Enhancing the social inclusion of low income single parents Erasmus Project

Project Title

Enhancing the social inclusion of low income single parents

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

One of the 5 targets of the Europe 2020 headline indicators is to reduce poverty by lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion by 2020. In 2016, there were 118.0 million people in the EU-28 who lived in households at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), equivalent to 23.5% of the entire population.
Everywhere in Europe, single parent families have an increased risk of poverty and social exclusion. In 2016, the highest at-risk-of-poverty rate in the EU-28 was recorded for single persons with dependent children, at more than one third (34%). Bulgaria with 47,4%, Spain with 42,2%, Lithuania with 41,9%, and Romania with 41,4% are among the countries with the highest rates of at-risk-of-poverty single persons with dependent children; Croatia has a rate of 34% and Greece 31,4%.
According to the 2016 EIGE report “Poverty, gender and lone parents in the EU – Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action”, almost half (48%) of lone mothers and a third (32%) of lone fathers are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Women in particular are affected as they make up almost 85% of all one-parent families in the EU. Younger mothers and women with young children are the least-employed parent groups. It is important to note also that single motherhood affects poverty most for low-educated mothers. Although single-mother households are more likely to be poor at all educational levels, the single-mother poverty gap is generally larger the lower the mother’s level of education (Härkönen, J. (2018). Single-mother poverty: how much do educational differences in single motherhood matter?).
Moreover, having a job is not always enough to guarantee the economic well-being of single parents and keep them out of poverty.
Increasing single parents’ economic independence, with particular attention to single mothers, is key to raising them and their families out of poverty. Work-life balance measures also play a prominent role in supporting the full participation of single parents in society. Access to services such as childcare, long-term care, as well as education and training, and other enabling services can remove barriers to the labour market and contribute to social inclusion.
In order to contribute to the socio-economic empowerment and inclusion of low-income and low-qualified single parents in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Lithuania, Romania and Spain, the projects sets the following objectives:
• Support at least 150 socio-economically disadvantaged (low-income, unemployed) single parents who are low-skilled/qualified, in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences, sense of initiative, entrepreneurial mind-set and skills, in order to foster their employability and socio-educational and personal development, through the running of an online time-bank
• Extend the competences of at least 120 practitioners who support single parents in the teaching of numeracy, entrepreneurial and digital skills, including through the use of digital technologies, so that they can provide high quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of low-skilled/qualified single parents, such as the running of an (online) time-bank or other similar
• Encourage low-skilled/low-qualified single parents to develop and upgrade their literacy, numeracy, digital, entrepreneurship competences and/or other key competences through peer-to-peer outreach, guidance and motivation
• Promote access of low-income single parents to childcare and other services (they may be unable to afford) through time-banking (providing services to one another) that can also facilitate/support their entry into the labour market or further training.
The above objective will be achieved by the implementation of the following activities:
1: Training programme for practitioners who support single parents, in the teaching of literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurial and digital skills
1.1 Development of trainers curriculum
1.2 Piloting of the trainers curriculum and evaluation
1.3 Development of digital modules
2: Training programme for the building of literacy, numeracy, digital competences, sense of initiative, and entrepreneurial skills of low-skilled single parents
2.1 Development of curriculum for low-skilled single parents
2.2 Implementation of parents’ curriculum and evaluation
2.3 Development of digital modules
3: Elaboration of guide for the development of time-bank business plan & sustainability strategy
3.1 Elaboration of guide for the development of time bank business plan & sustainability strategy
3.2 Workshop with trained single parents
4: Creation and piloting of single parents’ time bank
4.1 Development of online time bank platform
4.2 Online time bank pilot implementation
5: Peer-to-peer outreach strategy
5.1 Development of the peer-to-peer outreach strategy
5.2 Implementation of the peer-to-peer outreach strategy

Project Website

http://www.parentbank.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 169122,03 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASOCIATIA HABILITAS – CENTRUL DE RESURSE SI FORMARE PROFESIONALA & Country: RO

Project Partners

• KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU
• SOCIALINIU INOVACIJU FONDAS
• SDRUDZENIE ZNAM I MOGA
• ASOCIACION CAMINOS – ASOCIACION PARA EL INTERCAMBIO EDUCACION Y DESARROLLO SOCIAL
• Udruga roditelja “Korak po korak”