Do you remember?

Erfgoed Balen invites you to take a nostalgic walk through the center of the municipality. In the ErfgoedApp , they ErfgoedApp a route full of recognizable places and interesting anecdotes about the past. Curious about how their initiative came about? Bram Dierckx from Erfgoed Balen tells you more about the project.

Digital heritage and care

Dierckx: "Together with local retirement homes, Tourism Balen, the tourist office, and the Balen Senior Citizens' Council, Erfgoed Balen developed a tour in the ErfgoedApp with multimedia information. Outdoor activities for older people are not easy to find and were virtually non-existent in Balen. We filled that gap with a nostalgic walk, tailored to people with dementia. We deliberately chose the term 'nostalgic walk' as an alternative to 'dementia walk' in order to offer a tour without any prejudice or connotations.

Thanks to the ErfgoedApp the tour ErfgoedApp an extra dimension and many authentic sources became easily accessible. Images, sounds, and film clips, combined with the tour and the text, complete the picture. Walkers are given a whole series of 'stimuli' and forgotten places from yesteryear are brought back to life. The tour evokes memories through evocative images, sounds, and videos. Anyone who takes the tour will also gain a new memory.

Getting started

The broad outlines of the project were drawn up by several partners, which created support for the project. Bram Dierckx: "The initial phase took a lot of time, but once we got started and defined the objectives, the ideas quickly took shape. The content and the final product were developed by Erfgoed Balen in a specific working group. This made it possible to effectively continue working on a concept that had been around for a while.

Due to the target audience, a conscious decision was made to use a minimum of text. Instead, images and film clips play the leading role. At each point along the route, visitors are given a short introduction and an animated film with voice-over commentary. This allows visitors to watch and listen... and then bring their own memories to life. The videos were deliberately narrated by 'youthful and neutral' voices. After all, previous experience has taught us that the combination and collaboration between seniors and young people works well.

Accessibility

For the tour, the filing cabinets of the archive and documentation center were literally opened up, revealing a wealth of unique, never-before-seen images and film clips.

The tour takes into account a less mobile audience and is fully wheelchair accessible. Although the initial intention was to appeal primarily to people with dementia, the end product is a route that will also appeal to many other visitors. The walk is suitable for anyone who wants to discover Balen-Centrum through retro glasses.

Comments

In the meantime, various retirement homes and the senior citizens' council have already organized several group walks. The responses have been very positive. There are even a few "experts by experience" who have taken the nostalgic walk several times.

Bram Dierckx: "In the future, Erfgoed Balen wants to make a few more improvements, including making the route more visible for visually impaired people. After all, most smartphone screens are very small. Through the Balen Leisure Center, we are also trying to make tablets with a mobile connection available, which is necessary to download the tour. These larger screens with better sound will contribute to an optimal experience of the route for both visually impaired and hearing-impaired people and larger groups."

Don't miss this tour because:

• The tour is completely free of charge.
• You will pass by "ordinary" and "everyday" buildings and places that come to life thanks to the route in the ErfgoedApp .
• Alone, in a group, young or old, forgetful or not... The route offers something for everyone.
• Everyone can (re)discover something new, old, new old, or old new along the way.
• The videos place all the points on the route in their correct historical and spatial context and are therefore a real asset that Erfgoed Balen itself is rightly proud of. In this way, they have really been able to lower the threshold and provide a wealth of unique resources.

Fancy it?

• Distance: 3 km
• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Starting and ending point: De Kruierie Leisure Center, Bevrijdingsstraat 1, 2490 Balen. The walk starts at the parking lot in front of VC De Kruierie and the Balen Library.

Would you like more information about this walking route? Then drop by the entrance to De Kruierie Leisure Center or the Old Town Hall. You can find more information here and here.