<< Background >>It is undeniable that we live in a context of uncertainty, in which changes at all levels are becoming larger, faster, more complex, and more interconnected than ever. The speed of these changes imposed by globalization and the digital world has increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and directly affects our patterns of behavior as individuals and as groups.Digital disruption is changing aspects as diverse as: organizational models and business management, production processes, distribution of goods and services, living habits, social relations, consumption patterns and the spread of knowledge, among others. The dizzying development of digital infrastructures, together with an increasingly agile and simple access and interconnection to Internet, are promoting the generalization of the use of new digital technologies by citizens, companies, and institutions.For Third Sector organizations dealing with social-health care of people with functional diversity, ICTs are changing the way in which entities relate and communicate with their users, collaborators and stakeholders. The digital tools used by entities are diverse: a study from the NGO Platform for Social Action (2019) highlights that most entities use Facebook (87%), website (82.3%) and chats, forums or wikis (72.4%), while an intranet system (30.1%) or online training (31%) are clearly less used. The same study points out that the evolution in the implementation of these tools compared to previous years (2015 and 2011), has remained stable or even decreased. The social sector lags behind other economic sectors. The structural lack of financial resources in this area, and the clear orientation to solve the basic needs of their primary users, contribute to delaying the necessary digital transformation of the entities. Beyond the lack of financial resources, 33% of the organizations surveyed for the preparation of the Digital Barometer of the Third Sector pointed to the lack of talent and knowledge as the main barrier to digitization.If anything highlighted the crisis of covid-19 has been the need to make the qualitative leap towards user support based on technology, promoting an inclusive digital transformation that results in a better quality of life for dependent people. For months, many people with disabilities have been confined to their homes, which has led to deterioration in their quality of life. A recent study by the ONCE Foundation confirms that a 55% of this group have experienced sadness, 50% have worsened their mood, 34% have needed anxiolytics and antidepressants, and 34% have seen their general health deteriorate.The imperative of caring for people affected by chronic and disabling diseases has driven the development of virtualized care sessions, carried out by highly motivated professionals, but with limited training and digital skills. Internal research and analysis among the partners’ organizations and their networks of peers results on a detection of opportunities, but also of weaknesses and gaps that need to be addressed. Firstly, third sector organizations from socio-health care of disabled people do not count on digital transformation models from which learn, in a clear and contrasted way, how to take steps towards the integration of user care models based on new technologies.Secondly, the professionals do not have the necessary training to enable them to carry out their work in virtual formats with guarantees and meeting the objectives of customer service.U-Digitalize is a digital transformation project aimed at empowering professionals from 3rd sector so they are capable of virtualizing the care for people with functional diversity, providing them with the motivation and resources to be able to carry out their work through digital technologies.<< Objectives >>The project is based on the fact that digital transformation is obviously supported by technology, but its success depends on the human factor, that is, in our case, on the ability of people and professionals to successfully integrate this technology into the attention and care processes that they provide to people with functional diversity. Thus, the general objective of the project is to offer organizations models and proven references for the adoption of digital services, empowering their professionals to be able to overcome reluctance and fear of change, to take advantage of the potential of technology in an optimal way, so that they feel motivated and secure in these new digital professional environments, and so that they can guide and support users in the integration of this new type of digitized care.Some of the specific objectives of the project are to:- Promote a new organizational culture focusing on empowering professionals working in care sector organizations (65% of digital transformation processes fail because of the resistance to adopting the changes involved in digitalization).- Incorporate new working models that increase the capacity and resilience of organizations: virtualization of services, teleworking, telecare, digital support for technicians working in community spaces or in the homes of people with disabilities, etc., which will contribute to modernize 3rd sector entities, making them more dynamic, and ready to integrate good practices and new methods in their daily activities, basing on their digital skills. - Make professionals aware of the importance of adapting to new working schemes in digital environments in order to offer quality services to users.- Intervene to break the digital divide: while traditionally, the digital divide was identified as the difference between those who had access to the Internet and those who did not, as technology evolves the new challenge poses over barriers such as the inequality of opportunities for participation or the difficulty in acquiring digital skills and abilities in the use of the Internet and ICTs. - Create a model of digitization of care services for people with functional diversity, aimed at organizations and institutions that offer physical and emotional maintenance services and support for community participation, from the private and non-profit sphere.- Design a training itinerary, focused on those professional profiles that offer direct care services to users.- Offer a professional training course for virtualized care for dependent people, including aspects related to professional digital literacy (considering the European Framework of Digital Competences) of the aforementioned professional profiles, as well as the development of soft-skills related to customer service, and emotional self-management.- Improving the levels of digital competence of both the 3rd sector organizations and their professionals, so they can become more competitive and better respond to the needs of those vulnerable collectives (people with functional diversity) they support.<< Implementation >>The project has been designed so that the activities to be implemented adequately include the 5 main phases within a classic project development working scheme: planning, preparation, implementation, dissemination, and evaluation.The planning phase has been carried out prior to the presentation of this project proposal. It has included research, needs analysis and the joint design of its objectives, expected results and timing.The preparation phase includes all the activities necessary for the correct implementation of the project and has to do with the implementation of the action protocols, the formalization of internal and external agreements, the establishment of collaboration and communication instruments, the agreement about the exact dates for the meetings of coordination and follow-up, and the launching of the actions oriented to guarantee the sustainability of the results in the medium and long term. Thus, it is divided into 5 main activities:A1: Contratualization and performance protocol agreements.A2: Partnership building activities.A3: Financial and administrative reporting.A4: Preparing collaboration and communication tools.A5: Formalization of agreements with associated partners and other collaborators.A6: Deployment of sustainability strategy.The implementation phase has been designed to lead to the development of the two main results: the R1 - U-Digitalize Model, for digitalizing care services for people with functional diversity, and the R2 - U-Digitalize Training Program. This phase is structured according to the following working scheme:A7: IO1 – U-Digitalize Model for digitalizing care services for people with functional diversity.A7.1: Research on digitalization experiences from 3rd sector care organizations.A7.2: Drafting the Guide Model for organizations: structure, contents and supports definition.A7.3: Development of the DT Model (contents, audio-video creation, design and publication)A7.4: Validation of the DT Model with representatives from the target groups.A7.5: Analysis of validation results and integration of changes and improvements. Release of the final version.A8: IO2 – U-Digitalize Training Programme.A8.1: Design of the training itinerary, based on DIGCOMP Framework.A8.2: Training development: contents, learning objects and resources creation, programming of the learning environment.A8.3: Translation to partners’ languages.A8.4: Testing the training programme with target groups.A8.5: Feedback analysis and development of the final improved version.The evaluation stage includes a set of activities aiming at supporting partners monitoring that the planned objectives are achieved, resources properly spent, and activities successfully implemented. This is transversal stage, covering all the project lifetime. The activities and sub-activities included under this category are:A9: Ongoing monitoring and evaluation process.A9.1: Elaboration of the QMP and evaluation tools.A9.2: 1st evaluation report.A9.3: 2nd evaluation report.A9.4: 4th evaluation report.A9.5: Checking milestones and indicators.Finally, another key and transversal stage for the proper implementation has to do with the dissemination and exploitation of the project and its results. This phase includes the following activities:A10: Creation of the dissemination toolkit (logo, leaflet, website, social media profiles…)A11: Social media campaign.A12: Communication and dissemination activities.A13: National dissemination activities – including multiplier events.A14: Dissemination activities reporting.<< Results >>The project will focus on the development of 2 main results:R1 – U-Digitalize Model for digitalizing care services for people with functional diversity.The model will gather good practices and examples experienced during the pandemic year and will base on a research (interviews-focus groups with professionals). The analysis of the results will lead to the composition of a DT (Digital Transformation) Model for organizations and professionals from health-care sector, including recommendations, tips, and ideas, complemented by a set of best practices to serve as inspiration.R2 – U-Digitalize Training ProgrammeThe training programme will base on the DigComp, the European framework for digital skills, as a reference, creating specific contents for the 5 basic areas of competence, and applied to the development of guidance and support services for people with functional diversity.Section 1 – How to digitalize your care activities.This section will focus on those digital skills that the professionals need so they can provide support and services from remote settings. We are thinking on transversal areas, such as, for instance:- Get to know your digital skills. Introduction to the digital competence and initial test of users´ level (this will allow guide them towards the most appropriate level in the training programme)- Search and research – getting the most from digital information.- Creation of audiovisual supporting materials (technical and non-technical tips).- Meeting online – how to organize productive online sessions with users.- Communication based on ICTs (selecting and using the appropriate channels)- Active listening and constructive feedback in virtual settings.This is a non-exhaustive list, as it is open to additional content. Section 2 – Caring for yourself: overcoming obstacles for a healthy online activity.This second part of the training will be aimed at empowering professionals to be able to make safe and responsible use of technologies, protecting themselves both physically and psychologically from the risks of online activity.In addition to these outputs, the project project will also produce more results as consequence of the activities implementation. We can outline the following:Results and deliverables produced in the preparation stage:D1 – Partners contracts.D2 - Communication plan and tools.D3- Project RoadMap.D4 - Risk management and performance protocol. D5- Financial and administrative management protocol.D6 - IPRA – Intellectual Property Rights Agreement.D7 – Project Management Dossier.D8 – Collaboration and communication tools (internal platforms and tools)D9 – Meetings dossiers.D10 – Sustainability Action Plan. Results and deliverables produced in the monitoring and evaluation stage:D11- Quality Management Plan and tools.D12 - Evaluation reports (4): After each six months, partners will evaluate the project quality (management, cooperation and communication among partners, quality and consistence of project results so far, etc.). The results of the evaluation process will be collected in a report by the evaluation leader and shared with all partners to make improvement decisions. The final evaluation report will be relevant also to guide the final exploitation strategy.D13 – Monitoring matrix for the verification of milestones and indicators achievement.Results and deliverables produced in the dissemination and exploitation stage:D14 – Dissemination Action Plan, including updated calendar and reporting guidelines and templates.D15 – Dissemination Toolkit – logo, templates for documents/communications, leaflet, website, profiles on social media…)D16 – Dissemination reports (4): Each six months, partners will report all the dissemination activities carried out so far describing the kind of activity, number of people involved, results, etc. The report will be completed with pictures, lists of attendance and other evidences.D17 – Multiplier Events reports.

"The aging of the European population and the need to guarantee quality care for growing number of dependent young and old citizens is one of the greatest political and social challenges for the European Union. People dedicated to caring for these groups can do it formally (health care professionals) or informally (mostly family members). An informal or family caregiver is ""any person, man or woman, who is not a professional caregiver but who, by default or by choice, cares for a dependent person in her immediate circle"" (European Charter for Family Caregivers)Family caregivers in the EU provide more than 80% of all care for dependents, and of these, about a third are women, who provide care often at the expense of their own personal, family and / or work life. The care role can be very difficult due to the complexity of the situations they have to face, and the time consumed (which can exceed 16 hours a day). For this reason, it is increasingly important to address the multidimensional burdens associated with informal care. There is a phenomenon called ""caregiver stress"" characterized by reduced hours of sleep, insomnia, neglect of self-care and consequent fatigue, concentration difficulties, anxiety, irritability, depression, emotional stress, frustration, cancellation of social life, etc.The caregiver burden has both objective and subjective components. The objective components are the demands to which the caregiver is exposed for the care of the dependent person. The subjective component is the way the caregiver perceives the care tasks: their emotional response to the experience of caring for a family member. In addition, there are studies that demonstrate the influence of poor social support on the burden or stress of the caregiver (AA.VV, Social Support, does it improve caregiver fatigue?, 2004). From there, the symptoms of the burden can be controlled and even reversed by reinforcing emotional intelligence and social support.In this context, the PeerCare project has been developed to achieve the main objective of contributing to reduce the symptoms of ""caregiver stress"" through the creation of a Peer Training in Emotional Intelligence (EI) for informal caregivers (IO1) that offers a complete learning environment, which revolves around 3 main elements:- A training itinerary, made up of 5 thematic modules focused on the three main attributes that define EI: self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation.- A set of varied learning resources (videos, lessons, case studies, games), designed to facilitate flexible, dynamic, and motivating access.- An online peer community, which offers a space for the exchange of experiences, resources, and peer learning.Likewise, with the aim of providing the professionals / volunteers who support these informal caregivers with resources and tools to train them in the field of EI, the Manual ""Emotional Intelligence for informal caregivers: training of trainers"" (IO2) has been designed. With a theoretical-practical approach, the manual includes instructions and tips for organizing training sessions with family caregivers, a part of theoretical ideas and concepts around core elements of EI, and tools to use in class (11 studies case study and 7 practical activities)The direct target groups of the project have been:- Family caregivers: people who take care of their partners, descendants who take care of their parents; or people who care for relatives or close dependents.- Family caregiver support staff: people who, professionally or voluntarily, work with family caregivers, providing help, advice and formal or informal training.The direct participation of these groups has been transversal and constant throughout the project, gathering their feedback during:- The needs analysis (IO1 and IO2) - 161 people participated in focus groups, were interviewed, or completed the questionnaires.- The testing activities of the developed prototypes (IO1 and IO2) - 218 people participated in these activities and gave their feedback through questionnaires and interviews.- The multiplier events (6) - 198 people participated in the different sessions organized by the project partners in their countries.This direct impact on the target groups has been expanded with more than 163 dissemination actions carried out which, through different channels and formats, have reached more than 80,000 people.The availability of the two project products openly on the web, and their availability in 6 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Turkish) facilitates their use, both by the participating organizations (which have incorporated these training resources to their day-to-day life) as well as by third-party organizations that have shown interest on them."

"Fortunately, the concept of dependent individual has shifted favorably throughout history and now this group is intended to play the most uniform role in society possible. Although the definition of dependent people may vary from country to country, for IntegraCare project we will use reference from the Spanish law for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for people in situations of dependency. According to it, we define this collective as any person who, for reasons derived from age, illness or disability, and suffering a lack or loss of physical, mental, intellectual or sensory autonomy and need the support of other people or important aids to carry out basic activities of daily life or, in the case of people with intellectual disabilities or mental illness, other supports for their personal autonomy.The problems of a person with physical or intellectual disability, in addition to their personal limitations, appear to have their origin in the obstacles and restricting conditions that exist in the society in which they live. Within these limitations, the possibility of developing an independent and autonomous life is perhaps one of those that requires new action frameworks, new organisational approaches and new professional practices.The World Health Organization called for a paradigm shift in how health services are financed, handled and provided in its ""Global Strategy on Integrated Human Centered Health Services 2016-2026."" To tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing health systems around the world, such as: ageing populations, urbanization and globalization of unhealthy lifestyles, the implementation of a person-centered care approach at international level has been required. The spread of non-communicable diseases, mental illness and injury; inadequate access to health systems; and lack of accountability by service providers with minimal opportunities to provide quality treatment that corresponds to their customers' needs and preferences. In this sense, the fostering of personal autonomy is directly related to the integration of dependent persons (including all areas of life) and should be promoted by interventions that enhance functional ability (physical, cognitive, psycho-affective and social) and acts that remove barriers to independent living. Social-health care for dependent people has for a long time been based on these people's definition of ""need"". The person's critical focus is directed towards achieving changes in all aspects of the person's quality of life and well-being, based on full respect for their integrity and freedoms, their desires and preferences, and counting on their successful involvement.The central person-centered care principle is an indicator of quality and aims to achieve the highest levels of equality for people with functional diversity, embodied in fostering personal autonomy, encouraging dependent people's active and healthy lives. This approach guarantees the highest possible level of personal inclusion and allows practitioners to work with an integrated strategy, creating and maximizing synergies without losing sight of this main goal of autonomy and inclusion. From the first interaction with the dependent individual, it is important that the multidisciplinary team carry out a collaborative review of their needs and abilities, which should cover many areas: home life, lifelong learning, health and safety, freedoms, social and community activities.Truth, however, is typically not focused on these methods, primarily because every professional who assists the dependent individual is a specialist in his / her field (psychologists, social workers, physiotherapists, nurses, physicians, etc.) and from that point of view aims to improve user life. Therefore, we suggest the creation of a training programme that allows the various practitioners in this care model to be motivated through an immersive and/or combined approach (face-to-face, and online).The main goals discussed by IntegraCare project include:- Promoting dependent people's personal autonomy, active and healthy lives.- To empower the social and health care practitioners of vulnerable individuals and those with functional differences to apply critical person-centered treatment models.- To raise awareness of the link between integral person-centered care and the quality of life of dependent people and its core dimensions: emotional well-being, interpersonal relationships, material welfare, personal development, physical well-being, self-determination, social inclusion and rights.Implementing this project benefits from an equally interdisciplinary approach and including participants from various contexts of exposure to people with functional diversity. This will also allow realities to be integrated and their stories will motivate and enrich the final result with transferable experiences to other sociocultural realities."

The full economic and social participation of people with disabilities is essential if the EU's Europe 2020 strategy is to succeed in creating smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Building a society that includes everyone also brings market opportunities and encourages innovation. However, regulatory frameworks do not always adequately reflect the needs of people with disabilities, nor the development of products and services that respond to them.In addition, this Strategy sets in motion a process to empower people with disabilities, so that they can participate fully in society under equal conditions. This European Strategy is made up of the framework of Article 19 (Living independently and being included in the community) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).In this context and for the reasons mentioned, the EU-Assistant project set out to define the key competences relevant to the development of the role of Personal Assistant for dependents, based on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).The EU-Assistant project addressed and led to the achievement of other objectives, among which we highlight:- To contribute to the development of a professional training path for personal assistants.- To provide a training itinerary and training materials, under the European Qualifications Framework.- To promote the profession of personal assistants.- To raise awareness of the need for the profession of personal assistants.Some of the main results, materialized in the intellectual products created, include:1. The development of a training itinerary that, taking as reference the different contexts and areas of application of the figure of the Personal Assistant in those countries members of the consortium in which it already exists, defines the professional competences of this figure, as well as a series of training modules that lead to the empowerment of these professionals.2. A collaborative learning environment, available online on a Moodle platform. This environment makes available to students and teachers six courses for the training of personal assistants (one in each of the project languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, Turkish and Romanian). Each course has a modular structure (based on the designed itinerary), and allows a responsive display in such a way that the student can access it from any device (PC, tablet, smartphone). The contents are offered online, but they can also be downloaded in electronic format so they can be consulted offline.One of the most interesting features has been the design of a common space for the generation of collaborative learning. Based on the Padlet software, this space has been built for the realization of individual or group activities, the exchange of ideas and experiences, in a structured format. Additionally, Moodle also offers communication mechanisms for the management of teamwork, such as forums or chats.All the direct target groups of the EU-Assistant project (people interested in learning about the role of personal assistant, both those who have not yet exercised in the care and attention of dependents as well as those who already do and want to deepen this professional profile), as the indirect ones (educational centers interested in this profile, employment centers and other institutions), have participated directly in the development of the project through various means, mainly: validation sessions and testing of products, events and presentations, meetings and dissemination actions.The impact has been significant in all these groups, and already begun to materialize in concrete actions. Just to give some examples, in several of the consortium countries the products are already being used in the training of personal assistants; public and private entities are joining efforts to offer integral training programs in this field; and work is being done for the adaptation of the training itinerary to NEETs (mainly youth with low qualification), as a potential area for professional insertion.