“HelpEx: European Qualification of Ex-Patients in the Helping Process of Rehabilitation and Recovery” is a European partnership of 8 participating organizations in 6 European countries (DE, IT, FR, CZ, PL, ML) which lasts from September 2019 to August 2022. The participating organizations are service providers in the field of mental health and provide rehabilitation and recovery services (ambulant and/or stationary) for people with mental health problems/disorders and/or substanse abuse problems.Due to the significant prevalence of mental health problems and substance abuse problems among European citizens and the political demand for inclusion, strengthening patients´ rights and empowering civil forces, the partnership develops a training curriculum for ex-patients to become assistants in rehabilitation and recovery services for patients with substance abuse problems and/or mental disorders. Complementary to the training curriculum for ex-patients the partnership also develops a training curriculum for professionals in rehabilitation and recovery services for patients with substance abuse problems and/or mental disorders to coordinate and supervise ex-patients and cooperate with them in the helping process. In order to be able to mainstream these vocational competences in the mental health system the partners also create country specific analyses of the structures and recommendations for the structural integration of the assistants in the mental health system of the partner countries. These results will be presented in three intellectual outputs (documents).People who have a personal history and experiences with mental health problems are called ex-patients in this project. They can have overcome their problems without help, may have been clients and patients of the partners or may have sought help somewhere else. Professionals in the project are considered to be paid staff members of the partners who help patients to rehabilitate and recover. They can be therapists, social workers, doctors, psychologists.For the development of the training curricula and the analyses the partners work together in 6 transnational meetings and via ICT and implement pilot trainings in their own services with 30 ex-patients and professionals. Selected parts of the trainings are implemented in two joint short-term staff trainings for 14 ex-patients and 14 professionals during the second project year.For dissemination the partners implement a multiplying event of 50 participants in each partner country, create a project website, put the results on the partner websites and on an OER platform, write 4 project newsletters and follow a dissemination plan for each country.The impact of the project is: more human ressources in mental health services, a higher quality of rehabilitation and recovery services by brining the ex-patients´ perspectives and experiences to the helping process and an empowerment of patients and civil forces.

In several major cities of North-Western EU countries, EU mobile citizens are amongst the most affected by homelessness and, although the main trend concerns people moving from Central and Eastern European countries to Western Europe, recent reports in the press refer to homeless people who have left Southern EU countries. According to a FEANTSA survey conducted in 2012, homeless services from 12 EU Member States report a growing proportion of immigrants among service users (On the Way Home, 2012). Sustainable and targeted solutions are needed and can be found only through a partnership between organisations working with homeless people both in the countries of origin and countries of destination - as at present there is some collaboration between organisations, but not in a structured thus effective way as a network could allow. This innovative project puts together sending (eastern, central and southern ) and receiving (western, northern - UK, Denmark) countries, where issues of emigration or immigration are topical and organisations with a lot of experience in the field of homelessness and migration. The main objective is to address destitute EU mobiles citizens issues, with combined and exchanged knowledge and expertise to find possible solutions, to come up with new ideas and recommendations that could be shared in both local and international levels, and to create an informal network of organizations active in the field. Eight organizations were participating the project. Sending countries were represented by: NGO VA Caritas which offers temporary accommodation, material support, welfare advice, job search and life skills training, leisure time activities and work-therapy, also training for its staff and volunteers. MONAR is a non-governmental organization that helps people in difficult life circumstances and who may be socially excluded, are homeless, living with AIDS or addicted to alcohol and drugs. Caritas Diecezji Kieleckiej s church charitable organization which takes many innovative projects for whole Poland as: family homes of help, protected accommodations, Activation Unemployed Office, center of social integration, center of crisis intervention, multiple sclerosis treatment (SM), rehabilitation centers, to limit scale of social exclusion poor and disabled people and many others valuable initiatives. The Casa Ioana Association, ‘Casa Ioana’ is a grassroots Romanian registered non-governmental organization providing service for homeless families and single women. PRAKSIS is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization, aiming to provide humanitarian focused support in a wide span of fields to socially vulnerable groups in need, through a number of programs. Receiving countries represented by : Homeless Unit of Copenhagen is a part of the Social Department in the Municipality of Copenhagen. The Homeless Unit works in general with homeless people in the city of Copenhagen - rough-sleepers, Homeless in shelters, prostitution, Women in shelters and foreign homeless people. The type of working is social advice, decision making, Street work, applications to accommodation and etc. Taff is a successful community-based Housing Association with over 1300 homes in the Canton, Fairwater, Grangetown, Riverside and Butetown areas of Cardiff, as well as specialist supported housing projects for young women in Roath and Canton.FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless, Most of FEANTSA’s members are national or regional umbrella organisations of service providers that support homeless people with a wide range of services, including housing, health, employment and social support. This partner has the expertise in the field.During the project partner organizations were visiting each other and sharing good experience, exploring the network of organizations in the country. All partner organizations prepared a report of their countries situation regarding destitute EU mobile citizens which were gathered and put in Country Case Study. Toolkit for professionals working with EU homeless migrants was prepared. Policy recommendation were developed which we believe will have an impact locally for organizations providing services for EU homeless migrants. This project also empowered partner organizations to create an international informal network, to strengthen the cooperation and communication between local stakeholders. One of the partner organizations VA Caritas opened an Occupational Center for homeless people where they can attain English language, computer literacy, personal budgeting and social skills development classes conducted by volunteers and workers.