Name of your initiative:
Brain orienteering in Finland
Short name (acronym):
Brain orienteering
Website title and address:
http://www.jamsanmuistiyhdistys.fi/Which organization is submitting this initiative?:
Jämsän Muistiyhdistys ry
Please specify in which regions/provinces:
SUOMI / FINLANDCity:
Jämsä
Where is this organization located?:
Finland
Please enter the name of the contact person for this initiative:
Maarit Salonen
Please enter the email of the contact for this initiative:
info@jamsanmuistiyhdistys.fiPart of larger strategy or programme:
National
If you answered "other", please specify:
Please provide us with more details of this programme or strategy:
Finland`s National Memory Program started in 2012. One of the focus areas of this program is brain health. As a part of this program we are running a four years development project (2012-2015) focusing on brain health in young and working age population.
The status of the initiative:
On-going
Please give a summary of your initiative (in English):
We have been developing a new type of brain health related preventive activity. We call it the Brain orienteering. Design principles of this activity are: it is for all ages/from children to granmothers; it is inexpensive/small budget activity; it has focus on brain stimulating/it improves and activates; it makes you stop and think about brain health.
We wanted to get out of meeting rooms and classrooms and focus on activities that happen in nature – so in the woods we went! Orienteering is sports requiring navigational skills using a map to navigate from to point in unfamiliar terrain. We decided to built on that metaphor and design a Brain orienteering track with ten control points. For these control points we designed question patterns covering such topics as how brain work, learning and memory, sleep, coping at work & school. We think we were able to put together an informative, fun and relaxing opportunity to stop, learn and think issues related to brain health. You can change the level of difficulty of the questions according to the group. If the group includes with reduced mobility you design the track accordingly.
The Brain orienteering has been successful. We have tested brain orienteering in schools and summer camps. Last summer we arranged a brain orienteerin track as a part of a major international orienteering competition Jukola 2013 where was 16,000 people.
Our presentation brings pictures and memories of the experiences and lessons we learned at unforgettable event.
The geographical scope:
Regional
Type of initiative:
Public-private-partnershipEnvironment or setting of the initiative:
The economic environment or setting of the initiative:
RichThe most important source of funding for your initiative:
Other
If other, please specify your source of funding:
What triggered this initiative?:
We wanted to get out of meeting rooms and classrooms and focus on activities that happen in nature – so in the woods we went! Orienteering is sports requiring navigational skills using a map to navigate from to point in unfamiliar terrain. We decided to built on that metaphor and design a Brain orienteering track with ten control points.