(20 September 2019) – Armelle Ledan (AEIDL), as SIC coordinator, participated in the EaSI project dissemination seminar on “Social Innovation for Social Services” organised by the European Commission on 11 September in Brussels.
The seminar was attended by about 100 participants, including project beneficiaries, project promoters, ESF managing authorities, DG EMPL officers and EU experts. It built on the first results of projects promoting innovative integrated approaches to the delivery of social services, selected for financing through EaSI in 2014 and 2015. It further followed-up on the request of the EaSI projects to be able to network both with each other and with outside experts.
The event aimed at disseminating promising practices of EaSI social innovation projects in the field of social services and to provide an opportunity for networking and exchanging about further upscaling and mainstreaming into the future ESF+.
The first day was dedicated to an exchange between the project promoters, beneficiaries and relevant DG EMPL officers. 14 projects from 10 countries (BE, BG, EL, ES, FR, HU, IT, LV, RO, UK) were presented and discussed.
The second day was a thematic seminar, open to a larger public. Organisations representing social service providers such as the European Social Network (ESN), Eurodiaconia or the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) were involved in panel discussions, some results from the H2020-funded SIC (Social Innovation Community) project was presented by AEIDL and DG RTD presented their activities in the field of social innovation.
The outcomes of the event will feed on the one hand, into the developments of the Commission’s guidance to the Member States on the reform of social services and, on the other, into further development of the social innovation policy.