USE – Universidade Sénior de Évora – Associação de aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida
(Portugal).


Senior University of Évora (USE) is a private, non-profit association that develops non-formal education and activities for people over 50 years. We are located in Évora, Portugal, a 55.000 inhabitant’s city situated in the interior south of Portugal in an area identified as having the highest percentage of older people. In 2005 we’ve created this association with the purpose of doing something to get better the life style of the oldest population.

Our institution’s main goals are to promote and active aging; to develop intergenerational relations; to inform and sensibilize seniors about different topics; to do training and educative sessions; to promote volunteering in the community and for the community.


Until now we believe that we’ve been successful, because we have now in our regular activities around 420 senior learners and besides that, just in ICT different levels, we have 135 seniors. Our teachers are
volunteers and we have cooperating with us, around 50 volunteers.
We can consider our institution as volunteering institution, once that all our teachers working with us are
volunteers, and that makes a great “taste” in our work. We have around 40 volunteers that usually gave the institution 1 or 2 hours a week, giving the best they have to share, learn, teach and divide with the seniors.
The smiles is the best reward a volunteers can have.


Our activities are diversified from ICT, to arts, to mother and foreign languages, literature, history, history of art, psychology, gardening, natural sciences, gymnastic, walking, dancing, painting, cooking, health,
embroidering, music, etc. Besides this, complementary activities are offered, like cultural (music and theatre) and intergenerational relations are privileged, which are not accessorial but complete the knowledge and expertise of this population in nowadays and in the society.


One of our concerns is to guarantee the sustainability of the institution, so we develop several European and National projects within the themes like road safety, education and learning, non-formal education,
consumption, crisis, ICT, etc. We’ve coordinated a considered star project, about natural sciences, involving seniors, in an intergenerational perspective, related to community, gender, ICT and age.


We’ve have been working in European cooperation since 2006, which guaranteed us an European level
allowed us to give to the seniors the possibility to exchange with other institutions, countries, cultures,
traditions and languages. For the staff and management staff the possibility of working in European
Cooperation allowed us to improve our knowledge and practices, once that the perspectives within the non- formal education has been increased and non-formal education is nor recognized in Portugal, we’ve
developed also our skills and expertise abroad.