In 2010 the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Fondation Médéric Alzheimer, the King Baudouin Foundation and the Robert Bosch Stiftung joined forces in the European Foundations Initiative on Dementia (EFID), aimed at improving perceptions of dementia and stimulating solidarity at local level. Last year, ten European projects were selected for EFID awards.

Part of the award scheme is the transfer of good practice and capacity building among the winners, so the projects’ leaders were invited to participate in a practical workshop at the Alzheimer Europe Conference in Vienna in October 2012.

Based on the encouraging results of this first round of awards, a second call for awards will be launched in spring 2013. The new round will support and encourage work led by community-based organizations so that people with dementia and their families can live well in their communities. As a new feature, greater emphasis will be put on the direct involvement of people with dementia in the projects.

Work on dementia is an increasingly topical subject on the European social agenda. With this in view, EFID will present the foundations’ work on age-friendly communities at the upcoming EFC conference in Copenhagen at the end of May, in a session called ‘Europe is Growing Older: Why the dementia challenge can help build sustainable cities’.

More ideas are in the pipeline for the second phase of EFID in 2013 and 2014. While learning from the collaborative experience, the foundations involved are supporting innovation in rethinking dementia in Europe. It is hoped that EFID will be expanded to include more foundations in the near future.

For more information
http://www.nef-europe.org