CONTEXT/BACKGROUND According to ESMA (associated partner): "Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviour that benefits individuals and communities for the greater social good (French and Russell-Bennett, 2014) SIM project tackles the challenge to improve the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups by developing social marketing pedagogical tools fully adapted for the social sector professionals. The direct target group of these pedagogical tools are the social educators in charge of improving the competences of disadvantage groups (midstream level) ; and their supervisors (strategic level). OBJECTIVES a) To improve the competences of social educators and coordinators to tackle the social exclusion of disadvantaged groups. b) To adapt social marketing methodologies and strategies to be used by the social services professionals in order to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged groups. c) To offer to the market free several SIM pedagogical tools: SIM handbook, SIM pedagogical strategy (based on the use of SIM case studies) and a SIM MOOC course. d) To explore the possibilities to develop a new field (or sub-field) of work to tackle the social inclusion: SOCIAL INCLUSION MARKETING. e) To contribute to lay the foundations of the first postgrade course of social marketing in Europe. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS Target groups addressed are two: 1. Social sector educators: Midstream social marketing (Psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, employment mediators...) 2. supervisors of educators, professionals responsible of planning and executing training and social programmes (Upstream social marketing or strategic level) 19 learners of these two target groups will take part in a transnational learning activity during a week in Lugano. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES O1. SIM Training needs assessment of social educators and its supervisors. This document states the real training needs of professional on social marketing and the preferred training methodology to be trained (the case study) O2. SIM handbook. Contents to carry out a course on social inclusion marketing. It can be used both by trainers to give the lessons and by educators as a self-study book. It is divided into two sections: a) introduction to social inclusion marketing; b) 4 real SIM case studies. O3. SIM pedagogical strategy: the case study. Systematic method for supporting the acquisition of SIM learning outcomes through the use of the case study methodology. The pedagogical strategy will be based on the adaptation of social marketing techniques and strategies to be used as a case studies for social sector professionals. O4. SIM MOOC COURSE The most important SIM training materials and methodologies will be adapted and uploaded to the platform of University of Valencia to launch a course on social marketing fully adapted for social educators. In addition, the project will develop 4 multiplier events and a project plan formed by: a) management plan; b) dissemination and communication plan; c) an impact, sustainability and transferability plan. PROJECT METHODOLOGY SIM is a project where experts from two different disciplines (social marketing and social services) are willing to share their knowledge, skills and different perspectives to find innovative training solutions. Putting these two disciplines together, the project has coined a new term: social inclusion marketing (SIM). The two participating disability organizations will propose real social challenges to the two universities to be resolved by using the social marketing techniques. The social theoretical framework will be based on the "quality of life model" and "individualized support model". RESULTS The project is expected to have tangible and intangible results on three levels: 1. To improve the competences of 19 social educators and coordinators taking part in the transnational learning activity. 2. Participant organizations. Enhancement of the participating organization know-how by developing SIM methodologies. Improvements of the quality of the services offered by the two social/disability organizations. The Universities will be able to improve its knowledge by developing marketing techniques with a more social approach. It is expected some elements developed by the project will be transfer to the University curricula. 3. Community impact. Through the project dissemination activities, it is expected community-based and specific disabled/social services use, implement or benefit from the SIM training materials, tools or methodologies developed by the project. In addition, and thanks to ESMA and Università della Svizzera italiana, it is expected the project will have a huge impact among academic and researchers of the field of social marketing.
The SIM project sought to build on the findings of the research by developing the methodologies & tools of social marketing to enable the social workers & related professionals to innovate & adopt more effective interventions in the disability field. The objectives of the project were: To develop an innovative and useful social marketing training materials for social educators and decision-takers ; To develop and validate a new training methodology: SIM learning case study; To develop and validate a new SIM pedagogical strategy; To improve the competences of social services workforce in social inclusion marketing; To implement social marketing methodologies and techniques in social sector organizations; To improve the synergies between social marketing field & social services; To develop pedagogical materials to promote the transparency of the qualifications the in European Union; To show the social community good practices and examples of how to adapt marketing techniques and strategies into the social sector; To explore the options to integrate social marketing in the curricula of European Universities; To explore the possibilities of launching the first social marketing postgrade degree in Valencia University.
The context and background of the project was extensive collaborative research undertaken in 2019 by 6 European partner countries into advantages that social marketing training programs for professional disability can play in improving the approach to the problems faced by people with disabilities, offering necessary mutual understanding between both sectors. So, describing what are the training needs in social marketing expressed by disability professionals and providing an initial shared theoretical framework of both fields that could contribute to implementing social marketing strategies in the field of disability as an inducer of quality of life. Putting these two disciplines together, the project had coined a new term: social inclusion marketing (SIM). The main needs analysis can be read in the scientific article published by the Journal of Social Marketing - DOI 10.1108JSOCM-06-2020-0105 ( https://www.social-inclusion-marketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Gil-Herna%CC%81ndez-Canales-JSOCM-2021.pdf). The SIM project and products of Erasmus + is a valuable addition to the growing guidance and evidence base about the utility of Social Marketing in addressing the complex challenges associated with promoting social inclusion.