A presentation at the Making Futures Conference 2017 in Plymouth. The topic is how can maker community and makerspaces collaborate with care settings and other parties in the community to ensure access to meaningful creative activities for people of all ages.

1. WELLBEING FOR OLDER PEOPLE
– INTERGENERATIONAL
COLLABORATION WITH WELL-
MAKING SPACES
Mari Salovaara
Craft Teacher / Adult
Education Institute
Helsinki
PhD Student / University
of Helsinki

2. I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT…
1. How engaging in craft activities can enhance the wellbeing (of
older people)
2. Erasmus+ project Handmade Wellbeing in 2015-2017
3. Challenges during the project
4. How to tackle the challenges: collaboration?
5. Examples from Finland

3. ENGAGING IN CRAFT ACTIVIES
 Pleasure from multisensory
making
 Cognitive challenge &
accomplishment
 Relaxation and / or flow
experiences
 Empowerment: being active and
in control
 Distraction from negative
thoughts
 Positive identity in old age
(Liddle, Parkinson, & Sibbritt, 2013;
Nurtures mental life
Photo: Carolina Mobarac

4. ENGAGING IN CRAFT ACTIVIES
 Ageing causes inevitable decline for example in brain and hand
function
 Both are essential in coping with activities of daily life
 Making things by hand enhances and sustains hand function
 Brain health can be sustained through challenging the brain
regularly with activities and new experience
 Brain creates new synapses and develops as a result of use  this
neuroplasticity remains even in old age!
(Carmeli, Coleman, & Patish, 2003; Kandel et al., 2013a; Kandel et al.,
2013b; Woodruff-Pak, D. S., & Hanson, C., 1995; Verghese et al., 2003)
Supports physical health

5. ENGAGING IN CRAFT ACTIVIES
 Observing the physical
environment for finding
inspiration
 Influencing the environment
through making
 Encourages social
participation through shared
interests and making things
together
(Liddle, Parkinson, & Sibbritt, 2013;
Maidment & Macfarlane, 2011; Pöllänen,
Strengthens connections to the
wider world
Photo: Sandra Urvak

6. HANDMADE WELLBEING PROJECT
The aim: to enhance professional competences of arts and crafts
practitioners to facilitate craft activities in elderly care contexts
Four European partners: Finland, UK, Austria, Estonia
The partners conducted arts and crafts workshops in their respective
countries and provided training for facilitators and other partners
Best practices of facilitating arts and crafts workshops for older
people were reflected and developed collaboratively
Intergenerational workshops were very pleasant and rewarding for all;
it is important to have contact with people of different ages
Being together was most important

7. CHALLENGE:
FACILITATORS
 Usually activities are run by
care staff, who may have
experience of creative
activities. Or not.
 Limits the possibilities
 Also individual arts and
crafts experts deliver
activities
 Usually they are not hired,
but instead apply for funding
to run projects
 Working alone, lack of
community
Photo: Carolina Mobarac

8. CHALLENGE:
TOOLS AND
MATERIALS
 Not much available in
care settings
 Limited budget to buy
any materials
 Limits the possibilities
 Usually, the facilitator
brings the materials (and
finds funding)
Photo: Sandra Urvak

9. CHALLENGE:
SUITABLE
SPACE
 Special activities rooms
are rare in care settings
 We ran workshops in
dining rooms, balcony,
hall etc
 Setting up and cleaning
up the space is a huge
workload
 Limits the possibilities
Photo: Sandra Urvak

10. COLLABORATION:
MAKERSPACES & CARE SETTINGS?
Sharing expertise, ideas,
knowledge
Joint activities, expert
facilitators
Sharing materials, tools,
spaces
Makerspace located near a
care setting, mobile
makerspaces
Intergenerational
communication
Photo: Carolina Mobarac

11. EXAMPLES
FROM FINLAND
Separate makerspaces for
retired and young people
In some care settings, there is a
space for making crafts
Free for retired and unemployed
people
Not marketed for young people
Budget cuts: not really possible
to offer guided activities
anymore
Separate makerspaces for young
people under 30
Photo: Sandra Urvak

12. EXAMPLES FROM FINLAND
Unemployed young people keep a café in a care
setting
Working trial periods for young unemployed people without
education
They can try out working in different settings to see if it would be
suitable for them
One option is a café which is located in a care setting
Very good feedback, older residents love to see young people

13. EXAMPLES FROM FINLAND
Young people living in care
settings
Possible to rent a flat in a care home
Cheap rent (Netherlands: free!)
They commit to arrange activities in the care setting, e.g. 20 h / month
Very good feedback from all parties

14. A WELL-MAKING SPACE?
Offers opportunities for high
quality creative activities
Offers opportunities for
being together and
interaction
A diverse community
Photo: Sandra Urvak

15. REFERENCES
Carmeli, E., Patish, H., & Coleman, R. (2003). The Aging Hand. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences
and Medical Sciences, 58 (2), 146–152.
Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., Jessell, T. M., Siegelbaum, S. A., Hudspeth, A. J., & Mack, S. (Eds.). (2013a). From Nerve
Cells to Cognition: The Internal Representations of Space and Action. In Principles of neural science (5th ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill Education LLC.
Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., Jessell, T. M., Siegelbaum, S. A., Hudspeth, A. J., & Mack, S. (Eds.). (2013b). Nerve Cells,
Neural Circuitry, and Behavior. In Principles of neural science (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education LLC.
Liddle, J. L. M., Parkinson, L., & Sibbritt, D. W. (2013). Purpose and pleasure in late life: Conceptualising older women’s
participation in art and craft activities. Journal of Aging Studies, 27 (4), 330–338.
Maidment, J., & Macfarlane, S. (2011). Crafting Communities: Promoting Inclusion, Empowerment, and Learning
between Older Women. Australian Social Work, 64 (3), 283–298.
Pöllänen, S. (2013). The meaning of craft: Craft makers’ descriptions of craft as an occupation. Scandinavian Journal of
Occupational Therapy, 20 (3), 217–227.
Reynolds, F. (2010). “Colour and communion”: Exploring the influences of visual art-making as a leisure activity on
older women’s subjective well-being., Journal of Aging Studies, 24 (2), 135–143.
Verghese, J. et al. (2003). Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly. The New England journal of
medicine, 348 (25), 2508–2516.
Woodruff-Pak, D. S., & Hanson, C. (1995). Plasticity and compensation in brain memory systems in aging. In R. A.
Dixon, & L. Backman (Eds.), Compensating for psychological deficits and declines: Managing losses and promoting

16. THANK YOU!
Contact me:
mari.salovaara@helsinki.fi
Handmade Wellbeing
project website
craftwellbeing.eu
Photo: Titta Kärnä