ECOISTITUTO DEL FRIULI
VENEZIA
GIULIA

YDSI: Digital social innovation for young people...

YDSI is an Erasmus plus project Strategic Partnership (2017-2019)

The YDSI project aims at empowering young people (especially students in social sciences and volunteers) in digital social innovation thinking and practices at a European level professionalizing them in a lifelong learning European perspective.
The general objective of the YDSI project is the definition of a basic educational framework for youth online social innovation education at a European level integrating the expertise of partners engaged in different topical social educational practices such as peer learning, participatory learning, social learning, and collaborative learning.
The specific objectives are:
• to exchange best practices between organizations active in social innovation focusing on methodologies, conditions and best practices of social innovation thinking
• to increase competencies of young people on digital social innovation providing them with advice and guidance on how to design and develop social innovation ideas and proposals exploiting EU funding and opportunities available on the Web
• to create a comprehensive list of good practices on the topics of digital social innovation and social entrepreneurship
• to create a network of organizations active in digital social innovation and promoting their collaboration with social enterprises
Addressed needs
The YDSI project addresses the following needs:
• professionalization of young people in a topical sector such as digital social innovation thinking and social entrepreneurship
• their empowerment in the use of online educational processes
Addressed target group
The project’s target group are students and young people engaged in social volunteer activities or employed in social services institutions/organizations.
Transnational motivation
The YDSI Strategic Partnership is motivated by the following main factors:
- social education, social services, and social innovation go beyond national borders
- social digital innovation and professional use of new technologies are European goals that need a transnational approach
- our project wants to contribute to achieving a European objective: improving the active involvement of young people in the development of high-quality non-formal and informal educational programs at a European level
- participation in this European project will provide partners with the opportunity to share investigations conducted separately as well as to confront ideas, practices, and methods of digital social innovation; thanks to this project, they will create a network and increase their capacity to operate at a transnational level.

DSI: Digital social innovation: new educational competencies for social inclusion..

DSI is an Erasmus plus project Strategic Partnership led by Ecoistituto (2018-2020)

The principal objective of the DSI project is the definition of a basic portfolio for digital social innovation competencies at the European level specifically designed for students in social educator study programs, employed/unemployed social educators, and social volunteers.
All partners already developed educational programs addressed to social educators and used digital resources in their educational activity with vulnerable social groups.
Accordingly, partners will share their competencies in digital-based educational programs such as competencies for children with behavioural disabilities, online social coaching, social telerehabilitation of vulnerable social groups, etc., to implement the basic portfolio for digital social innovation competencies.
For this purpose, they will select, analyze, and comment on the best practices and methodologies about the use of digital technologies in designing, implementing, and running social innovation solutions. Social educators will be involved in all the project activities through meetings, seminars, and online discussions. A short-term learning event will be organized involving educators and experts.
In synthesis, the project’s objectives are:
• to exchange good practices between organizations active in social education and social innovation
• to increase the competencies of social educators
• to define a basic portfolio of competencies for social educators and social volunteers in digital social innovation practices at the European level
• to create a comprehensive (and commented) list of topics and practices essential for digital social innovation initiatives/activities
• to create a network active in digital social innovation
The main addressed needs are:
• enhancing social inclusion improving professional competencies of social educators and social volunteers in a topical sector such as digital social innovation and in the use of technology for social rehabilitation practices;
• educators empowerment in the use of online educational processes.
We underline that, nowadays, empowerment in the use of online educational processes is crucial. The current literature shows that the new technologies can be relevant in social rehabilitation programs since they reduce mobility and allow personalized rehabilitative paths. Nevertheless, the use of new technologies requires specific and structured competencies.
Target groups
Social educators, more precisely social educator students and social educators engaged in volunteer activities or employed in social services institutions/organizations, are our main target group.
Our project also involves other target groups:
- Vulnerable social groups
- Social services
- Educational institutions

ESEC: Extending Social Educators Competences (2018-2020)

ESEC is an Erasmus plus project Strategic Partnership led by Janusz Korczak Pedagogical University in Warsaw, Poland (2018-2020) (2018-2020)

Despite the numerous examples and variety of parent training courses (see the multifarious social coaching offers), evidence-based guidelines for designing, implementing and running online parent training programmes for parents of children with behavioural disabilities are not available. Moreover, parent training techniques are not widely studied by students in social pedagogy and social worker study programs.
The ESEC project will provide social educators with the notions needed for designing and running parent training courses in an online environment. It will realize an innovative parent training programme for parents of children with behavioural disabilities to extend and develop the current competence and skills of both social educators and support teachers.
The ESEC project's main expected results are:
- evidence-based guidelines for designing, implementing and running parent training programmes
- a 2.0 educational programme that tackles all issues, theoretical and practical, related to parent training and includes a training course for parents of children with behavioural disabilities
The training course is an application of the evidence-based guidelines since the ESEC project foresees that learners will use the guidelines to design, implement and run a parent training course for a specific group of parents (parents of children with behavioural disabilities), under the supervision of experts (special pedagogues, social pedagogues, psychologists, social anthropologists, and expert in social media).
The ESEC training approach focuses on teaching techniques, as well as on indirect and direct teaching strategies and relational practices. Indirect teaching strategies are aimed at increasing the social responsiveness of parents. The learners’ preparation will consist of didactic and hands-on training using the parent training techniques.
The ESEC consortium is formed of 5 partners will complementary expertise in teaching and learning. It includes 2 HE institutions, 1 foundation, and 2 NGOs.

ELISE: Eliminating Social Exclusion (2019-2021)

Often, parents of children with special needs choose not to venture anywhere. They frequently avoid travel since they are unaware of how to get the accommodations they need during the journey. On the other hand, companies that offer travel services, especially micro-companies, don’t know the needs of families with children with special needs.
The principal objective of the EliSE project is supporting parents of children with behavioural disturbs realizing an educational parent-training module for “fair travelling” in European countries and an educational toolkit.
Accordingly, the primary target group of this project is represented by social educators who will be trained on how to train parents of children with behavioural disturbs (parent-training).
For this purpose, our project aims to improve the competence of educators in the field of special education as well as to teach them the use of parent-training techniques.
The other target groups involved in the EliSE project are the families of children with special needs, parents' associations, social services, NGOs involved in special needs education, and companies that deliver travel services.
Target groups’ representatives are involved in the project’s activities through training activities, meetings, seminars, and online discussions. One short-term learning event will be organized involving selected persons from the target groups (social educators and parents) and experts.
The Consortium is formed of six partners from six different countries, Latvia, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
The EliSE project will provide partners with the opportunity to share investigations conducted separately in the field of special needs education as well as to confront ideas, practices, and methods in the sector of social integration. Thanks to this project, they will increase their capacity to operate at a transnational level.
This project foresees four IOs:
1. IO1: Model representing the various aspects which characterize travels of families with children affected by behavioural disturbs (months 1-6)
2. IO2: Online collaborative learning infrastructure (months 3-11)
3. IO3: Blended learning module for educators: “Supporting families with children affected by behavioural disturbs”
• Design of the module (months 6-8)
• Implementation of the module (months 7-11)
• Pilots (month 12-18)
4. IO4: Toolkit for Fair Traveling and Policy recommendations (months 17-24)
The project's impact includes:
• more active participation in society (social educators, parents, children, and stakeholders);
• improved competencies, linked to professional profiles (social educators);
• better understanding of practices in education and training (educational institutions);
• more strategic and integrated use of ICTs and open educational resources (OER) in education and training (for educators, parents, and educational institutions);
• reinforced interaction between practice, research, and policy (educators, Parents’ Associations,
Policymakers, Travel services companies).
Finally, our project can contribute to supporting the migration of families with children with special needs offering them information on childcare-inclusive settlements and guidance.

DICCMEM: Development and Introduction of a Communication Competencies Model for Enhancing and Maintaining a Business Mentor Network (2019-2021)

Rezekne Academy of Technologies (RTA) in cooperation with partners plans to implement an applied research project: Development and Introduction of a Communication competencies Model for
Enhancing and Maintaining a Business Mentor Network. The expected results of the project focus on achieving the objectives of Priority 7 of the Smart Specialization Strategy (Latvia) or RIS3: identification of the existing resources of territories and their specialization, proposing prospective economic development opportunities and directions, int. al. leading and prospective business directions in the municipal territories. According to the NACE Rev. 2 classification of economic activities, it corresponds to Section J: Information and Communication.
The project aims to examine barriers to communication competencies between mentors and mentees and propose solutions how to enhance and maintain the business mentor network by means of communication technologies. The project is interdisciplinary because according to the OECD classification, it directly relates to such fields of science as economics, entrepreneurship, communication as well as information technology. The project involves the following research studies: a technical and economic feasibility study and an industry research study.
Project activities: Technical and economic feasibility study on the communication competencies model for the business mentor network; Theoretical literature studies, an examination and comparison of mentor work specifics in Latvia and abroad; Interviews with the business mentor network participants (mentors and mentees); Interviews, questionnaire with experts; Mobility, experience exchange with foreign countries; Development of a smart communication competencies model for the business mentor network; Development of an effective communication and collaboration methodology for the business mentor network; A pilot group of mentors and mentees for assessing the effective communication methodology; Creating mentoring handbook; Publishing original scientific articles in journals or conference proceedings included in Web of Science or SCOPUS (or other) databases Development of a joint monograph; Development of a network between partners. For a mentor can act, communication is necessary, which is key to a successful entrepreneurship. Regardless of whether communication is internal or external, horizontal or vertical, all the forms of communication in the entrepreneurial environment help to increase efficiency and improve organizational performance. The key purpose of communication is to ensure that a message is comprehended in a way that was initially intended to reach the audience. That is why communication could be both verbal and visual – it is a continuous process, during which interaction occurs among the communicator, the channel, the message and the communicates. An essential element in communication is the communicative effect or response, which indicates whether the message has reached the audience and whether the communication objective is going to be achieved.
The target group represents several fields: Research and academic environment: scientists, students, academic personnel in social sciences, as well employees engaged in research;
Entrepreneur environment: entrepreneurs from all countries, who wish to participate in business mentor network activities as mentors and mentees; enterprise stakeholders – employees, customers, business partners; entrepreneurs as users of the communication methodology for the business mentor network; Society: the society as a whole, as entrepreneurship in a region affects every resident through creating new jobs, and improving the economic situation in the region, which increases the purchasing power of residents, amounts of taxes paid to the local and national governments.
Methodology and division of work will be symmetrical, where similar activities for the development of intellectual output is going to be implemented in parallel in the participating countries. More in detail, the expected impact on the participant organizations is: that more than 20 staff persons will be involved in the project; employing research staff; improving competence in communication field; enhancing international relationships; further collaboration in research.
The Project will apply a competence-based approach and assess their quality, impact and relevance. This can contribute to higher quality of education and training and support permeability between the different education and training pathways.
The expected results of the project would therefore be effective solutions to developing the business mentor network in all countries: performed study on a communication competencies model; designed a smart communication competencies model and a methodology; developed mentoring handbook; original scientific articles published in journals or conference proceedings.

SMM4WIN: Social media marketing skills for fostering the inclusion and employability of young people with disabilities

The " SMM4WIN - Social media marketing skills for fostering the inclusion and employability of young people with disabilities" helps young people with disabilities get new skills in social media marketing as a tool for professional work, self-realization and communication, and promotion of their own personal brand and career development, through an advanced educational initiative based on: Peer training to motivate young people in learning tasks; Advanced structured laboratory activities; and A smart learning environment.
The proposal is aimed at achieving the specific objectives:
• Foster the social and economic inclusion and employability of young people with disabilities, self-employability in Social and Business Services
• Equip young people with disabilities with knowledge and relevant skills in social network marketing relevant for their social and professional lives and enhance their civic skills. This is realised through researching, creating and teaching the developed course, creating of e-learning materials package and placing it as an open resource for the general public.
• Promoting inclusiveness in social and economic life, demonstrating the achievements of people with disabilities, improving public perception, and overcoming the stereotypes associated with the positions and opportunities of a person with a disability in the labour market.
Project Target Groups
• People with disabilities from the NEETs category who require social adulting, motivation for learning and professional orientation (18-35 years old)
• Young people with disabilities who need SMM skills to promote their personal brand / professional growth/career building (18-35 years old)
• Young people with disabilities who want to work in the field of SMM (18-35 years old)
• Representatives of NGOs and Social Services who help people with disabilities and are responsible for SMM organizations.(without age restrictions)
- Young experts in SMM and Young social educators and social workers unemployed or employed who are interested in being tutors/researchers in this project.
SMM4WIN aims at realizing an innovative and transnational training program on social network marketing supported by a 'smart learning environment'. Our training activities will be interactive and intensive (both face-to-face and virtual). They will be carried out with the contribution of young social educators and social workers as well as with the involvement of representatives of social enterprises, public social services, and social service users. We will realize transnational youth SMM4WIN laboratory activities as a concrete example of the use of a “smart learning environment”. SMM for WIN:
• Work (SMM skills for employability of young people with disabilities)
• Inclusion (in public life)
• Novate (actual skills in the digital field).
The SMM4WIN project will produce the following concrete results:
1. Report on Research “Young people with disabilities in social media” (IO1).
2. Smart learning environment and Youth DSI SMM Community platform (IO2).
3. SMM Training program: implementation, running, and reporting (IO3).
4. Recommendations for policy makers and handbook for SMM (IO4).
The project Consortium is formed of 4 partners from Poland, Italy, Latvia, and Ukraine. It involves higher education institutions and NGOs.

ASL: Adult self-learning: supporting learning autonomy in a technology-mediated environment (2029-2021)

Recently (2016), the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that the majority of new work opportunities in the last decade had been generated in the informal and digitally-based economy.
Accordingly, the ASL project supports the setting up of, and access to, upskilling pathways through an advanced educational initiative based on:
- An online collaborative environment designed to motivate adult people in learning tasks
- Structured learning activities following the Pattern-Based Learning approach
The ASL project will also extend the learning opportunities for individual low-skilled or low-qualified adults. We will develop innovative digital social education practices through the realization of an intelligent and proactive learning environment that analyzes the learners' activities.
The concrete aims of the project are:
1. To teach learners to acquire new skills and competencies using learning innovative practices and digital technologies;
2. To develop a functioning collaborative learning environment to help them identify skills gaps and needs and to collaborate locally and independently for joint capacity-building.
The ASL project addresses the following primary needs:
• To provide new competencies to adult learners using digital resources;
• To stimulate/motivate adults to acquire competencies that can improve their careers and employability;
• To promote self-learning;
• To empower people to grow their skills in using digital collaborative technologies;
• To integrate educational practices such as peer learning, online participatory learning, digital social learning, etc.
• To provide people with advice and guidance on how to learn using digital resources.
Adults who need to improve their competencies to continue to work are the primary target group. This class, usually, corresponds to people 50-55 years old and includes people who are low-qualified and low-skilled.
The Consortium is formed of six partners from Turkey, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Greece. They have great competencies in adult learning, which are complementary, and are experts in European projects.

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Research..

Ecoistituto is conducting research in the following fields:
- Vernacular architecture (Coordinator: prof. Francesco Chinellato, Udine University)
- Friuli Venezia Giulia tradition
- Digital social innovation (Coordinator: Gilberto Marzano)
- Social inclusion of people with Autism Spectrum disorder (Carlo Scaini)
- Cyberbullying (Coordinator: Gilberto Marzano)
- Programs for (Coordinator: cognitive disabilities)