Exchange and Learning for Adult Social workers: Training ICT Competences ELASTIC We think this name symbolizes good the ability of change, the need for adjustment and trying new forms and working solutions, particularly important for the difficult role of social workers and welfare organizations. In recent years, social work with adults in extreme vulnerability has changed its priorities due to: • Increasing diversity of interventions and types of end user (new immigration, poverty and types of drug addiction, etc.) • Increasing diversity of professionals involved in the social service system (teachers, instructors, psychologists, psychiatrists, street workers, consultants, health workers, educators, facilitators, mediators, etc.) This has led to 2 consequences for social workers: • Individual work with end users is becoming more complex due to language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, difficulties in appraising new needs, inability to match old answers to new demands; • Work within organisations, both inside single work teams, and among different teams within the same service system, is unable to ensure the complementarity and effectiveness of the entire intervention. Different professionals have often very different methodologies, languages and timescales. The aim of the project is to increase digital skills of professionals working in the field of education and social inclusion of adults in extreme vulnerability situations (e.g. homeless, migrant, asylum seekers, refugees, etc.). The project plans an integrated course of experiences and practices exchange among European partner organizations and specific training events. Strategic partnership with 10 organizations: OPEN GROUP: Open Group is a social organization based in Italy; ASP Città di Bologna: public company for social welfare and personal care of the Municipality of Bologna, based in Italy; Społeczna Akademia Nauk - SAN (University of Social Sciences): one of the leading private universities in Poland; Czech Streetwork Association - CAS has been working in the field of street/outreach in Czech Republic; FEANTSA: the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless based in Brussels; DOCUMENTA: no profit organization based in Spain FIOPSD is a democratic, non-profit association that pursues social solidarity and inclusion based in Italy; EAPN Cantabria: network against poverty and social exclusion based in Spain, DIESIS: network for the support of the development of the social economy based in Brussels; Polish Migration Forum Foundation – PFM Organization involved in initiatives of information and education based in Poland. Activities: ELASTIC will last 24 months, 5 transnational meetings are scheduled, 2 of which being virtual. Those staff meetings will help information flows, coordination and exchange among partners, ongoing evaluation and administrative verifications. Moreover, 3 training events are scheduled, each one focused on different aspects of ITC tools and how to use it for social workers and their organizations. During those meetings, participants will also visit the hosting organizations, so that training moments and exchange of good practices will be combined, sparing time and money. Methodology: Complete collaboration and exchange among partners will be always the core of the methodology: ELASTIC will use digital communication tools, such as skype, a facebook group, sharing systems like google drive, calendar, etc. under the supervision of the leader partner. This fast communication system will help each partner to complete its own task. Ongoing evaluation will be carried on digitally, to verify what has been apprehended and exchanged. Results and impact envisaged: The project will identify innovative and technological solutions (ICT) to facilitate: • Teamwork and collective creation of social knowledge; • Communication among professionals and among organizations; • Information flows between formal and informal participants, etc. The project will identify new practices, develop new skills and try new instruments to enhance the effectiveness of local welfare and community services addressed to adult population at risk of marginalization and exclusion as well as give new tools to social workers to produce digital documentation to be used both in their work with end users and to spread their organizations competences. Longer term benefits: Throughout the project all significant competences, instruments and practices that will emerge as useful to our aim will be collected and elaborated. The dissemination part of ELASTIC aims to spread and reinforce them, the drafting of a Guide for the correct use of ICT in the social work with vulnerable adults, the subsequent spread of it through local, national and international networks and the organization of a final event through which project results and development prospects will be presented to a wide public will boost ELASTIC’s long term benefits
Context/background of the project: The field of social inclusion of people with vulnerabilities represents a difficult and articulated field of work per se. In particular, in recent years, also as a result of the economic crisis, the new migratory flows, and the increasingly rapid changes our multicultural societies face, social workers and organizations active on this topic are going through a phase of even greater difficulty. The specific changes related to the field of work, digitalization and the technological revolution prevailing in recent years, have further weakened the capacity of the sector, often only indirectly and passively involved in the digital revolution. Objectives: Taking these two elements into consideration, the ELASTIC Project (Exchange and Learning for Adult Social Workers: Training ICT Competences) aims to support and improve the digital skills of social workers and organizations active in the sector. Improving communication flows, providing effective digital tools and improving the effectiveness of their intervention are the strategic objectives of the project. Number and type/profile of participants and description of undertaken activities: The partnership included 10 organizations, from 5 European countries (Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium). • 4 Service providers in the field of social inclusion; • 4 European or national NGO networks; • 1 Training institution; • 1 University. The participants in the project activities were (21 in total): • Adult social workers directly active in the social inclusion of vulnerable people (homeless, migrants, other minorities, etc.); • Managers involved in service management; • Other staff involved in administrative and communication related tasks. The project implemented 3 training and mutual exchange events, during which the participants were able to learn good practices, new tools, successful projects related to the use of ICT in the field of social inclusion. At the same time, exchange visits were carried out between the partners in order to further improve the content of the exchanges. Results and Impact: 1. Participants have visited and exchanged practices with organizations active in their same field but in different countries with different political, social and life conditions, they have observed ad tested how different solutions could meet their same work-related tasks; 2. Participants apply the acquired knowledge to their own original methodologies and practices to contribute to the redefinition of their organizations and the welfare system; 3. Knowledge on new digital tools has been acquired and their use is more widespread inside the involved organizations; 4. Participant organizations have a different and more open approach to digital systems and tools to exchange and manage information, communicate and work in teams; 5. Strong partnerships among European participant organization have been built; Main result: • Enhanced digital skills and ICT tools use in social work organizations and their operators and, in general, their networks and collaborations. Impact: On Participants and Partners organizations: • Increased use of ICT tools learned during ELASTIC; • Better and more effective information exchange and systematization of the communication flows; • Strengthened communication among their local networks; • Strengthened efficacy of their intervention. IMPACT on the CONTEXT and STAKEHOLDERS • Support to social inclusion of vulnerable people; • Enhanced efficacy social inclusion service provision management by Public Entities, NGO and Public Bodies;