Since the first COVID-19 cases appeared, countries have developed different strategies and responses to cope with the pandemic. After the emergency state, a collaborative leadership approach will be essential and working together as a collective, investing in a participatory citizenship, will be key. It is not possible to consider this is a time with no consequences and that no other emergency situations will occur. The use of teleworking, the social distance and the increased health and care needs implied uncovering new methods of work, understanding society’s biggest fragilities and will imply changes in work and training, tools and routines that will only be clear in the next months and years. Apart from all the innovations that are being developed and the new ways services are now being delivered, there is the need to prepare bottom-up initiatives that build-up the competences of social care professionals, community leaders, informal caregivers and volunteers so that these are prepared to deal with such emergency situations in the future. STEP-UP intends to develop a training tool for these target groups, where they are introduced to the actual impact of behaviours in the spread of a pandemic/emergency situation. There, they can learn what preventive measures exist, their impacts and the different levels of measures – individual, at work, in the family, at state level, among others. Although there is plenty of information available online, it is difficult to know which one is reliable. Also, there is the need to prepare the right training methods to approach the care sector, in an adequate and engaging way. The core of this tool will be an educational game but that can also be used as a recreational game for the common public. In STEP-UP, the players will play with the aim to stop a pandemic from spreading. A list of measures will be displayed and the player needs to learn about them in order to be able to choose those that would help to impede the virus spread without damaging the economy or causing societal anger. This would also help people to better understand and follow governmental measures (which they actually not always do in current times) and to set aside true facts from myths and fake news. STEP-UP is first aiming at social care workers and similar target groups described above as primary users, but the game will also be usable by any citizen and will therefore have a larger aim in adult training, especially those with lower skills and qualifications. Besides the gaming tool and the complete training toolkit, a manual on social and policy interventions will be delivered, that aims to offer target-group oriented guidelines and insights on early detection, preventive measures, healthcare and social care interventions, policy measures and communication. The manual will be completed with real-life oriented user stories, good practices and lessons learned.
The STEP-UP project developed a training tool for adult education where they are introduced to on the impact of behaviours in the spread of a pandemic, through gaming strategies. STEP UP’s educational game aims to train adult learners, being the main target groups community leaders, care professionals, municipality workers and volunteers, especially in their role as educational agents of the broader community, focusing on adults with lower skills and qualifications. Our main objectives were to: • Develop a meaningful, supportive and innovative training toolkit including the game, training materials and guidance. • Ensure wider exploitation and contribute to informal education, especially of those with lower skills and qualifications, by the low access thresholds of a recreational game. • Train, empower and support care professionals, community leaders, informal caregivers and volunteers in dealing with emergency situations caused by pandemics. • Offer target-group oriented guidelines and insights on early detection, preventive measures, healthcare and social care interventions, policy measures and communication to stakeholders at social and political level. • Ensure the outreach and sustainable impacts of the project results.
At the time of the application, the COVID-19 pandemic was having a strong impact in everyday life and creating an unprecedented challenge to health and care systems worldwide. Numerous measures to respond to the urgent care needs of those impacted were taken, while also trying to reduce the long-term impact on vulnerable people, in all ways possible. The pandemic brought huge pressures to health and care systems, particularly governments, managers and frontline staff. Since the first cases appeared, countries developed several strategies, adapted services and a wide range of innovations came up, requiring flexibility, especially to address people’s continued care. The emergency state, the use of teleworking, the social distance, all implied uncovering new methods of work, understanding society’s biggest fragilities and brought changes in work and training, tools and routines that came to stay for the years to come. In this process of living “remotely”, by far younger generations had an easier adaptation. Already used to partially live through social media, online sources of knowledge and agile change of methods, the Millennials and Generation Z have used digital technology since a young age and could still be fully connected and maintain their training and work activities with minor deviations. However, this is not the case of the generations born before the 1980's. If, besides age, we address adults with lower qualifications and skills, as it is often the case in the care sector, this was more serious, as they are easily hampered in the search of reliable information due to missing digital skills. Apart from all the innovations that are being developed and new ways of delivering services, there was the need for bottom-up initiatives that build-up the competences of adults through informal/non-formal education, with a special focus on social care professionals, community leaders, informal caregivers and volunteers so that these are prepared to deal with such emergency situations in the future.