The Project

The JOIN4JOY project aims to target older population with fewer opportunities to join PA programmes by adapting the programme to their needs. In order to increase the accessibility and outreach of the project to older people with fewer opportunities we have designed a multifaceted strategy to overcome specific barriers that affect their participation in this type of programmes.

Thus, the project’s objectives are:

1. To co-create and implement a programme for community settings targeting older adults (65+) living in the community (JOIN4JOY-C), and for long-term care settings targeting residents from assisted living and nursing homes (65+) (JOIN4JOY-LTC), focused on enjoyment and social interactions to encourage a sustained increase in PA and reduction in SB in their daily life after the pandemic and thus increase their quality of life in all the biopsychosocial dimensions of health, and applying a social inclusion perspective to increase health equity.
2. To train health and sports professionals and students in the participating countries working with older people with specific knowledge and skills to implement and transfer the JOIN4JOY-C and JOIN4JOY-LTC programme.
3. To enhance/promote the replication of the training by using the train the trainers methodology in order to trigger a cascade effect.
4. To create virtual communities of practices (VCoPs) to facilitate a learning room to create and share knowledge and promote interaction between participants, students, professionals and experts. A VCoP will be created in each country at national level in their own language and a global VCoP of the project will be developed in English.
5. To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and impact of the JOIN4JOY programme and the training course in both settings comparing similarities and sharing lessons learned.

Who is Join4Joy addressed to?

• older people living in long-term care settings with disability and chronic health problems and community-dwelling older people with low socio-economic levels and/or other social barriers such as caregiving, belonging to ethnic minorities or functional impairments;
• health and exercise professionals working with older adults in the community and long-term care settings and students.