ABSTRACT
The Mirror of Talents refers to an adult education programme using the telling and playing (theatre) of life stories as a social medium to connect elderly people and youngsters. On the one hand, it addresses the problem of the increasing social exclusion of elderly people, elderly people who increasingly do not participate in society due to feelings of detachment from the ‘young’ population. On the other hand, it deals with elderly people’s feelings of fear, their perception of youngsters as ‘different’ and therefore ‘offensive’ in many ways. The main aim of the programme is to give seniors and youngsters the opportunity to develop an understanding of each other by constructive dialogue in which both viewpoints are reflected. It is expected that both target groups, by learning more about each other, will understand each other better and the contact between both groups will improve, enhancing the social inclusion of the seniors.
