“Quartiers solidaires” [Solidarity neighborhoods]

In Pully, 24% of residents are over the age of 65. With the “quartiers solidaires” initiative, the City – in collaboration with Pro Senectute Vaud – is helping to strengthen connections between elderly residents by fighting against isolation. As part of this community project, the seniors in the “Mosaïque [Mosaic] of Pully-Nord” association and the “quartiers solidaires” of Pully-Sud participated in the development of a “social platform” that is easy to use and suited to their needs.

In the older population, there are high expectations for activities that promote close social ties. In order to better integrate the elderly socially, to facilitate communication and to revitalize the neighborhoods, two “quartiers solidaires” projects were conducted in Pully-Nord and Pully-Sud. These initiatives, led by the City and Pro Senectute Vaud, made it possible to involve seniors in a community-based initiative aimed at improving their quality of life and their ability to integrate into mainstream society by joining forces with seniors’ groups to set up projects, activities, coffee meet-ups, outings or organized events. In Pully-Nord, “quartier solidaire” took place between 2012 and 2016 and gave rise to the “Mosaïque of Pully-Nord” association. In Pully-Sud, the community project is still underway.

Seniors in these two neighborhoods had the opportunity to help create a social network suited to their needs. The digital platform was developed in collaboration between Pro Senectute and the EPFL+ECAL Lab and it is financially supported by the Leenaards Foundation. The application was designed with the active participation of seniors, in workshops organized over several months. The participants were able to get involved by giving their opinion on the appearance of the interface and its features or by directly handing their proposals over to the engineers and designers so that the site could meet their expectations.

The platform resoli.ch – that’s its name – is currently being tested by communities from “quartiers solidaires” in Pully-Nord, Pully-Sud, Yverdon, and Ecublens. In concrete terms, seniors register on the site, find members, photos, information, and anecdotes about life in the community, as well as suggestions for activities they can join. The site, in the service of real life, encourages social connections and makes it possible to organize outings and group activities.

Digital self-help workshop for seniors

Intergen is a series of free digital mutual assistance workshops: The young and the old get together and share a meal. This allows seniors to benefit from the younger people’s help setting up a smartphone or turning on a computer. The workshop gives people the opportunity to bring in old computer equipment, which is refurbished; participants then leave with a functional computer that can perform basic tasks (email, web browsing). The workshops take place on Saturday morning in the Liaudes District Hall.

Information : www.intergen.ch