Giving the rapidly changing of social context Practitioners in Social Work, and mainly those from disadvantaged areas as rural areas or small villages, face a strong need to develop approaches that respond to the new social challenges of the disadvantaged communities, but mostly to the burn-out phenomenon they ofen face. In this context, the project consortium proposes to develop a joint non-formal and permanent framework for empowering practitioners in social work from rural areas of 7 European countries in increasing their participation to the rural community life and in developing complementary skills that help them facing current social problems of the vulnerable groups from their community. The direct target group consists in 84 social workers and people that have social work tasks, but without a diploma in the field, who work in disadvantaged areas, called during project Practitioners in social work (PSW). The indirect target group consists in other PSW from other regions of project partners, regional community stakeholders, other scholars and practitioners in social work accros Europe. In order to achieve the project goal, the following objectives and approaches (activities and methodology) were considered: 1. To improve the knowledge and abilities of 84 practitioners in social work from the project partners regions and to enable and encourage them to use the community resources and ICT technologies for a better assistance of the vulnerable groups from the rural communities where they work and most of them live, by participating to 7 national short-term training sessions about how to develop community and professional networks, evaluation of impact and how to use the ICT tools created in the project (webinars, online platform of discussions) and by developing and administrating a virtual community of practice that will rely on peer-to-peer communication, informal learning and developing competencies by exchanging experience. 2. To provide to those 84 practitioners in social work the opportunity to create a culture of self-care and reflective practice and to develop and implement innovative practices related to management of stress, frustration from failures and moral distress that occasionally occur in their professional activity and could lead to burnout and compassion fatigue, by participating together to 7 intercultural and transnational practice-research-workshops, by creating together a handbook with tools and techniques that could be used by any practitioner in social work field when needed and by disseminating the information acquired into the wider community of practice, through the online platform created in the project. 3. To foster collaboration and networking within the European social work community and to strength the institutional capacity of 7 European institutions, active in the field of social work education/intervention, to develop a non-formal educational network in rural social work research and practice and to create and sustain an effective support mechanism for PSW from rural areas in addressing their professional needs, by conducting a study research for a comparative analysis on the perceptions and the needs of the PSW from the rural regions of the project partners about burn-out phenomenon, by organising 2 international conferences about rural social work, by organizing 2 short-term joint staff training events, by organizing informing seminars and focus-groups with the stakeholders from the rural communities of those 84 PSW about the need to work in network for supporting social work activity, by developing 7 regional rural networks in social work field and by disseminating the project results into the wider community of practice and into the regional/national and European virtual communities. The new methodologies and tools will encourage and improve the PSW participation to their personal and professional development, by working in network, using the on-line platform of discussions and the handbook with tools. Each of those 84 practitioners in social work will act like a network hub between project partners staff and local communities where they are working, by facilitating the contacts with the local stakeholders, by asking for support in different needed activities at community level, by creating local intervention strategies in the benefit of the vulnerable groups and so forth. The transnational practice-research-workshops will create an open communication climate that enables the participants to enhance their basic competences for successful, effective communication, by experiencing intercultural communication in a real-life situation. The short-term joint staff training events create the framework for transfer of good practices among project partners, in order to reduce the gaps in development and intervention at rural community level.
Practitioners in Social Work (PSW), and mainly those from disadvantaged areas as rural areas or small villages, face a strong need to develop approaches that respond to the new social challenges of the disadvantaged communities, but mostly to the burn-out phenomenon they often face. This reality lead the project consortium to develop a joint non-formal framework for empowering PSW from rural areas of 7 European countries in increasing their participation to the rural community life and in developing complementary skills that help them facing current social problems of the vulnerable groups from their community. The direct target group consisted in 84 social workers and people that work in social work field, but without a diploma in social work, who work in disadvantaged areas, called during project Practitioners in social work (PSW). The indirect target group consists in other PSW from other regions of project partners, regional community stakeholders, other scholars and practitioners in social work across Europe. In order to achieve the project goal, the following objectives and approaches (activities and methodology) were followed: 1. To improve the knowledge and abilities of 84 PSW from the project partners regions and to enable and encourage them to use the community resources and ICT technologies for a better assistance of the vulnerable groups from the rural communities where they work and most of them live. This was achieved by participating to 7 national short-term training sessions about how to develop community and professional networks, evaluation of impact and how to use the ICT tools created in the project and by developing and administrating a virtual community of practice that will rely on peer-to-peer communication, informal learning and developing competencies by exchanging experience. 2. To provide to those 84 PSW the opportunity to create a culture of self-care and reflective practice and to develop and implement innovative practices related to management of stress, frustration from failures and moral distress that occasionally occur in their professional activity and could lead to burnout and compassion fatigue. This was achieved by participating together to 7 intercultural and transnational practice-research-workshops (face to face and on-line), by creating together a handbook with tools and techniques that could be used by any practitioner in social work field when needed and by disseminating the information acquired into the wider community of practice, through the online platform created in the project. 3. To foster collaboration and networking within the European social work community and to strength the institutional capacity of 7 European institutions, active in the field of social work education/intervention, to develop a non-formal educational network in rural social work research and practice and to create and sustain an effective support mechanism for PSW from rural areas in addressing their professional needs, by conducting a study research for a comparative analysis on the perceptions and the needs of the PSW from the rural regions of the project partners about burn-out phenomenon. This objective was achieved by organizing 2 international conferences about rural social work, 2 short-term joint staff training events in partners countries, informing seminars and focus-groups with the stakeholders from the rural communities of PSW about the need to work in network for supporting social work activity, by developing regional rural networks in social work field and by disseminating the project results into the wider community of practice and into the regional/national and European virtual communities. The new methodologies and tools used in the project encouraged and improved the PSW participation to their personal and professional development and taught them how to work in network, using the on-line platform of discussions and the handbook with tools. The targeted PSW facilitated the contacts between the partners staff and the stakeholders from their communities, in order to involve the members of those communities in playing a more active role in supporting PSW in their work. The project learning activities created an open communication climate that gave to PSW the opportunity to experience intercultural communication in a real-life situation and developed the framework for transfer of good practices among project partners, in order to reduce the gaps in development and intervention at rural community level.