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"Seniors Play Gathering Station" Creates a Third Act in Life for Senior

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"Seniors Play Gathering Station" Creates a Third Act in Life for Senior

It is estimated, by 2025, the population of Taiwan with age above 65 is to exceed 20%.  Along with the rapid pace of aging population, the lack of work force and elder care services will become potential social issues. The Mustard Seed Mission (MSM) shares the same concerns that the cumulative middle-aged and elderly people will eventually migrate into the pool of aging population, hence, it takes initiative to help create job opportunities for the elders, and encourage the continuous pursuit of self-realization, hoping through all this development of new sense of self, they don’t need to rely on services from long term care centers as they grow older.  On the 29th, together with "PlayMe Doll's Home", it held the first "Senior Play Gathering Station" opening ceremony at the Longshan Cultural and Creative Base in Wanhua District, Taipei City.

MSM has been caring for the disadvantaged and underprivileged children for a long time, furthermore, it starts promotion of the " 50+ Elderly Empowerment " program in 2020. Through a variety of courses, the retirees get to return to the labor market or social work service field. And, the Vocational Training Center, one of MSM ground is located in Hualien, which workshop used to be an important base to cultivate indigenous youth. This year, this ground transforms to become a workplace for the elders to help senior indigenous women learn weaving and baking techniques, not only to pass on traditional skills, but to help produce family income.

MSM also proactively proposes to enterprises to create a workplace-friendly environment for middle-aged and elderly people. The "Seniors Play Gathering Station" was held at the Longshan Cultural and Creative Base in Wanhua District. Wanhua is the area with the highest numbers of elderly people in Taipei City. MSM successfully trained 7 trainees to reenter job market. The content of job is redesigned to suit the physical conditions of middle-aged and elderly people. Aiming to create an age-friendly environment, the newly designed jobs allow flexible working hours with easy-to-learn work content. Considering all these variables and piece them together, noticeably, the confidence of elder participants is enhanced and able to re-embrace the employment. 

Tiffany, who used to be a substitute teacher after retiring from working at a trading company. By chance, she participated a part-time job exchange program in Hualien Art Institute, and further joined the work of the seniors' play gathering station.  Tiffany said that many companies do not understand the working status or physical constraint of middle-aged and elderly people. Mustard Seed Mission plays an important role as a bridge to properly communicate with companies and alternatively design a 4-hour guided tour, 3-day-a-week work schedule. The physical requirement of this job for a 62-year-old person like her is suitable. This tour provides her with the opportunity to cooperate with the younger generation. She believes that as long as she demonstrates her professionalism, she can learn from each other and share knowledge with young people.

Ms. Xie, the manager of this exhibition, after retiring from the public sector last year, saw the job opportunity of " 50+ Elderly Empowerment" from MSM over the Internet. Although she had no exhibition experience, she is courageous enough to sign up. From her previous rigorous and standardized workflows to this exhibition job which requires creativity, she said: "Maybe after retirement, I have rediscovered another part of myself, full of innocence hidden deeply in my soul." She also admitted that the previous routine in life makes her stay in a comfort zone for quite some time. It is stressful for her at the beginning of re-employment, but soon she is able to happily embrace challenges. She very much agrees with the concept of curation and is also eager to try new things and seek more opportunities to interact with people.

 

✅ 50+ Elderly Empowerment project

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