EUROCITIES Social Affairs Forum 22-24 October, Warsaw Speed-networking of innovative city initiatives for inclusion and well-being at all ages 23 October, 14.00-15.30
City Social innovation Contact
Developing prevention programs for at-risk children and their parents The purpose of the project is to improve the capacity of the family to provide child safety and conditions for its quality development in the family environment, with the ultimate goal of preventing the exclusion of children from families and preventing child neglect / abuse. The program has been implemented at the level of the City of Banja Luka since 2017, and in 2019 it is implemented by the Social Work Centre, NGO ‘Nova generacija’ within the Day Centre for Children at Risk as an upgrade to the service day centre for children at risk. The introduction of the Day Care Centre for Children at Risk in the City of Banja Luka in 2011 was a service that was unique in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first day care centre dealt with children who are victims of abuse / neglect or at risk of abuse / neglect, victims of trafficking or children at risk of economic exploitation (begging). The Family Support Program as a preventive program, subsequently introduced at the Day Care Centre for Children at Risk in 2017 and into the Social Work Centre in 2019, is an improvement that provided systematic support to families at risk of Sandra Dobrijevic Sipka Banja Luka excluding children from families. Children at the Day Care Centre access education, health and self-care, and the Research and Centre for Social Work is continuously working with parents to build parenting capacity. In this way, the City took the development coordinator initiative and, together with the relevant institutions, created a program aimed at preventive work with children and [email protected] families. Changing the systemic approach in the City of Banja Luka has achieved two main results: changing access to work with families and children at risk and introducing a participatory model of working with children and families. The Family Support Program is integrated into the regular work of the Social Work Center and the Day Center for Children at Risk. Professionals working with children and families implement a family support program which is accredited by the State department for social development in Serbia. In this way, Banja Luka introduces a new service, which has already been tested in Serbia and Montenegro. During implementation of this service expert support and mentoring by the State department for social development in Serbia is provided. In addition to the public sector (City of Banja Luka and the Social Work Center), the NGO ’New Generation’ is included in the program. The City supported the project through the adaptation of the premises for the Day Center for Children at Risk (investment project) and the preparation of the accreditation documents for the Day Center for Children at Risk, as well as the provision of financial resources for the service sustainability.
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City Social innovation Contact
The participatory approach which was developed ensured the involvement of parents in creating a family support plan. the most significant result of this work is the reduction of restrictive social services interventions in families.
Social Superblocks Barcelona has 350.000 people over 65 years old (90.000 living alone) and only 13.000 places in residences. More than 50.000 people are dependent while living at home. It is clear that most of the older people will live in their homes until the end of their lives and that they must be cared for with the highest possible quality of care. The public home care service employs 4000 people in a Fordist way (individual relationship between family worker and user, great part of part time workers, low wages, etc.). Social Superblocks are a new territorial organisation of the HCS that the city council is testing in several small areas of the city. The aim is to create the concept of distributed Luís Torrens residence, where dependent people are cared at their homes by a team on family workers, cleaners placed in proximity Barcelona Director of Social and making shorter and more frequent visits/ services to the domiciles. This increases the quality of services (user Innovation has a continuum services for example, as in a residence) and makes the work more suitable (worktimes are completed, [email protected] workers do not work alone). It also allows to test new interventions as a better social-sanitary coordination (with doctors and nurses that are treating user with chronical diseases). Social superblocks imply a radical change in the way the service is provided. The one-to-one relationship between user and professional is abandoned. We move on to teamwork and the professionals are empowered, can control their work and make decisions autonomously. The territorial scope of action of each team is reduced to a limited space where the homes to be attended to are less than five minutes’ walk away. New forms of communication are introduced between the user, the family and the professional so that the user feels cared for throughout the day.
Child Friendly Leeds Leeds has the vision to be the best city in the UK for children to grow up in, a Child-Friendly city. The city has adopted a plan for ‘children and young People’ 2018-2023 aim for five outcomes that are supporting conditions of well-being Farrah Khan for children and young people: safe from any type of harm, do well at all levels of learning and develop life skills, Head of Quality and Leeds enjoy health lifestyles, have fun growing up and be active citizens. Further building on the plan, Leeds is finalising a Practice Improvements, ‘Child Poverty Strategy’ 2019-2022 that sets out the true scale of Child Poverty in Leeds, how to better understand Children & Families the impact, what should be the city’s approach, who will be involved and what we will do next. [email protected] k Child Friendly Leeds was officially launched in 2012 putting children at the heart of the growth strategy of Leeds. The idea was based on the recognition that children live in families, families create communities, and communities make cities.
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City Social innovation Contact
Dealing with challenges regarding illegal drug users in Ljubljana As in any other European city Ljubljana is facing illegal drug abuse and its social and health related consequences. The city is giving a special attention to this issue and is providing abundant financial resources for implementing social care and health protection programs. The city also provides premises where programs are being implemented and conducted preventative programs in primary schools. The initiative tackles issues related specifically to illegal drug users, users of methadone therapy and the local population. In Slovenia, centres for illegal drug treatments have been established in 1995. One of them is also implementing a harm reduction programme with methadone therapy in Ljubljana. Centres were established by the state and are operating as a public service. In addition to this, an illegal drug treatment program is implemented within the University psychiatric clinic of Ljubljana. Different NGOs also implement harm reduction and treatment Danči Maraž Ljubljana programs in the city which are co-financed by the municipality and the state through public procurements. Yet not all Senior advisor drug users benefit from these services. The city therefore created a working group to identify the needs of illegal drug [email protected] users and how to address them. The reflection on the needs of illegal drug users was then used to determine whether existing programs activities should be changed, redesigned or new activities created to address the users and the local population. Besides providing with a broader picture of the situation, the work led to several short term and long-term suggestions. Their implementation has already started. This process ensured better implementation of some programmes such as the illegal drug treatment programme. The treatment was also better targeted at the individuals causing more problems. Including the local population in the group meant that they now feel they are included into the process; they have better knowledge of the situation and have the possibility to communicate with the experts and the city administration.
Parents and parenting spaces ‘Casa Grande’
Children's play is for them a privileged instrument for their cognitive and social development. On the other hand, Ana Buñuel emotional bonds from 0 to 4 years old will mark adult life forever. Therefore, in the city of Madrid the Casa Grande Technical advisor project has been launched with four centres conceived as welcoming and stimulating spaces where families with [email protected] Madrid children under 4 are invited to play freely, discover, experience, learn, create, express, relate and make community. ‘Casa Grande’ is based on the belief that public efforts have to be aimed at the early stages of life to guarantee a Hector Cebolla parent-child relationship experience that allows attachment links. These will allow them to better develop the ability General director to learn and to be autonomous, and even the possibility of a resilient evolution in those cases in which children or [email protected] adults suffer difficult and traumatic situations. In the case of ‘Casa Grande’ mothers and fathers express their needs and propose activities, such as breastfeeding, infant feeding, etc. and ‘Casa Grande’ professionals use community
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City Social innovation Contact
resources to implement these activities (for example, maternal and child program of the Municipal Health Centres). It was conceived as a resource of low demand, with minimum registration requirements and without zoning, (any family can go to any ‘Casa Grande’). It is a suitable resource for parents and grandparents alike. The project was inspired by a proposition of a group of mothers within the framework of the city participatory budget. The costs (EUR 314.209 per year) are financed by the municipal budget under the amount reserved for the participatory budget. ‘Casa Grande’ are very successful with an increasing number of families benefiting (2.441 in the fist semester of 2019) and demands for 16 new ‘Casa Grande’ around the city. The participation of male parental figures is also increasing. First results show that informal networks of families are created, families feel supported and accompanied in the challenges of motherhood and fatherhood. Some families also have recorded improved evolutionary processes of their children.
The Longevity Great Debate – Open up to a World of Opportunities The municipalities of Nantes Metropole are facing challenges related to longevity of the population that they have to address: gender equality, new forms of solidarity and cooperation between generations in an attractive city, crosscutting issues and links between different public policies. The cities are looking at how to bridge the gap between the expectations of the ageing citizens and the picture presented by the media (high cost for the society, dependent persons). Nantes Metropole wants to know more about the expectations of citizens, not only of experts, in order to design a new innovative policy and services tailored to these expectations. Beyond traditional curative and preventive aspects related to health and housing are wider aspects which are related Michel Lorant to all public policies like city-planning, mobility, social cohesion, etc. The Longevity Great Debate adopts an innovative Head of Ageing Nantes approach in that all citizens are involved in this process of active participation, not only older people and experts. Department People had the opportunity to contribute to the debate through different ways: a digital platform for contribution, michel.lorant@mairie- events, conferences and workshops in the 24 municipalities, individual and collective contributions through 91 “actors nantes.fr notebooks”, 350 citizens involved in the “action community”. At the end of the debate was organised a big public 4- day event ‘Longevity Festival’ with conferences, like “Longevity, a Scam?” and leisure events for all. This initiative is part of the whole Innovative Citizen Dialog Scheme that has been awarded by Nantes, Capital of Innovation, September 2019, as a city that can harness democratic participation to tackle challenges like energy, ageing, the digital transition and social inclusion. Over 136 days, 23 000 people from diverse origins took part and 8000 contributed directly in the debate. 213 associations or organisations were involved and 76 events organised.
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City Social innovation Contact
Innovations and technological solutions for organising social services (Electronic social care planning system (ASCPS)) In Riga, the increasing number of recipients of residential care services leads to greater demand of administrative resources for the municipality. The city has therefore introduced new technological solutions to organise social services and assess self-care capacities and needs for social services through a faster and higher quality process. The care planning system ASCPS is a web-based database system / complex solution that maintains and provides a Marina Filipova single unified system of assessment of individual needs for the delivery of various social services, as well as the Head of Social Work Riga elements necessary for a modern social service delivery process - assessment, planning, care delivery and control. As Department, Deputy part of this system, integrated mobile applications (for evaluation and care provision) are developed to determine the Head of Riga Social activities performed at the clients' place of residence. Service Office [email protected] The system was initially introduced in one municipal authority, but over time it was also implemented in other municipal institutions where persons in need of social care services reside in order to provide a unified approach for evaluation of person’s needs for social care services. The system is an opportunity to use resources efficiently through better transfer of information between municipal systems and improved cooperation between institution. It also ensures faster and objective evaluation of the needs of the beneficiaries, increased transparency and continuity of services. City-level efforts to address chronic and transient child poverty One in four children in the EU is at risk of poverty or social exclusion (Eurostat/EU SILC). The drivers of child poverty are complex and mutually reinforcing, and include inter alia un- or under-employment, social exclusion or marginalisation, inadequate social protection and social care services, limited access to quality affordable housing, and gaps in the reach and quality of early childhood education and care services. Child poverty manifests in differences in schooling outcomes, health, life expectancy, earnings potential, and overall well-being that persist across a lifetime Pamela Dale and across generations. Regional Advisor, Social UNICEF Policy and Economic Mayor’s for Children network Analysis UNICEF has recently launched a Mayor’s for Children network, bringing together Mayors in countries across Europe and [email protected] Central Asia to discuss municipal successes in improving learning, thriving, safe and protected environments for children, and participation of children and youth. UNICEF is interested in learning more about promising approaches to addressing child poverty at the city level. In particular, it is seeking lessons on how policies and programmes across sectors can be integrated to provide a comprehensive approach to addressing children’s needs, and how these programmes can be brought to scale.
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City Social innovation Contact
Warsaw’s approach to ensure a good start in life for all children The city through its activities wants to increase the motivation of young people to make efforts related to personal development, education, employment, which is to lead to a satisfying life in independence. Through projects such as Joanna Kierzkowska “Good care – better start” (Dobra Opieka– Lepszy Start) and “Support for Social and Employment Activation” (Wsparcie Pedagogue Aktywizacji Społeczno – Zatrudnieniowej) the city conducts activities for the real independence of foster care pupils. joanna.kierzkowska@wcp As part of the “Brave Themselves” (Sami – Dzielni) project, the city aims to personalize care for children placed in r.pl foster care by creating 14-person childcare facilities. This aims at individualizing care for children staying in care and education facilities. Warsaw Tomasz Łaska The projects increase competences of foster families and their adolescents in the field of interpersonal communication Head of the European and exchange of practices through their participation in trainings, workshops, support groups, therapy (if necessary) Funds Department at the and specialist consultations. Positive results can be observed in the change of mentality and conviction, the increase Warsaw Family Support in self-esteem of some participants, which translates into making decisions about taking up employment, continuing Centre education. Acquiring new skills opens for participants new perspectives on employment and living in independence. [email protected]
The projects are co-financed from the European Social Fund and directed to children in foster care, foster families, families as well as candidates for this function. They are also directed to juveniles in the process of becoming independent. 14-person institutions are financed in cooperation with city funds. Integration centre for all ages During 2019-2020, City of Zagreb is implementing an the ESF project ‘Integration centre’. The objective of the project is to improve the perspective of social inclusion for victims of domestic violence (especially elderly victims of domestic
violence) and homeless persons and addicts (especially veterans). The project establishes a range of different Zorana Uzelac Bošnjak community social services that include different forms of support for individual target groups to act on their social Head of Department for Zagreb integration and economic empowerment. Defining the individual approach, ensuring multidisciplinary support and Social Protection monitoring of beneficiaries by partner organizations and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the [email protected] Project is a key aspect. The goal is to increase social inclusion, quality of life, reduce dependency on the welfare
system and become independent through (future) employment. The project is implemented in partnership with Home for Children, Victims of Domestic Violence, Association for Supporting the Homeless and Other Socially Vulnerable Groups and Ivan Psychiatric Hospital.
This event has received financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation "EaSI" (2014-2020). For further information please consult: http://ec.europa.eu/social/easi
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