During March participants of the €80,000 Erasmus+ funded European E-PROFID project from the UK, Spain, Italy and Belgium met in Murcia for its final international collaboration to develop a training programme for care workers.
The E-PROFID event was hosted by Spanish partner, Fundación Diagrama, and was attended by project partners from the UK and Belgium and the Italian group participated online. The two day event included a seminar at the University of Murcia, visits to a Fundación Diagrama service that supports people with mental health conditions and disabilities and to workshops where they met trainees learning skills to support them into employment and concluded with an all project steering group meeting.
Over the last two years the participants have previously met in Belgium, Italy and the UK and this final meeting in Spain was to agree the last stages to develop a training package for Care Workers who support people with disabilities, (especially those living in residential centres) while aiming to change public perception of disability.
Marina Rubio, Supported Living manager from UK partner, Diagrama Foundation said “During our extremely productive visit to Murcia we led a seminar with social work students from the University of Murcia and shared key ideas from the training we have been developing. We visited a Fundación Diagrama centre, ‘Cristo de los Mineros’, that supports people with mental health conditions and disabilities and really enjoyed seeing the arts, pottery, horticulture and other workshops that residents take part in, and then visited the workshops of one of the centre’s training partners, Tesis Global Formación, and met trainees learning skills to support them into employment. On the last day we attended an all partner steering group meeting where we agreed the final actions to complete this important project.”
Helen Dean, Diagrama’s Head of Projects and Professional Standards said, ‘The funding from Erasmus+ for the E-PROFID project has given our staff a fantastic opportunity to learn from other organisations with a similar commitment to supporting people with disabilities to achieve their potential. The training package that the project develops will be used with our teams in the UK to give our Care Workers the best tools to work with our residents and will in the future be available to other care providers.”
To find out more about the E-Profid project visit www.diagramafoundation.org.uk/european-projects
About the European Union Erasmus + Programme
Erasmus Plus is a European Lifelong Learning Programme designed to give access to new skills, experiences, and opportunities to adults of all ages and from all backgrounds. It is mostly known as a Higher Education study option, but Erasmus Plus offers scope for broadening horizons and opening learning opportunities across Europe for adults of all ages, working alongside people from other countries.
www.ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/node_en
About the E-PROFID Participants
UK – The Diagrama Foundation www.diagramafoundation.org.uk
Italy – University of Salerno www.unisa.it
Belgium – Groep Ubuntu, Kortrijk www.groepubuntu.org
Spain – Fundacion Diagrama Psicosocial, Murcia www.fundaciondiagrama.es
About the E-PROFID Project
Diagrama Foundation is leading a two-year Erasmus+ E-PROFID project, working with partner organisations across Europe. The E-PROFID project is built on a foundation of innovation and transfer of good practice with organisations from diverse backgrounds serving different client groups, working together to design tools and methods to change the public’s perception, by promoting ability, rather than accepting disability.
The project was awarded €80,000 from the Erasmus + Programme and is one of the last projects to include representation from the UK following the country’s exit from the European Union.
The aim of the E-Profid project is to train Care Workers to develop new ways of supporting people with disabilities, especially those living in residential centres. The project has three main objectives,
- Help change the public’s perception of “Disabilities”, by celebrating “Abilities”
- Develop residents’ “Professional Identity”, celebrating and sharing skills and talent
- Train face to face Care Workers to become “Facilitators of Change” using digital and all other communication skills.
It is hoped that through recognising professional identity and diversity, the E-PROFID project will push social change and prove that even severe disability is not a barrier to fulfilment and social inclusion. Together the contributors will create an innovative ‘Facilitator of Change’, training course, combining elements of communication and empowerment, client care, psychology, marketing, employment training in digital management.
To do this staff need to have skills and confidence to develop and implement programmes and to facilitate change, helping clients to develop their professional identity. Learning lessons from the Covid 19 pandemic (and the way the world is changing), we need staff to have skills and confidence to use digital tools to support this work. So, project activities include 3 sessions of staff training to specifically focus on digital communication and social inclusion techniques.
About Diagrama Foundation
Diagrama Foundation is a Kent based charity that supports vulnerable children, young people, and adults to live their best life.
Diagrama has a Supported Living Service across Bromley, three homes for adults with learning disabilities in Orpington, an eight-bed care home for adults with learning disabilities in West Sussex, a fifty-bed care home for the elderly with nursing and dementia needs in Essex, and a fostering and adoption service in the southeast.
- The Supported Living Service, cares for 35 adults with learning disabilities, in nine homes across Bromley helping them to develop skills and confidence to live in their own house either on their own or with others.
- At Cabrini House in Orpington the charity promotes the development of core skills for 23 adults with learning disabilities so that they can lead independent lives integrated within their community.
- Duckyls Farm in West Sussex, a care home for eight residents with learning disabilities, joined the charity care provider in February 2023.
- The team at their nursing and dementia care home Edensor in Clacton on Sea, support their vulnerable residents to live life to the full.
- Diagrama’s adoption and fostering service cares for children in South London, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.
Many vulnerable children and adults don’t get the support they need to develop their true potential, but the Diagrama team know that when someone has time and belief invested in them, they come alive, because that investment has made them feel valued and worthy.
