“School buses used for weekend trips break the isolation among elderly” – MAMBA project in the news

MAMBA project has been fostering success stories with the partners developing their pilot and Mobility Centre initiatives. One of these cases is that of the Municipality of Trelleborg, where school buses have been put to good use. If during weekdays these are used to transport school children to and from school, during weekends they serve a different purpose. Almost every Saturday, the buses carry between 15 and 20 elderly people, women being more willing to give it a try than men, to places of interest, creating opportunities for them to socialise. During an interview for the regional newspaper, Trelleborgs Allehanda, one of the people benefiting from the pilot, said that these trips are nice and cheap occasions for the pensioners.


By raising the interest of other departments of the municipality, such as the cultural and educational one, this initiative is trying to diversify the trips, and drive the elderly to museums, exhibitions, concerts and so on, also taking into account the wishes of those who use the trips.

 

Besides trying to increase the mobility of vulnerable societal groups, Christoffer Pettersson-Hernestig, Project manager for MAMBA in the Trelleborg region, and Felix Sunesson, Intern within the Department of Sustainable Development, have also – through the MAMBA project – developed a hub that serves as a coworking space, that aims at bringing together professionals from the Södra Åby area.

 

Both, the trips offered to elderly people and the coworking space, will be presented in a short movie, where Christoffer, Felix and Ulla-Brit, the person in charge of the hub, talked about issues and practicalities that come with such initiatives, how easy or difficult it is to convince people to try new things and how the trips and the coworking space have changed the municipality for the better.

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