The European Union is facing a longevity revolution, with a remarkable increase in life expectancy and a growing number of older people. The portion of people 80+ is characterized by special growth. In 2060, so the forecasts, every 8th person will belong to the age group 80+, almost quadrupling the portion at the start of the millennium (Eurostat). Many of these older persons will suffer from dementia and other functional restrictions, implying comprehensive and long-term care needs. Nevertheless, from a positive perspective, a large majority of people 80+ are still mentally healthy, and this even applies to people 100+. However, complying with broadly spread stereotypes, very old people with functional restrictions or care needs are labeled as being solely consumers of costly services, ignoring the fact that the majority of them has the potential to take on an active role in, and even provide services for their community. In order to achieve this goal, what is needed is a transformation of social and institutional attitudes in the direction of a positive vision of active and healthy aging. The potential of older people is often not considered in institutions and facilities for seniors, and that potential vanished if it is not maintained or further-developed. Staff and volunteers in these organizations often share the attitude that their clients should be cared for "from above", thus depriving old people of opportunities to engage in meaningful activities and gain personal fulfillment through learning experiences. "It is never too late to learn" applies in a special way to persons of a high age. Since their public environment is often limited, professionals and volunteers working with service providers can be their most important external contact persons. Their knowledge and ability to develop meaningful activities with their clients and support them in detecting or re-developing hidden strengths can be crucial in providing access to learning and ensuring greater independence, autonomy and dignity in later life. Our vision is a) to facilitate and provide access to informal learning opportunities for old people with functional limitations or care needs and b) to combat negative stereotypes about this population group as regards being restricted to the role of consumers of services. The concrete project objectives, referring to the vision above, are to 1) Provide educational institutions in the field of health and social care with a training package for staff and volunteers, enabling them to function as adult educators and facilitators for older seniors 2) Initiate and facilitate practical measures in care homes, day centres and other facilities to demonstrate the learning and activation potential of older seniors 3) Disseminate successful ways of implementing learning and activation offers as well as good practice examples among decision-makers and practitioners in the realms of educational and social policies so as to spread know-how on how to cope with this new issue 4) Raise public awareness on the potential of older seniors by involving the press and other media at local, regional, national and European level in the dissemination of the results gained 5) Sustain the project results by cooperation with interested parties The key deliverables of the ACT80+ related to these objectives project are: • The European Benchmarking Report "Learning and active citizenship at very high age" is a synthesis of research results on the state of the art of learning and active citizenship of very old persons in the European Union • The Training Package ACT80+ is based on the results of the European Benchmarking Report and will elaborate the framework for the training of staff and volunteers of care homes and facilities for older seniors • The European Analysis Report "Outcomes and impacts of trial workshops" summarizes the assessment of the design and implementation of the ACT80+ training measures in trial workshops and, after several weeks, follow-up activities resulting from the training • The Handbook for Trainers is comprised of a general introduction to the background of the project ACT80+ and its overall aims. It will further describe the characteristics of the workshop participants in their role as staff and volunteers in facilities of frail or dependent old persons as well as the potentials of their clients for learning and active citizenship. • The Handbook for Practitioners advises paid staff and volunteers in how to design meaningful actions and activities for and with their senior clients. Practice examples will be given to show the range of their potentials in learning and active citizenship. • Political decision-makers at local, regional, national and European level will be addressed through policy recommendations which are derived from the results of the project.