Social Empowerment in Rural Areas
SEMPRE
 
PROGRAMME 2014-2020
priority
1 Innovation
objective
1.3 Non-technological innovation

SEMPRE

In the Interreg project SEMPRE, charity organisations, trainers and universities gave social services in disadvantaged rural areas of the Baltic Sea region a new role: to empower people in need instead of offering help - this brought happiness and hope to elderly people, migrants, single parents and other vulnerable groups.
The challenge

More people in need in the countryside

Many rural areas in the countries around the Baltic Sea have been losing inhabitants for years. Young and qualified people leave the villages because they find better job opportunities and living conditions in the cities. The ones who have less of a choice remain in the countryside: elderly people, people with disabilities, migrants, single parents. These people are at risk of poverty and durable social exclusion.

Welfare organisations need to learn how to help with less resources

Social service providers could take care of such vulnerable groups, but they, too, suffer from ever smaller budgets and work force. Social services by their nature aim to build stronger communities and to promote equality and opportunity. They are typically provided by welfare and public sector organisations, NGOs or social enterprises. In the changing settings in our rural areas, social service providers need to find new ways of supporting their clients – they need service innovation. And one new approach is empowerment.

Empowering disadvantaged people to help themselves

Empowerment means that social service providers involve those belonging to vulnerable groups into designing the services they need and ideally into providing those services to each other. Social service providers who use empowerment methods rather connect people who can help each other instead of providing help themselves. Social service providers in some countries (e.g. in northern Germany) had been experimenting with for a while. With SEMPRE they wanted to expand the method to partner organisations in various countries around the Baltic Sea.

Budgets

SEMPRE
in numbers
  • 4.86
    Million
    Total
  • 3.83
    Million
    Erdf
  • 0.00
    Million
    Eni + Russia
  • 0.00
    Million
    Norway

Achievements

The SEMPRE project brought together charity organisations with trainers for organisational development and with universities – altogether from eight countries - to test empowerment approaches in the local context and to learn from each other.

Local networks to bring empowerment to rural areas

The SEMPRE partners set up local empowerment networks of social service providers, public authorities, NGOs and local organisations to test different empowerment tools and methods together, such as the theory of change, future workshops or the social business model canvas. Altogether, there are 13 such networks: in Denmark (Varde and Tønder), Estonia (Võrumaa and Põlvamaa), Finland (Ostrobothnia, Kokkoloa, Pieterssari), Germany (Dithmarschen, Nordfriesland, County of Plön), Latvia (Liepaja and Vidzeme), Lithuania (Pagegiai and Jurbakas), and Sweden (Boden, Luleå and Övertorneå).

Micro projects to develop services

One of the tools tested in the local networks are so-called micro projects, i.e. small-scale initiatives at the local level that aim to improve the living situations of members of disadvantaged groups. Within the project lifetime some 35 creative and very diverse micro-projects were initiated and captured in a video and a brochure. And most of them continue in one way or the other. The local empowerment networks helped those who initiated micro project to learn, to explore, and to communicate with stakeholders and service providers, thus stretching their own network contacts and competences.

Five of the micro-projects have already been registered, some as cooperative ("AllDi" – a network of single Parents in Dithmarschen, Germany, and the “Tailor Cooperative” in Luleå, Sweden, which combines work integration of migrants with producing sustainable textiles); one as a social enterprise (the coffee shop "Stop over" in Liepa, Latvia), some as NGOs (the “Afghan Association” in Kokkola, Finland, that promotes social collaboration and "Roku Roka - Hand in Hand" in Latvia which trains assistants to people with disabilities).

Many services continue

Eight micro-projects resulted in new social services taken up by social service providers in their regular service portfolios. For example, in Lithuania, Jurbarkas District Municipality set up a regular family afternoon at which a business plan for the establishment of a multifunctional social service centre was thought up. In Estonia, inhabitants of the small village Harkujärve turned an empty church building into a vibrant community centre with the support of the local church and an NGO. The Municipality of Varde (Denmark) set up a parents’ nights for refugee parents at which the school gets a good insight in what parents with refugee background struggle with in relation to their children’s schooling. Thirteen other new services continue as informal initiatives or under the coordination of an established social service provider after the project.

From micro projects to established social start-ups

In the follow-up project SEMPRE ACCELERATORS, additional support mechanisms are going to be applied to accelerate the growth and development of the most promising micro projects developed within SEMPRE and turn them into self-sustaining social start-ups that offer services and/or products on local and regional markets of the Baltic Sea region. Overall, the Interreg project SEMPRE used EUR 3.83 million of support form the European Union wisely to let a smart idea, i.e. empowerment in social services, become common practice in numerous charity organisations in rural areas of the Baltic Sea region.

Outputs

Empowerment - a handbook on user involvmement in social service design and delivery

The Empowerment Handbook is made for social service providers who would like to develop new or improve existing social services with the active involvement of service end-users. It can guide social service providers in the practical application of empowerment methods. It describes when and how particular empowerment tools can be used, and it provides practical examples of working with vulnerable groups in rural areas which were tested within the SEMPRE project.

Guidebook for Empowerment Training

This Guidebook for Empowerment Training is about building the empowerment competence of social service providers and covers different countries and contexts. It contains knowledge and experiences gained during practical pilots in countries around the Baltic Sea as well as numerous tips and guidance how to practice empowerment through action learning. The document provides concrete recommendations and tools to develop training modules that will lead to a change, development or improvement in the practice of social service delivery.

Organisational roadmap for social service providers: Practiving user involvement

This Organisational Roadmap is meant to inspire and guide leaders of social service providers – public, private or third sector actors – to rethink their role in the social economy and to strengthen the involvement of service end-users in the work of their organisations. In the focus of the roadmap are co-creation principles in service development and design.

Brochure: Co-creating Social Services. A compilation of 26 service user driven micro projects in the Baltic Sea Region

The 26 micro projects presented in this brochure serve as an inspiration for social service providers, public authorities, NGOs and service user groups who are looking for modern ways to provide social services. In each micro-project, the service users were involved in the design and implementation of new social services that respond to the needs of disadvantaged people living in rural areas. This brochure illustrates how empowerment tools can be successfully used to initiate co-creation processes.

Project Stories

Partners

Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein

  • Town
    Rendsburg
  • Region
    Rendsburg-Eckernförde
  • Country
    Germany
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
850,892.57
54.30467019.6645115

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany

  • Town
    Hamburg
  • Region
    Hamburg
  • Country
    Germany
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
227,285.95
53.55034110.000654

Academy of Economics Schleswig-Holstein

  • Town
    Kiel
  • Region
    Kiel, Kreisfreie Stadt
  • Country
    Germany
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
462,913.94
54.322708510.135555

Novia University of Applied Sciences

  • Town
    Vaasa
  • Region
    Pohjanmaa
  • Country
    Finland
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
380,011.00
63.095772221.6159187

University of Jyväskylä, Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius

  • Town
    Jyväskylä
  • Region
    Keski-Suomi
  • Country
    Finland
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
281,005.45
62.239300225.745951

Diaconal centre Liepaja

  • Town
    Liepaja
  • Region
    Kurzeme
  • Country
    Latvia
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
116,350.00
56.504843521.0070903

University of Latvia

  • Town
    Riga
  • Region
    Rīga
  • Country
    Latvia
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
199,957.20
56.949397724.1051846

Lutheran diaconia

  • Town
    Vilnius
  • Region
    Vilniaus apskritis
  • Country
    Lithuania
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
244,328.00
54.687045825.2829111

Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church

  • Town
    Tallinn
  • Region
    Põhja-Eesti
  • Country
    Estonia
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
340,280.00
59.437215524.7453688

Foundation for Social Action

  • Town
    Tallinn
  • Region
    Põhja-Eesti
  • Country
    Estonia
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
317,150.00
59.437215524.7453688

The Foundation for Lifelong Learning PERITIA

  • Town
    Poznan
  • Region
    Poznański
  • Country
    Poland
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
296,509.00
52.400663216.91973259178088

Coompanion Norrbotten

  • Town
    Luleå
  • Region
    Norrbottens län
  • Country
    Sweden
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
303,260.00
65.583118722.1459535

Sunderby Folk High School

  • Town
    S Sunderbyn
  • Region
    Norrbottens län
  • Country
    Sweden
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
222,571.00
65.654162721.9534144

University College South Denmark

  • Town
    Esbjerg Ø
  • Region
    Sydjylland
  • Country
    Denmark
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
253,900.00
55.46648928.4520751

Nordregio

  • Town
    Stockholm
  • Region
    Stockholms län
  • Country
    Sweden
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
56,250.00
59.325117218.0710935

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences

  • Town
    Valmiera
  • Region
    Vidzeme
  • Country
    Latvia
Approximate total partner budget in EUR
308,000.00
57.538914825.4261688

Videos

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