Providing key skills and compEtences to low-skilled adult VOLuntrees for the implementation of social welfare activities at locaL leVEl Erasmus Project

Project Title

Providing key skills and compEtences to low-skilled adult VOLuntrees for the implementation of social welfare activities at locaL leVEl

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

The EVOLVE project emerged from the economic recession, which forced local authorities and volunteering organizations to intensify welfare services to the community, and impacted on the Covid emergency, which made the same needs more urgent due to the new economic recession and social crisis addressing all Europe and the partner countries, Italy, Greece. Luxemburg and Cyprus.
The project reached its goals implementing tools for the 2 key target groups totally interested by the emergency, both low skilles adults/ disadvantaged people and volunteering organizations/local authorities, whose role increased for each community, ensuring social services at the local level.
For these reasons the project created, tested and delivered tools which will be very useful in the next future in many Eu countries. The e.learning platform for low skilled adult aimed at volunteering is an important educational product to support the increasing number of people not enough skilled (e.g. young people), while the volunteering is a mean to give them selfconfidence and a reason to integrate them in the community. The matchmaking tool for demand and supply on volunteering will certanly continue to be used by the increasing requests of people to be recruited as staff by the organizations. On the other hand the restrictions and safety rules stated by the governments for the emergency (2020 and 2021 years) caused a slight reduction of the planned impact and dissemination. Despite the difficulties in their countries the partners maintained a strong cooperation, which overcame the hard problems of the pandemic emergency, matching the project’s goals:
– Developing the literacy, numeracy, digital and soft skills for low-skilled/low-qualified adults necessary for volunteering activities, enhancing their self-confidence, motivation to be active citizens and their employability;
– Enabled the low-skilled/low-qualified adults in IT, GR, CY to identify volunteering opportunities at local level that match their skills and interests, and facilitating the social service providers to organise in a structured way their voluntary activities
– Creating a pool of 39 trained volunteers for local authorities and NGOs/CSOs providing community relief services;
– Increasing adult recruitment and retention in volunteering activities for social welfare;
– Improving the quality of voluntary social welfare activities also through enhanced cooperation between local authorities and civil society.
The above were achieved by the creation, testing and delivery of the three Intellectual Outputs:
1 – Capacity Building course, a program built gathering the needs of target groups directly involved in the project (19 low skilled adults, 23 organizations/public bodies in IT, CY, GR), pointing out the proper methodology based on a literature rivew and good practices; implementing a course covering the 4 main areas requested (literacy, numeracy, digital and soft skills)
2 – Web platform created as an open source tool, developing an e.learning path, testing the course involving 39 beneficiaries and 6 organizations in IT, GR, CY
3 – Comprehensive Capacity Development Methodology of Adult Volunteering for Local Social Welfare has been implemented as methodological guide including all the steps to ensure a recruitment structured tool for volunteering organizations and for people aimed at volunteering at the local level: the selection of volunteers, the development of a career paths, the delivery of skills building on literacy, numeracy, digital and soft skills, the organisation of informal internship programmes of trained adults at local authorities/volunteering organizations, the production of a Transnational Report with recommendations. The methodology has been tested implementing all the activites during the piloting in IT, GR, CY, which involved 39 low skilled adults in the learning path, 38 in the career paths and in the internships programs in 6 organizations, moreover other 11 organizations used the matchmaking tool, included in the platform to favour the demand and supply for volunteering.
At the local/regional/national level the project developed skills and competences for 39 low-skilled/qualified adults, a small group of which is still volunteering, contributing to their participation to social life, integration and employability.
40 CSOs, NGOs, local authorities, and other relevant local organizations were involved in the project implementation improved their tools for volunteers recruitment for social welfare, increased their staff (some among them are still volunteering) and enhanced the quality of their services to the community.
The web-platform and Capacity Development Methodology is freely available in IT, EN, GR, and all the tools were disseminated to 210 people in the events, to more than 3.500 stakeholders and partners networks, and reached about 17.000 people to the web and social channels.

Project Website

https://www.evolveproject.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 209572,31 Eur

Project Coordinator

PROVINCIA DI LIVORNO SVILUPPO SRL & Country: IT

Project Partners

• NOVEL GROUP SARL
• DIMOS AGIOS ATHANASIOS
• DIMOS ATHINAION
• KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU
• Fondazione Caritas Livorno Onlus
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET