THENAPA II DISSEMINATION

THENAPA II products translated

We are proud to say that the products of THENAPA II were translated and replicated in many European languages. Despite a short time of the project most of THENAPA II partners managed to arrange the translation of two very usefull products, namely the TEHNAPA II Recommendations and the Active Ageing Activity Cards. All the translations are avaliable in pdf format on this website. We hope that those products will serve the needs of people working with elderly persons with and without a disability.

THENAPA II presented in Oslo on the 14th annual ECSS Congress

THENAPA II was also participating in the 14th annual ECSS Congress, which took place in June 24-27 2009 in Oslo. The representatives from Poland and Italy presented there the actions and products of our Network.

One of the important issues on this congress was the problem of ageing of the European Population. Many presentations in a session “Physical activity and ageing” stressed the importance of physical activity for older adults. Interesting researches about physical activity, activities of daily leaving and health of older adults, were also presented in the sessions “Health and Fitness”

A THENAPA II poster European best practices and policies for promotion and implementation of Adapted Physical Physical Activity for elderly persons resulting from the THENAPA II Network presented by Izabela Rutkowska in the session “Adapted Physical Activity” attracted a lot of attention. Many participants found the products of the Network very attractive didactic material. They were encouraged to visit our website in order to get better view on the project.

THENAPA II Workshops during the 17th International Symposium of Adapted Physical Activity

The THENAPA II workshop took place during the first day of the ISAPA conference. The title of the workshop was "APA for Older Adults. The best way of increasing awareness in the European society". 11 representatives from different partner universities ( Austria , Belgium , Bulgaria , France, Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Poland ) were present and took active part in the session. The network coordinator Herman Van Coppenolle introduced to the auditorium the aims and the products of the network. After this introduction participants presented the actions on the national level. The important part of the workshop was practical demonstration of the products, followed by the feedback of the partners with specifics from the different countries.

The next point in the programme of the workshop was information exchange over the best strategy to approach the final users of the products. Many of the participants from outside the network took part in the discussion and shared their professional experience. Prof. Serap Inal from Turkey expressed her interest to take part in dissemination of the THENAPA II products beyond the partnership.

ISAPA Conference is one of the biggest events in the world of APA organized by the International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity. This year the congress was hosted by Swedish Development Centre for Disability Sport from June 23rd to June 27th in the city of Gävle in Sweden .

The website of THENAPA II updated

We would like to invite you to the new 'Dissemination' sections of our website. New and interesting information about the Dissemination year was posted on the website.
You can read there about the aims and objective of the project, find the working plan of this year and download important documents.
We are very happy to be able to put already on the website some translations of the Active Ageing Activity Cards, and we wish to invite you to see those great examples!
There is also a new service available on the website: THENAPA II Space. On this site we can all communicate, share experience, write comments etc.
We hope that with your active participation, this website will be a useful source for all THENAPA II members and other visitors.

THENAPA II Dissemination Forum in Vienna

We are pleased to inform that the Dissemination year of THENAPA II has started with a very successful Forum.

The meeting took place in Vienna , Austria from 3 rd till 7 th December 2008 . Not only was it a great opportunity to discuss the best dissemination strategies for the coming year, but also to share the experience the partners gained already while distributing the THENAPA II products.

Thanks to the national reports prepared by the participants, we can already state that THENAPA II initiatives in all the participating countries were very successful. Now during the dissemination year we hope to enforce the impact of the project.

You can download the minutes from this meeting here.

ISSUE 11

The THENAPA II Final Report submitted

On Tuesday 15th of January 2008, the Final Report of THENAPA II was submitted to the European Commission. In the last months of work, we managed to prepare a summary of all THENAPA II achievements, actions and expenses. Together with the report we have sent a number of THENAPA II products that we managed to develop in our 3 years of cooperation. We were proud to present not only the main products, such as the DVD, Curriculum, Resource Cards, etc, but also the products developed by our Partners in other countries, such as: translated leaflets, movies, conference proceedings, etc. For some more information about the products, please click here.

ISSUE 10

The last THENAPA II forum in Berlin

From 30th of May till 3rd of June, the representatives of our THENAPA II network from 24 European countries gathered for the last forum of the project. The meeting organized by Gudrun Doll Tepper and her team took place in Berlin in Hotel Sylter Hof * Berlin * in the heart of the city. Because of the special character of this closing meeting, the organizers prepared for us a exceptional programme. The THENAPA II team not only had the possibility to work on the theoretical problems concerning the preparation of the products, but also had a unique opportunity to take part in some practical activities during the visit in the hotel ‘Haus Rheinsberg’. This hotel was designed to offer people with disabilities a wide range of sport and leisure facilities and was founded by the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation. Although it was the last forum in the frame of the THENAPA II network, we do hope that we will be given the opportunity to work together one more year on the dissemination of results.

You can download the minutes from this meeting here.

Upcoming forum in Berlin

Thenapa II is preparing for the last Forum. This time this event will take place in Berlin 30.05.2007 - 3.06.2007. The venue of the gathering is Sylterhof Hotel in Berlin. The meetings on Thursday and Saturday will take place in the conference room in the hotel. On Friday the participants will visit Fürst Donnersmarck-Foundation and participate there in various workshops. Please download the recent update of the programme here.

Professor Herman Van Coppenolle nominated as honorary professor in three important Chinese Sport Universities

Prof. Herman Van Coppenolle coordinator THENAPA II was nominated last week as honorary professor in the Sport university of Beijing (April 18), Xian (April 23) and Shangdon (April 25).
These three universities want to cooperate on an intensive way in the framework of the Erasmus Mundus Master in Adapted Physical Activity coordinated by the KU Leuven, as well as in preparing in a better way their students in Adapted Physical Activity at the bachelor level.
As a very concrete cooperation project between Europe and China, the informative CD-ROM ADAPT of the European Thematic Network project THENAPA was translated into Chinese language and was presented at these three universities and also at the Sport university of Shanghai (April 19).
Prof. Van Coppenolle was also invited to visit the Paralympic Committee of China (April 27) to discuss the possible impact of the Chinese translation of ADAPT CD-ROM in China.

The application for Dissemination submitted

We would like to announce that the coordinating team of THENAPA II managed to accomplish the work on the application for the dissemination year. The application was submitted to the European Commission on the 30 th of April! We wish to thank our partners for their cooperation and help with gathering all the documents and information needed.

THENAPA II will apply for a dissemination year

THENAPA II is already in its 3 year of existence. Soon the eligible period of support from the European Commission will be finished. Having in mind this fact we had to face a decision what is going to happen now. To answer this question we had to look back to all the work that has been done by the members of our network, the positive impact of THENAPA II and the possibilities we are still having. The obvious conclusion is that we have to try to continue to work together, and try to find the best ways for our ideas to survive even after the Network is officially ended.

Now the European Commission is giving the chance to apply for another year of financial support in so called: Dissemination and exploitation of results. With such good products and with such experience we cannot afford to waste this chance.

Having this grant will allow us to distribute all the products and results of our work. This will be our chance to strengthen the impact of the network and expand all our concepts into the wider public.

All the partners that want to continue our cooperation are requested to fill in the letter of intent which can be downloaded here .

ISSUE 9

The Fifth Annual Forum of THENAPA II

In Rovereto, a picturesque Italian city surrounded by beautiful mountains THENAPA II representatives from 27 countries meet to make another step in developing the products of the Network. This Fifth Annual Forum of THENAPA II was organized and hosted by the University of Trento , represented by Federico Schena from the 31st of January till 4th of February 2007

Three days of hard work brought excellent results. Participants agreed upon the format of the interactive CD – ROM containing the Master Course Curriculum. The problem of including the information on APA for Elderly in the existing bachelor programmes of nursing and social science was discussed and the basic lines of scenario for three motivational movies were designed. With this excellent forum we entered the final stage of the project. The minutes of this meeting you can find here.

Educational seminar for the instructors from the sports club "Health"

In the framework of the THENAPA II activities, the National Sports Academy in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Bulgarian federation for Veterans of sport had organised an educational seminar for the instructors from the sports clubs “Health”. About 75 instructors (age 60 – 79) attended the three days seminar (12-14 October 2006). The oath of the Seminar was “Life is movement, movement is health”. The programme consisted of 9 theoretical lectures, three practical sessions and two open discussions. The participants were very interested of the development of the THENAPA II project and were very satisfied by the educational programme we developed. The recommendation was if possible to extent the project towards education of the elderly concerning the benefits of the physical activity. Due to the great interest, the organisers Borislava Savova and Stefka Djobova with the support of NSA have the intention to make this seminar biannual and to continue with it after the end of the project.

ISSUE 8

September – eventful month for THENAPA II

The month of September 2006 seemed to be particularly busy for the THENAPA II Network. Several interesting conferences and meetings (national as well as international) on the subject of Ageing, Sport and Disability were organized in different countries. THENAPA II tried to be present and active on most of those events. Not only was THENAPA II represented on the international conferences of EGREPA in Cologne and EUCAPA in Czech Republic , but also organized two core- group meetings of the network and participated in the Workshop organized in Oslo by our Norwegian Partners.

Workshops in Norway

On the 25th and 26th of September Herman Van Coppenolle participated in the Adapted Physical Activity - A EU workshop in Oslo University College . The meeting was organized in connection to THENAPA II and with the special focus on “The State if the Art of Assessment of Physical Activity in Elderly People“. As the coordinator of the THENAPA II Network, Herman Van Coppenolle gave an opening and closing speech. The meeting gathered many professionals with different positions and experiences including representatives of the THENAPA II network.

THENAPA II and CEEPUS

The annual meeting of CEEPUS network (Central European Exchange Program for University Studies), took place from 24 to 26 of September in Sofia . During this meeting a symposium for THENAPA II was organised. Representatives from the core group were Stefka Djobova, Borislava Savova and Julie Wittmannova. Four professors from CEEPUS group represented their work in the area of adapted physical activity and ageing. The new curriculum for the master programme was also discussed and strongly supported by the participants. The coordinator of CEEPUS network Prof. Hana Valkova on behalf of the network expressed the willingness to support THENAPA II in its dissemination activities.

THENAPA II Symposium during EGREPA Conference

 The Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGREPA) welcomed the delegates of THANAPA II to their Xth EGREPA Conference, witch was held on the 14 th, 15 th and 16 th September in Cologne, Germany. This Conference was oriented towards a very broad public including: researchers, clinicians, practitioners, trainers, healthcare-professionals, service-providers, family and professional geriatric caregivers, and decision makers (in the private and public sectors) in the field of physical activity, sports and aging for older adults. According to the different target groups four programme columns were arranged: ‘ Science & Research’, ‘Training for Trainers’, ‘Practical Exercise for Everybody’ and last but not least ‘Programmes & Promotion’, in which the symposium of the THENAPAII was scheduled. After Prof. H. Van Coppenolle shortly introduced the network and New European Master Programme for Adapted Physical Activity for Elderly, the representatives of THENAPA II gave their ideas and/or researches on the different modules witch are included in the New European Master.

Core Group Meeting of sub-group 2

The attendance of THENAPA II partners in the conference of EGREPA was an advantage for a meeting of group II. The meeting took place in one of the hotels in Cologne , where all the THENAPA II representatives were accommodated. Under the leadership of Herman Van Copenolle and Katelijne Huijsmans the group (represented by Birgitta Langhammer, Astrid Bergland, Natalia Morgulec, Julie Wittmannova, Minna Rasinaho, M ircea Chiriac ) worked on reducing the content to a nice and clear overview and structuring the modules according to the proposal of group III. After a long and HOT day of work they managed to accomplish 4 structured modules. This meeting closed the session of core group meetings, which aimed in finalizing the structure of the whole curriculum. The first version of the document is available on-line in pdf format.

THENAPA II on the conference of EUCAPA

The European Conference of Adapted Physical Education EUCAPA took place from the 6th till the 9th of September in Palacký University , Faculty of Physical Culture in Czech Republic . The title of the conference was “Excellent Research - Bridge between Research and Practice”. During the session dedicated to the international projects, the network coordinator Herman Van Coppenole presented the preliminary results of European survey, conducted by THENAPA II. Our Network was also presented on two posters. The information about the events, and initiatives undertaken by partner countries of the network was presented by Aldona Niemiro. Julie Wittmannova gave a detailed description on the Thenapa II activities on the Czech National level.

Core Group Meeting of sub-group 1

Using the opportunity to meet, provided by the conference of EUCAPA, the representatives of group one (Maria Dinold, Julie Wittmannova, Federico Schena and Aldona Niemiro) gathered together to finalize the work on the modules of curriculum. The network coordinator Herman Van Coppenolle himself lead the meeting which took place at the Faculty of Physical Culture at the Palacký University in Olomouc . After finishing to structure the information for the modules of the curriculum the discussion went on terms of the production of the CD-ROM with motivating movies. The basic draft of the scenario was prepared in order to facilitate the process of gathering the necessary materials.

ISSUE 7

New perspectives for dissemination

The visit of the 5 persons delegation from China in Sofia was a great opportunity to present THENAPA II Network to the group of specialist from outside Europe. The group was lead by the Chinese Vice Minister of Sport and the Secretary General of the Chinese Olympic Committee. During the meeting with the delegates, which took place from 30.07.06 to 02.08.06 Stefka Djobova presented work of THENAPA II and the plans for future activities of the Network. The topic was of great interest to the participants of the meeting. The delegates of Chinese Olympic Committee expressed their enthusiasm and willingness to cooperate for the dissemination of the results of the THENAPA II project in the near future.

THENAPA II Conference in Germany

In the frame of the national meeting Gudrun Doll Tepper, the key person for Germany, is organizing the THENAPA II Conference: „Menschen mit Behinderungen im höheren Lebensalter: Die Bedeutung von Bewegung und Sport“. The event will take place in Bad Bevensen, Germany from 10th till 11th of November 2006.
Here you can find the programme of the conference and the invitation letter.

Thenapa II presented in European College of Sport Science

During the 11th ECSS congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, that took place from 5 till 8 July 2006, Stefka Djobobova presented the results of preliminary study conducted by THENAPA II. Her poster presentation, which was scheduled in the session of education, was followed by fruitful discussion that continued even after the formal time of the session. Many questions arisen about the future development of the project, its dissemination and application of the results of the European survey. Big number of sport scientists that attended the congress were interested in the work of the network and received additional information together with the flyers of THENAPA II.

During this congress coordinator of THENAPA II Herman Van Coppenolle and coordinator of EUNAAPA Marijke Hopman Rock had a meeting to share the results of the work and outline strategies for the cooperation of both networks.
An informal meeting of Herman Van Coppenolle and President of International Olympic Committee Dr. Jacques Rogge took place during the congress as well. The future development of the network was discussed.

THENAPA II meeting in Bulgaria

Representatives of group 3 Stefka Djobova, Katelijne Huijsmans, and Michael Aquilina meet in the National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski” in Sofia, Bulgaria between 8 And 11 of June 2006. During those 3 fruitful days they worked on the content of their modules. They have developed as well a general template to structure the curriculum according to the rules of Bologna process. Similar meetings of group one and two will take place on the beginning of September.

ISSUE 6

THENAPA II Round Table session in Greece

The THENAPA II Round Table, organized by Maria Michalopoulou, was held as part of the 14th International Congress on Physical Education and Sport, ‘Older Adults and Individuals with Special Needs. Inclusions and Quality of Life’. The meeting took place in Greece on 20th of May 2006 and was held in various locations in the City of Komotini. The format of this session consisted of presentations by speakers around the topic area, and then a ‘round table’ discussion with questions and comments from the floor. An interesting range of perspectives concerning the specific topic of older disabled adults and the more general theme of inclusion and quality of life were presented. Approximately 100 people attended the 1,5 hour presentations session and participated in the discussion that followed.

THENAPA II as an example of international cooperation

On the15th and 16th of May, on the Vasil Levski Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria an important meeting of Ministers and Vice Ministers of Sports of Balkan countries took place.
Among many issues such as: development of sport in Balkan Countries, Improving the quality of sport programmes, development of joint programmes and diplomas discussed during that forum the attention was drawn upon disability and sports. Stefka Djobova, who took part in this meeting, presented Thenapa II as an excellent example of international cooperation in order to improve the exchange of knowledge in the area of ageing, disability and sports throughout the whole Europe.

Herman Van Coppenolle and Jacques Rogge cross their paths in Kaunas.

The network coordinator Herman Van Coppenolle was invited to participate in the ceremony of conferment of Doctor Honoris Causa to the President of International Olympic Committee Dr. Jacques Rogge. The ceremony was held on the fifth of May 2006 in Lithuania. Prof. Dr. Van Coppenolle took part in a number of small meetings during which current issues on disability, sports and national policy were discussed.

Another step in transcontinental cooperation.

The network coordinator Herman Van Coppenolle presented the THENAPA II project to Chinese professors and students during his visit to the Beijing Sports University in May 2006. Although the main purpose of his visit was to discuss the issues concerning Erasmus Mundus in APA, the presentation of the main goals and objectives of the THENAPA II network met a big interest of the participants of the information sessions.

ISSUE 5

EGREPA Conference

We are happy to announce that THENAPA II is organizing a Symposium in the framework of the EGREPA Conference which will be hold Cologne from 14th till 16th of September 2006. The subject of the conference is Physical Activity and Successful Aging.
Seven partners from the network will present there papers, related to the work of our network. The list of presentation is available on the website.
The symposium will be followed by a small THENAPAII meeting in which we can discuss the future work.

The Fourth Annual Forum of THENAPA II

The Fourth Annual Forum of THENAPA II took place in Cyprus from 5 till 9 April 2005. The meeting was hosted by the Centre for Leisure, Tourism and Sport Research and Development Intercollege in Nicosia . For three days experts from 24 countries worked together on structuring and completing the curriculum for the future master programme.
One of the final goals of THENAPA II (which is to implement the subject of adapted physical activity for the elderly in the European higher education curricula) is now very close to being achieved. You can find the detailed information on what was discussed during the forum in the minutes of the meeting.

Meeting with the Minister

During the forum in Cyprus the coordinator of the network Herman Van Coppenolle had the opportunity to meet the Minister of Labour and Social Insurance, Republic of Cyprus Mr Christos Taliadoros. The minister expressed his deep interest in the initiatives of the THENAPA II and articulated his hope in the positive impact of the network in improving the policy for ageing. Some discussions with other official representatives of Cyprus took part during this forum.

THENAPA II publicity

The news about THENAPA II is being spread not only across the European countries, but also all around the world. The network Coordinator Prof. Herman Van Coppenolle who at the same time is the Coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Master in Adapted Physical Activity has been making publicity of the network during his visit to the Partner Universities in United States and South Africa . Soon this will happen in Australia as well.

ISSUE 4

First National Forum of THENAPA II

On the 27th of January the first national forum of THENAPA II was organized in Bulgaria. The event took place in the National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski” in Sofia. The key person of Bulgaria Borislava Savova did a great job gathering almost 130 participants among whom 80 were representatives from different ministries, Non Governmental Organizations, sports federations and sports clubs, foundations, universities, unions and etc.
This meeting is an excellent example of the THENAPA II impact. More information about the event you can find under this link.
National meetings are being organized now in every participating country and we expect its positive influence not only in development of the THENAPA II products but also on expanding the concept of active lifestyle for the elderly in general.

Third Project forum in Oradea, Romania, 9th until 13th of December 2005

From 9th until 13th of December, the third project forum was hosted by the University of Oradea, Romania. The main theme of the forum was “What all caregivers should know about Adapted Physical Activity for Elderly Persons”. The objective of the forum was to create a curriculum to educate professionals working with elderly disabled persons.

After careful consideration, the partners decided to create the curriculum of European Specialisation Program in Adapted Physical Activity for Elderly. The preliminary draft on the content of the program was designed in separate working groups. More information on this work meeting can be found in the minutes.
The forum in Oradea was very productive and a great step forwards in reaching the final goals of the network.

European Conference on Adapted Physical Activity, Oslo, 19th to 20th of September 2005
From 19th until 20th of September, the Oslo University College organised a Conference on Ageing and Disability in cooperation with THENAPA II. The event was hosted by the Faculty of Health Sciences in Oslo. The theme of the conference was Adapted Exercise for Elderly People. During 2 days, 6 key-note speakers presented their research project and practical experiences in the domain of ageing and disabilities. About 15 abstracts were selected to be presented as free papers.
The conference gave a good overview of the state of the art in the field of ageing and disability both in practice and in research. In his key-note speech, Herman Van Coppenolle addressed the education of caregivers. This is an important aspect in the structural approach for increasing physical activity in elderly. Stefka Djobova presented the preliminary results of a comparative study with regards to education in ageing and physical activity, conducted for THENAPA II.

The meeting in Oslo was another excellent opportunity for the coordinator of THENAPA II and Marijke Hopman Rock, the coordinator of EUNAAPA to have a discussion about strengthening cooperation between those two networks.

ISSUE 3

International Symposium on Adapted Physical Activity (ISAPA), Verona, 5 - 9/07/2005

The International Symposium on APA is organized every two years under the patronage of the International Federation for Adapted Physical Activity (IFAPA). This is one of the most important symposiums in the field of Adapted Physical Activity (APA) –This year it was held in Verona, Italy from 5th until 9th of July 2005.

Since the symposium took place in Europe, this was an excellent opportunity to present the first results of our THENAPA II network to a large group of APA experts from around the world.
Herman Van Coppenolle, the coordinator of the network, presented the preliminary results of a comparative study held on academic curricula, lifestyle, examples of good practice in physical activity and sports for elderly, and on national policy on physical activity and aging across Europe. He also gave a short overview of the future perspectives of the THENAPA II network.
Throughout the Symposium, the topic of ageing and adapted physical activity was addressed in several sessions.

Cooperation between networks.

The International Symposium on Adapted Physical Activity in Verona was an excellent starting point for establishing cooperation between THENAPA II and several international and European organisations:
- IFAPA - International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity
- EUCAPA - European subdivision of IFAPA
- EUNAAPA - European Network for Action on Ageing and Physical Activity

THENAPA II key person receives Doctor Honoris Causa

The Thenapa II key person for Germany dr Gudrun Doll – Tepper received a Doctor Honoris Causa of Laws, at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. The ceremony of conferment took place on the 25.05.2005 in Newfoundland, Canada. Dr Gudrun Doll – Tepper is the Berlin Sport Scientist and President of the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE). Congratulations!

“Health, Sports and Innovations” Seminar in Brussels, 27th until 28th of May 2005.

Prof. Dr. Herman Van Coppenolle, coordinator of THENAPA II, was invited to speak at the seminar “Health, Sport and Innovations” which was held in Brussels from the 27th till the 28th of May 2005. The seminar was organised by the National Council of Physical Activity and Sports (Conseil national des activités physiques et sportives CNAPS) in the cooperation with the Free University of Brussels.
In his speech Prof. Herman Van Coppenolle emphasized the importance of encouraging older adults to be physically active and to make the physical activity a part of their lives. He illustrated this by presenting research data on the role of adapted physical activity in the intervention and prevention of secondary diseases and disabilities in older persons with limited functioning.

ISSUE 2

Second Project forum in Kaunas, from 18th until 22nd of May 2005.

From 18th until 22nd of May, the second project forum was held in the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education in Kaunas. The main objective of this forum was to gather national information from each of the partners and to define the working strategy for the upcoming year.
Each country presented their national situation with regards to elderly with disabilities. There were some presentations of excellent examples of good practice of educational programs and physical activity programs in the field elderly persons with a disability.
After the presentations, the partners decided to design a format to structure the information gathered in the different countries in the same way. More information on the project meeting in Kaunas can be found in the minutes.

During this forum, Prof. Herman Van Coppenolle, Coordinator of the Network, was honoured with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education in Kaunas. This title is a recognition of the work Prof. Van Coppenolle has done in this and previous European networks.

Presentation THENAPA I and II at IPC Headquarters in Bonn.

On 25th of March 2005, we were invited by the IPC to present our ongoing projects. This invitation was an excellent occasion to present both the results of the previous THENAPA project and the future perspectives of THENAPA II to the Staff of the IPC. Stefka Djobova and Iana Dobreva presented the CD-ROMs Adapt I and II. We received positive feedback on these THENAPA products. They are an excellent tool in the improvement of the education of APA professionals around Europe.

Prof. Van Coppenolle presented our newly developed European Network in Ageing and Disability. This presentation was a unique opportunity for the network as the IPC is an important actor in raising the general awareness of the importance of an active lifestyle for all. The future cooperation between the network and the IPC will enhance the dissemination of our common message.

ISSUE 1

Malta, the beginning of the European survey

The kick-off of the THENAPA II project “Ageing and Disability – a new crossing between physical activity, social inclusion and life-long well being” took place on our first project forum in Malta, from 2nd until 5th of December 2004. The meeting was held in European Centre for Gerontology at the University of Malta.

During this assembly the working methods of the network, the general financial rules as well as historical background of functioning of the thematic network were presented. The partners discussed the workplan for the first year in detail.

Heinz Mechling, an expert in the field of aging and physical activity was invited as a key-note speaker. In his speech “- “Successful ageing and physical activity”, he addressed the effects of physical activity on ageing, curriculum guidelines for future professionals with regards to physical activity for elderly and existing national and international programs.

The forum ended in the atmosphere of great enthusiasm and expectations for the upcoming year of work in THENAPA II.

7th European Congress of Adapted Physical Activity

The 7th European Congress of Adapted Physical Activity (EUCAPA) - “New Challenges in Adapted Physical Activity – Functioning, Participation and Activity” took place in Dortmund, Germany from 10th to 13th of November 2004. The event was organised by the European sub-division of the International Federation Adapted Physical Activity IFAPA. The congress was hosted by Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Dortmund. European Experts from universities and other institutions working in the field of adapted physical education and activity took part in this scientific forum.
On behalf of THENAPA II Iana Dobreva shortly presented the program of the Thematic Network Aging and Disability for the forthcoming year, its expected outcomes and products.

9th International Conference of EGREPA

Professor Herman Van Coppenolle was invited to take part in IX International Conference of European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGREPA) “Exercise and Healthy Aging”, which was held in Oeiras, Portugal October 1-3, 2004.
He presented there the start of the New Thematic Network: Aging and Disability – A New Crossing Between Physical Activity, Social Inclusion And Life-Long Well-Being. In his lecture he introduced the main thematic areas of the Network, its aims and objectives.

The event was organised in co-operation between EGREPA and Faculty of Human Movement (The Technical University of Lisbon).

Over the course of the 2 days, many interesting and relevant topics with regards to ageing and disability were presented. Themes were spread over the five thematic areas:

• Enhancing Quality of Life in Older Adults
• Developing and Managing Exercise Programs for the Elderly
• Interventions to Promote Physical Activity among Older Adults
• Assessment of Physical Activity and Physical Functioning in Older Adults
• Exercise Prescription for the Elderly

The program of the conference linked research with community interventions, emphasizing the need for a close communication between scientists and service agencies for the sake of the elderly people.