“Who I was and who I can become": A project to humanize relationships and care in a Residential Facility for the Elderly

Abstract

Democratic participation and emancipation are fundamental pillars in the field of non-formal adult education, especially for institutionalized seniors, as this reality demands a path to be followed, particularly in Portugal, where there is an increase in this age group and the growth of institutional responses. This article aims to present a reflective synthesis of a project carried out as part of the Master's in Education and Social Intervention at the Escola Superior de Educação - Instituto Politécnico do Porto developed in a Residential Structure for Elderly People (ERPI) in the Northern region. With the aim of reflecting on the institutionalization of elderly people and the need to guide social action with more humanized practices, the discussion brings to the fore the importance of the individual and the collective when one "lives and ages" in a common house for all and by all. Through the Participatory Action Research methodology, it was possible to design, decide, and develop a participatory project with the social actors. The text illustrates the contours and intentionality of an action strengthened by Dialogical Education, which draws on life stories and (auto)biographical narratives as enhancers of humanization through interpersonal relationships, the possibility of self-discovery, and the view of the human being as capable of seeing themselves as both individual and collective.