The ageing of the population is one of the most outstanding changes worldwide. This demographic phenomenon leads together with the increase in life expectancy of the population and the increase of multimorbidities, disability and frailty in people over 60 years of age. All these elements place the older population in a vulnerable position. In turn, this vulnerability is increased by the fact that old age is the stage of life with the highest level of discrimination, a phenomenon known as ageism and the third cause of discrimination in the world, preceded by racism and sexism. In this way, the group of older people is linked to a profile of an unhealthy, dependent, unproductive, intransigent and fragile older person, giving rise to their social exclusion.

In order to tackle the situation in which the elderly find themselves, it is necessary to create projects that base their actions on the paradigm of active ageing, where social work professionals advocate for the social participation of the elderly in the creation of inclusive societies.

For this reason, in the framework of the European Project U-GARDEN (ENUTC-2021), the benefits obtained from the participation of people over 65 years old in urban gardens will be analyzed, considering the different dimensions that make up the paradigm of active ageing: physical impact, psychological impact and social impact, where the figure of the social worker will be paramount in the research, by applying a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology that contemplates the technique of the semi-structured in-depth interview, as the technique par excellence to capture the intentionality and meanings of the informants, positioning the elderly at the center of the research.