The Digital Champions for Community Success project brings together 5 partners from 4 EU countries in order to develop a Training package and Methodology to be used by adult educators and particularly by Trainers and Carers of vulnerable adults facing obstacles such as: disabilities and/or learning difficulties, vulnerable adults with social obstacles: low-skilled migrants, long-term unemployed, elderly in care. Trainers and carers will be able to boost the impact of their work with the target communities and foster digital champions, who will work within their communities to support their peers. In an age of digitisation of almost every aspect of our everyday lives, these adults are even more isolated and either dependent on external help or just excluded from participation in society. Of course the picture is not entirely catastrophic, there are provisions to assist vulnerable adults, but they are far from adequate. Often the approach is to solve their immediate needs, instead of empowering them to solve their needs by themselves and have a sense of achievement. The project aims to draw on the partnership’s experience and newest research to create a Training Package for adult educators and carers who work with vulnerable adults in different communities, no matter what the local context or type of community. The project will create an integrated platform to host a community of practitioners, and online self-learning modules, which will have three main purposes: 1) To be a self-learning tool for adult trainers and carers on how to design and implement effective strategies for enhancing the basic skills of vulnerable adults – digital, literacy and numeracy. 2) To develop adult educators’ competences to deal with diverse groups of learners, making use of new technologies and teaching outcomes – using online and offline adapted learning tools 3) To embrace a new methodology of fostering “Digital Champions” when adult learners become support champions in their own communities, helping their peers and motivating them. These will be based on a Training framework, hosted on the integrated platform and supported by case studies, an evaluation of impact in different contexts and a set of dissemination materials. Stakeholders, such as other practitioners, local authorities and support organisations will be reached through a comprehensive dissemination strategy and national multiplier events in each partner country: UK, Germany, Italy and Cyprus. Innovation is present in the project on many levels: • Adult education sector –new approach of delivering and improving the retention of basic digital skills by vulnerable adults by up-skilling adult educators and introducing the methodology of Digital Champions. • Learning methodology – the Digital Champions for Community Success methodology is a catalyst to any training programme delivered by support organisations to vulnerable adults, it enhances the learning experience and maintains the momentum of the training activity. • Learning content – the self-learning resources and case studies embedded in a dedicated online platform will provide educators of vulnerable adults with an interactive way of exploring this new methodology, studying practical examples and discovering an array of adapted online tools relevant to their practice. • Skills development – after completion of the self-learning modules, educators will have gained new work skills and an innovative methodology to use with their learners, but most importantly the vulnerable adults will gain from the new methodology and improved learning outcomes thanks to the peer Digital Champions near them, who will be there to continue the learning process in a more familiar approach. • Access to information – once those basic skills are acquired, the vulnerable adult learners will be able to access online services such as online banking, government services, email and social media, and also this improved access to information online will help them make better consumer choices and their communities will gain skilled insider volunteers alleviating the work of support services and freeing their capacity for more people in need. • Geographical context – this project will benefit all the partner countries and the wider EU in different ways depending on the local situation. The project will involve a minimum of 364 direct participants, but also many more online e-learners who will benefit from the project indirectly. This project is important not only for its innovation in adult learning focused on vulnerable adults, but also for its impact on their social inclusion. It addresses the Erasmus+ - Adult Education Priority of INCREASING THE DEMAND AND TAKE-UP THROUGH EFFECTIVE OUTREACH, GUIDANCE AND MOTIVATION STRATEGIES; - Horizontal Priority of OPEN EDUCATION AND INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN A DIGITAL ERA - Horizontal Priority of SOCIAL INCLUSION - Adult Education Priority of EXTENDING AND DEVELOPING EDUCATORS' COMPETENCES
The term Digital Champion is not new, so a distinction should be made: EU Digital Champions are ambassadors for the Digital Single Market, appointed by their Members States to help every European become digital. Community Digital Champions have the same goals but work from the bottom up rather than top-down. Digital Champions are the essential elements of our approach to digital transformation – they get the work done on the ground and make a huge difference to their communities. The Digital Champions for Community Success project brought together 5 partners from 4 EU countries to develop a Training package and Methodology to be used by adult educators and particularly by Trainers and Carers of vulnerable adults facing obstacles such as: disabilities and/or learning difficulties, vulnerable adults with social obstacles: low-skilled migrants, long-term unemployed, elderly in care. Trainers and carers are able to boost the impact of their work with the target communities and foster digital champions, who will continue to work within their communities to support their peers. As acutely highlighted by the Covid19 pandemic, in this age of digitisation of almost every aspect of our everyday lives, these adults are even more isolated and either dependent on external help or just excluded from participation in society. Often the approach was to solve their immediate needs, instead of empowering them to solve their needs by themselves and have a sense of achievement. The project drew on partners’ experience and newest research to create a Training Package for adult educators and carers who work with disadvantaged adults in different communities, no matter what the local context or type of community. The project created an integrated platform hosting a space for users, as well as 3 comprehensive training modules based on a training framework designed at the beginning of the project. Module 1 (Digital Skills) presents in 6 thematic groups various digital skills necessary to navigate modern life. They are structured by levels of ability, taking into account corresponding literacy, numeracy and transferable skills. Module 2 (How to be a Digital Champion) focuses on the competences that an educator / trainer / coach / facilitator of vulnerable adults should have or acquire in order to improve their practice of working with vulnerable adults. There is also a list of online tools which can be used for the support sessions with vulnerable adults. Module 3 (How to become a Digital Champion) describes the best practice when identifying suitable members of a community to become digital champions. It provides an insight into motivational and support strategies for the digital champions. A mini handbook has been prepared for the digital champions as first hand support in their new role. The training modules are complemented by a 9 case studies, illustrating the good practice in order to inspire the take up of the DCCS approach by communities of vulnerable adults. Stakeholders, such as other practitioners, local authorities and support organisations were involved through a comprehensive dissemination strategy and face-to-face or online multiplier events in each partner country: UK, Germany, Italy and Cyprus. This project is innovative on several levels: • Adult education sector – new approach of delivering and improving the retention of basic digital skills • Learning methodology – the Digital Champions for Community Success methodology is a catalyst to any training programme delivered by support organisations to vulnerable adults • Learning content – the self-learning modules offer an interactive way of exploring this new methodology • Skills development – after completion of the self-learning modules, educators will have gained new work skills, but most importantly the vulnerable adults will gain from the new methodology • Access to information – vulnerable adult learners will be able to access online services such as online banking, government services, and also this improved access to information online will help them make better consumer choices. • Geographical context – this project will benefit all the partner countries and the wider EU in different ways depending on the local situation. This project is important not only for its innovation in adult learning focused on vulnerable adults, but also for its impact on their social inclusion.