Casa Encontro Project helps people in the ‘best age’ to return to the job market

According to IBGE (in portuguese Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, ‘Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics’), between 2019 and 2020, more than 400 thousand Brazilians aged 50 and over lost their jobs, tripling the percentage of unemployed in this age group and reaching 7%. In addition to all the challenges imposed by the pandemic, today the elderly also face age discrimination, especially in the labor market, aggravating situations of social exclusion.

The project Casa Encontro, an initiative of Instituto Velho Amigo, created by the actor Leonardo Miggorin, offers support to elderly people, people in vulnerable situations and residents of Nova Heliópolis, São Paulo. The initiative holds several meetings in the form of playful self-knowledge workshops, skill development, training spaces, professional qualification and presentation of support for entering the job market.

The Institute

Instituto Velho Amigo is an organization that was born 23 years ago with the mission of promoting the social inclusion of people in situations of social vulnerability, working together with long-term institutions, shelters for the elderly and community centers in various regions of the country, as well as a community project in the community of Heliópolis, in the south of São Paulo, with 30 people benefiting from the project.

With the objective to minimize this situation, the project Casa Encontro was created, an intervention with the goal of supporting the process of rebuilding life projects of elderly people, based on their knowledge and previous experiences.

Activities

The project is divided into five modules:

Reception: Where workshops are held to discover purpose, potential and personal empowerment.

Job market: Investigates and maps existing skills and abilities and those that need to be developed, according to their wishes.

Career Triad: The moment when they begin to put their desires and opportunities into a life plan, establishing strengths, opportunities, goals and actions.

Prospective Analysis: Development of entrepreneurial skills and abilities, self-assessment and feedback. 

Life Project: this is the moment to close this path, with the conclusion of the life project planning, and with reflections and evaluations on the process so far, making the necessary course corrections.

The workshops, during which elements of self-knowledge, strengthening, support network mapping, skills development, feedback, qualifications for returning to the job market, digital inclusion and planning techniques are worked on, are carried out by the project’s creator, Leonardo Miggorin.

Katia Gomes, project coordinator at Instituto Velho Amigo, talks a little about Casa Encontro.

“In 2022, we had to opt for a reduced version of the project, because we hadn’t yet reached the total amount necessary for the execution of the project. But the need and demand were there, so we decided to start the project, even without having the full amount to cover all expenses. Leonardo acts as an educator and psychologist on a voluntary basis, which makes it possible to carry out the first modules on a reduced scale, emphasizing activities that support the reflective process on aging and life plans”.

Support the project

The project is also an opportunity for socialization and learning, which are very important for the health of this population.

It is known that after the individual, male or female, reaches a certain age, the doors of the job market gradually close, precisely when many are at the height of their knowledge. The project is also an opportunity for socialization and learning, which are very important for their health.

For the Casa Encontro project to continue, in 2023, improving the quality of life and giving access to dignity to this group of people, we need your collaboration.

Contribute crowdfunding to keep the project going.

To learn more about the project, follow Velho Amigo on Instagram.