Alone in the local community

Alone in the local community

Kiviks Museum started work in 2019 to reach the target group of lonely elderly people in the local community. The target group is important, partly because museums have a mission to reach out to all people, partly because research shows that loneliness has the same risk factors for deteriorating health as, for example, smoking and sitting still. More and more people are getting older and many experience increased isolation and loneliness. Kiviks Museum's core values ​​and operational goals include working to reach all target groups in different ways and according to the target groups' varying conditions and opportunities to come to us.

Museums are accordingICOMsdefinition an important meeting place for everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, prior knowledge, functional variations. Kiviks Museum works according to ICOM's core values ​​and therefore wants to meet all target groups. If not everyone can come to the museums, the museums must try to reach the target groups in different ways. Here we take an active responsibility to reach out and help with the spread of knowledge, information and efforts to reach lonely people, regardless of whether they remain at home or in service and nursing homes.In 2020 and 2021, the work was affected by the pandemic laws that prevented outreach activities especially to older people, which of course increased isolation and loneliness.

In collaboration with Studieförbundet Vuksenskolan and Kiviks Café & Bakery, the project restarted asMeeting place Kivikin 2022 with project support fromThe National Board of Health and Welfare. The aim was to create a meeting place, spread information about what is happening in the local community's rich associational life and to help lonely people to break their isolation and evenbreastfeeding. Here, relatives and neighbors, Väntjänst, Hemtjänst, volunteers and the entire civil society can contribute, and the project is about spreading knowledge about how. During a period in the fall of 2022, the municipality of Simrishamn was also a partner through the social administration.

In the project, the Kiviks Museum and Vuxenskolan had during 2022, through the support of the National Board of Health and Welfare, an outreach activity in the homes for the elderly in the municipality of Simrishamn with, among other things, an appreciated activity program"Memories from the 1950s, 60s and 70s". We also worked together with Tomelilla municipality onMeeting place Café Kryddanin Tomelilla.

At Mötesplats Kivik, we want to meet you who experience loneliness and who want to seek new friends, social connections and activities. We kicked off in January 2023 with an inspirational lecture about a collaboration model from England. What can civil society in the form of associations, companies and private individuals do to counteract loneliness among an increasingly large target group? We inform you about what is available in association life, who can help you with various things, and we are happy to start activities for those of you who come. Are you a relative, friend or neighbor of someone alone? Help us reach the person!The project was financed in the spring of 2023 by Kiviks Museum and Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan.

In autumn 2023, the Kiviks Museum Foundation was granted an operating grant fromThe National Board of Health and Welfareto work further with meeting place development, target group adaptation and with research on how we find the best methods. Inspiration was taken from other places in Sweden and internationally, where you work with lonely people in the local community. The project is aimed at everyone who feels alienated and involuntary loneliness, regardless of age and functional variations, in south-eastern Scania.

Contact us at info@kiviksmuseum.se for more information about the project.