Presentation of ’The University of third Age’’ -U3A-Coordinator of GRU-13-GIVE-14-DJ-IT

‘’The University of third Age’’ -U3A is a non profit association  whose members  are  almost or retired  people; as they are  in their  later  years of life, after work and family responsibilities have lessened, they  are willing  to teach, learn, adapt and share their wisdom, just for the satisfaction that it brings.

U3A members are not required any qualifications to join the association and no certificates or accreditation are awarded. They need to be motivated, enthusiast to get involved in volunteering activities in the benefit of community, run and choose the activities as decided by a committee elected by their members every year.

The U3A association started in Tolosa in 1973. Then a group of volunteers from Turin set up the first university of the third age in Italy.

Nowadays there 320 U3A groups both from the north to the south of Italy as well as all over the world. In  Noto it was started in 1991.

 ’The University of third Age is an important association for its members, who otherwise would feel cut off from real life, as all of them are retired people, but wiling to give back, use their knowledge, experiences, enthusiasm, for less fortunate ones.

All the members of this organization are willing to participate to their town life in an active way. Indeed, one of the main aims of the organization is promoting solidarity and integration of disadvantaged people to avoid any form of discrimination or marginalization.

 Our association applies healthy ageing strategies to create the conditions and opportunities for people to have regular physical activity, healthy diets, social relations, participation in meaningful activities and financial security. On local level we are developing educational activities in cooperation with different institutions, schools, high schools, association for adults, Special services for aged people, volunteering services, as A.V.O ( Associazione Volontari Ospedalieri), AVIS (Associazione Volontari Italiani Sangue), Casa di  cura "Padre Pio"– Noto, and PROTEZIONE  CIVILE- sez. di Noto.

Some of the activities run at U3A in Noto are :

- foreign languages, ICT  courses for adults 

- naturist, healthy diets, role of herb in curing diseases, cooking classes,

- artistic activities: theatre, drama classes as amateurs, choir, painting lab, working masks;

- physical Education  classes for adults,

- special cultural events, carnivals, festivals,

- promotion campaigns of volunteering activities in the benefit of disadvantaged people on local community.

’The University of third Age is very active in Noto, a town south east of Sicily. It is UNESCO Heritage and it is a place with lots of baroque monuments famous all over the world; indeed, lots of tourists come to visit the town. Nowadays it is well linked to  the nearest airport which is in Catania by a motorway. However, though tourism should be the main activity for the local people because no other activity is possible for them making a living, yet, there is a lot to do in order to reduce unemployment which is quite a serious problem at the moment. 

In Noto there is also a large community of immigrants, different nationalities also Romanians who needed to be helped in order to get them integrated to the local community.

 Therefore,  in spite of the  good potentialities,  the local inhabitants still have to  become aware of  the  opportunities of their town and area  because  they need to get  an open minded attitude and more  flexibility, tolerant, which could be developed if they  were  given  the chance  to  get in touch with people from other countries.

They also need to learn a foreign language such as English for better access to information and new technology, to feel more integrated as European citizens.

Its aims are:

 -to help its members to learn a foreign language and acquire communicative skills through the use of multimedia.

-to improve contacts between different generations and ensure that both the young people and the senior citizens can benefit from these contact.

-to reduce prejudice between the groups by promoting intergenerational and multicultural respect, equality and solidarity between gender and aged.

- to exchanges one’s experiences  with peers  to enrich themselves and the others .

- to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.

- to promote the value of cultural diversity, focused on national culture, history, photography, national habits and tradition, also encouraging gardening, handcrafts (wood work, leather work, knitting and embroidery, masks, ceramics, silk painting etc.), music, dances, sport events etc. as well as cooking some traditional dishes, discovering a new active, healthy stile life.