards the outside,
• the principle of adapting to the concrete circumstances in the environment.

The candidates for elderly people self-help group supervisors familiarise themselves with the ethical principles in the course of education and training.

Financial support

The programs we perform are financially supported by:

• The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, which has co-financed the program since the beginning of its existence; in the year 2000 the Ministry accepted the decision on co-financing the program during the period from the year 2000 to 2004.
• In the local networks the elderly people self-help groups program is co-financed by several municipalities, social security institutions and other organisations and associations.
• In 2001 the Foundation for the Financing of Disability and Humanitarian Organisations in the Republic of Slovenia also agreed to co-financing the program.