This project initiative addressed a number of interconnected challenges in our communities, including: - Lack of involvement of young adults in their professional and personal development. - The inadequacy of the classic return-to-work indicator to evaluate the success of our interventions, without taking into account the richness of a social and professional coaching process. - The presence of a large number of residents in disadvantaged areas, whether in cities, neighborhoods or rural areas. Our approach focused on dedicating time and resources to each of these challenges, with the goal of fostering meaningful connections and collaborations. Rather than focusing solely on teaching, we sought to promote mediation and activities that would enable local groups to advance and progress. To successfully achieve these objectives, we adopted an approach based on the needs and competencies of the people involved. During the project, we shared and experimented with innovative practices in a different context, which allowed us to evaluate their effectiveness in addressing the challenges mentioned above. Unlike other European programs that focus on language training, institutional knowledge or job search, our approach differed by encouraging the exchange and development of animation and mediation practices. These practices allowed disadvantaged people to discover in themselves methods, techniques and tools to improve their quality of life, following a social constructivism approach. The project's main objective was the insertion of young people or people at risk of social exclusion, but all from a different perspective, promoting exchange and personal development thanks to an improvement in the training of the professionals who work day to day with the users. Our approach has been to support people on their way to a better and more fulfilling life with limited resources. During its implementation, we were able to develop a valuable educational resource in the form of a best practices manual for social professionals. This manual represents an outstanding achievement and is the result of a collaborative effort and research in our innovative approach towards improving the lives of individuals in disadvantaged communities. It is structured in a systematic way, addressing key aspects of the work of social professionals. It provides guidance, strategies and practical examples to address the challenges identified in our original project. This result is a testimony to our commitment to improving social intervention practices and promoting inclusion and well-being in our communities.
The objectives we pursued with the implementation of the project have been: - To favor international cooperation between European associations, creating networks outside our borders that would open the doors to the possibility of working together again in the future. - To improve the competencies and skills of professionals in the educational sector, with the aim of offering a better service to the users with whom they work daily in their work environment. - To offer the possibility of continuing training to people who live in rural areas, with fewer resources and, in short, in more unfavorable situations that prevent them from accessing other types of more regulated and/or normative training within the educational system.
This project was requested to address the needs detected in entities dedicated to the social field, needs related to the lack of training for professionals who cannot access it. We believe that every worker should receive, periodically, the necessary training to update their knowledge. But this is even more important when we talk about professionals dedicated to education, since they have the great responsibility of transmitting this knowledge to future generations. That is why the main need that has been addressed is to offer, free of charge, an update of the information that we consider relevant to perform this type of social work. The needs addressed by the Network of entities have been mainly those of promoting social inclusion through innovation. We want the professionals of the entities that have participated in this project to be able to provide different pedagogical tools that allow better learning. Therefore, we can act accordingly with the materials created by the participating entities.