The economic situation since the crisis of 2008 has been at the roots of a huge increase in the unemployment figures across Europe. No country has been spared and we know that the longer people are unemployed, the more difficult it becomes for them to re-integrate “active life” Many grassroots “social educators” feel simply out-of-their-depth faced with the scale of the problem in their communities. Many suffer from burn-out as a result. Even those who have ideas of what could be offered have no idea what funding is available for such work or how to look for it so many ideas are not initiated – or are not sustainable for developing within a long-term perspective. This project aims to tackle the efficiency of training and employment initiatives for unemployed women. Secondly, to explore professional training and support gaps for the facilitators and educators involved in this field of work and to develop responses at both regional and European-levels. There are 6 participating countries in the project with different backgrounds and experience of the problem. Each organization will bring specific expertise that complements each other. There will be two levels of target groups. Adult Educators who we will work with directly, that will attend the workshops and the method improving work. The other target group is the women we are addressing that will benefit indirectly by the project in the long run. Our activities will include: launching of networks on regional levels: "Exploring the field, Partnership Kick-off meeting, "Establishing Cooperation Strategies & Identifying Best Practices", European-level Event: "Exchanging Best Practices & Planning New Developments", "Female unemployment: a state of the art", Time for Action, European-level Event: "Evaluation of Phase", Conclusion of the Action Research, Follow-Up and Focus on Training Module Development. Through these events we will both have a survey of methods and examination of what results have been achieved through current practices, to reflect over our own methods, identifying some concrete examples of good practice and methods of working. From this survey of needs and practise the project will develop some ideas of what “new aspects” of this work could be developed in terms of cooperation between organizations and exchange of practices. Developing methods to be practised on national level, shared and defined in the transnational events and implemented on regional level for the benefit of the target group. We expect the adult educators to be more proactive and independent, to have a european vision on the topic, and to have developed a set of competences that will increase the quality of their job. One of the impacts will also be a greater ability in avoiding burn-out for a more continuous and secure job. They will gain a greater cultural competence in order to enhance understanding, build bridges and create a safe environment in the workplace. The participants in the project will be able to bring their knowledge to the organization to quality secure and help develop the whole organization. We will develop strong networks with local organisations and services designed for unemployed female and so the whole community can benefit from it. The desired impact on local and regional level is that more women should be able to integrate into society, gain self-esteem and a job to break their isolation from society. This will be a benefit for both the women and the sociality.
The economic situation since the crisis of 2008 has been at the roots of a huge increase in the unemployment figures across Europe. No country has been spared and we know that the longer people are unemployed, the more difficult it becomes for them to re-integrate “active life” Many grassroots “social educators” feel simply out-of-their-depth faced with the scale of the problem in their communities. Many suffer from burn-out as a result. Even those who have ideas of what could be offered have no idea what funding is available for such work or how to look for it so many ideas are not initiated – or are not sustainable for developing within a long-term perspective. This project aim was to tackle the efficiency of training and employment initiatives for unemployed women. Secondly, to explore professional training and support gaps for the facilitators and educators involved in this field of work and to develop responses at both regional and European-levels. There were 6 participating countries in the project with different backgrounds and experience of the problem. Each organization brought specific expertise that complemented each other. There was two levels of target groups. Adult Educators who we worked with directly, that attended the workshops and the method improving work. Our challenges included: • the increase in unemployment across Europe since the 2008 economic crisis • the fact that women without work are often excluded from employment and training initiatives because of their invisibility • the need for more training/non-formal education initiatives to reach women in their own communities • the lack of coordination and strategy in services due to a lack of collaboration between sectors • the lack of recognition of career paths meaning that professionals often lack tools and concepts to innovate short-term initiatives within a sustainable long-term strategic framework We aimed to: o enhance the efficiency of training and employment initiatives for unemployed women o explore professional training and support gaps for professionals in this field and develop some responses at regional- and European-level The 6 partner countries were involved in the process to different degrees: • 5 of them presented findings as planned after the first Mapping Year • 4 of the 5 participated in the Pilot Action phase to explore and implement elements of identified good-practice involving cross-sector collaboration • the partner in France’s role – Action Research Coordination - coordinated findings and “made sense” of issues emerging • Spain – then Belgium and Italy – managed the technical side of the website and graphics Activities included: At local level: A Mapping Exercise took place to establish the framework for Pilot Actions Regional-level collaborative support groups were established in 4 countries Pilot Actions of different scales and duration were run in 4 countries over a period of 18 months: At European level: Two partner meetings: the Kick-Off in Sweden and the Final Meeting in France Four individual country visits by the Action Research Coordinator Four Learning Activities: - the first two involved 2-3 representatives of local support groups from each country: firstly to exchange on the Mapping results, the second to evaluate the first stages of the Pilot Action phase and develop the idea of a Competence Framework - the third and fourth each involved around 20 professionals working in a variety of organisations in the field of women’s unemployment Concrete results include: The development in 4 countries of a network of professionals having participated actively in the different stages – with strategies to develop the work beyond the end of She Empowers Various tools for dissemination / transfer of the She Empowers project including: The She Empowers website, developed initially to frame the results of the Mapping, has evolved into a mini-library for the whole project includes detailed accounts of 12 Pilot Actions for potential transfer A Competence Framework - in three parts - frames our conclusions about the actors, the actions and the competence requirements of the various professionals in the field A Training Manual outlining 2 model European-level Training Courses for practitioners. It includes several session templates tried and tested during these activities. Examples are added - by each of the pilot countries - of training sessions held at national levels. The Project reached 200 persons directly involved in the activities and also through internal communcation channels. For exampel City of Gothenburg made the project reachable for 50 000 employees through the intranet.