A project examining the challenge of an increasingly ageing population, particularly those living in remote and rural areas has won the prestigious EU NPP RegioStars 2012 Award.

The O4O: Older People for Older People project (O4O) ran from 2008-2011 and involved partners in South West and Highland Scotland, Finland, Sweden, Greenland and Northern Ireland. It was led in SW Scotland by Dr Carol Hill of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Dumfries campus. Dr Sandy Whitelaw (School of Interdisciplinary Studies), Sara Driscoll and Pamela Stokes also participated.

Commissioner Johannes Hahn for Regional Policy stated in relation to O4O: “... by combining efforts, EU regions can find concrete solutions  to the common challenges they face. Partners across Europe’s northern periphery have worked closely together to develop new support systems and services for their older citizens living in rural areas. This is indeed an excellent example of the good use of EU investment.”

Dr Carol Hill said: “O4O was an innovative and exciting project that exposed all of the partners to a range of views and experiences in some of the Northern Periphery’s more remote communities. As a result, O4O has made a tangible difference to the lives of many older people. In addition to new services O4O produced a variety of valuable outputs including O4O: Older People for Older People Toolkit and a CD that will be of particular use to individuals, communities and service providers who are thinking of establishing an O4O-type social organisation, and a book that will appeal to students, practitioners and scholars over a broad range of disciplines including development, entrepreneurship, Public and social policy, economics and regional studies.”

Two of the academics from the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Dr Carol Hill as co-editor and author and Dr Sandy Whitelaw, have made major contributions to a recently published book, ‘Community co-production; social enterprise in remote and rural communities’.  This book draws extensively on the ‘real life’ experiences of the O4O project and sets learning from it in the wider context, making it of interest to students, practitioners and scholars over a broad range of disciplines including development, entrepreneurship, public and social policy and is available to buy at http://www.e-elgar.com/Bookentry_Main.lasso?id=14233

 

More information about the project is available at http://www.o4os.eu/

First published: 5 July 2012

<< July