The aim is to develop the competences of social educators that are useful for improving the empowerment of families of disabled persons, in a way that is both innovative and inspiring. The project intends to concretize the process of strengthening and self-awareness of families in line with the document "Implementation guidelines E + and ESC Inclusion and Diversity Strategy" - to overcome social or other difficulties and thus make them fully participate in social life of the EU.  

A sustainable social foundation for human life can only develop in an inherent interdependence with the overall ecological ceiling and regenerative economy. ASTRA paves the way for a radically new approach to tackle the major societal challenges faced with social work. This is done by combining transdisciplinary sustainability transition research, policies and practices in social work. The combination creates a novel scientific domain and establishes new transformative standards of social work doctoral training in Europe. Within this frame, the recruited Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) focus on the challenge of social inclusion of young people in precariousness situations as well as people with a migration background in vulnerable communities. In participatory research with the target groups, social work methods are co-created as steps of the transition towards sustainable and inclusive society. The potential of the following methodic models are investigated: naturebased well-being, environmental justice, circular and solidarity economy, sustainable food policies in vulnerable communities, ecosocial innovations and contributive justice. The practice-research methodology of social work is applied by the ASTRA consortium, which consists of leading European social work academics involved in sustainability transition research and two non-academic research organisations for environmental and economic sustainability. The diversity of the partner organisations working on sustainability transition in practice deepens the transdisciplinary approach. The innovative practice-related solutions and fundamentally new types of research-based knowledge will have a long-term impact not only on social work but on society and science at large. ASTRA offers the ESRs novel career perspectives in transdisciplinary research, cross-sectoral policy-making and new economic models at the local, national and European level.

T@sk aims at reinforcing and modernizing the delivery of Social Services in Albania by empowering the Albanian Higher Education System. The aims of T@sk projects are essential for the development  of the Albanian Social Work system, for its modernization and its alignment to the European standards of the Social Services delivery. T@sk project can count on the long lasting  expertise of the University of Florence, the Complutense University of Madrid, the Instituto Universitário of Lisbon and the Ordine degli Assistenti Sociali of the Tuscany Region in the field of Social Work organization and evaluation. The cooperation among the European Union partners and the Albanian Universities will create the ideal ground to reach increased competences of Albanian Higher Education staff, a growing self-empowerment of Albanian social workers and therefore the improvement of the Social Services. Members of T@sk project agree in a subsidiary and multilevel approach based on: In depth theoretical and methodological updating of the University staff of all the Albanian public Universities offering Bachelor  Master Degrees in Social Work: University of Tiran, University of Elbasan, University of Shkodër. Wide inclusion of the Albanian Social Workers and Albanian local institutions in the identification of the needs of the Albanian Social Services. Theoretical and empirical focus on the specific areas of deprived children and disadvantaged women within the general framework of deviance prevention and mitigation of detention conditions.

1. The overall aim of this project will be to develop new skills, competencies, training products & methodologies to enable social workers and other professionals to innovate and adopt more effective interventions in working with families experiencing multiple and complex difficulties.  It supports EU education policy objectives; the Bruges Communique on enhanced European cooperation in VET for 2011-20 identified the need for "Creativity and Innovation in VET as well as the use of innovative learning methods" and called for multi disciplinary partnerships to promote "new developments and competence needs and to develop professional excellence and innovation".  The Paris declaration of education ministers of 17th March 2015 called for action to reinforce the role of education in promoting citizenship and strengthening social cohesion.  The project will support both horizontal and VET specific priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme by seeking to develop key transversal competencies in the VET curriculum and by enhancing access to these through the use of CVET and ECVET.   2. The need & rationale for the project was initially identified through the work of a major research study undertaken by the Municipality of Linkoping R&D Centre Care and Social Work in Sweden in collaboration with the NTNU, Trondheim, Child Welfare Research and Innovation Centre in Norway (Families & Social Services, R&D rep 68:2012 www.linkoping.se/fou and The new child welfare, NF report 6/2015 www.nordlandsforskning.no) which focussed on more than 900 vulnerable families (150 with complex needs) using child welfare services, in both countries.  The study found that despite a considerable investment of resources, there had been relatively little change in the situation of these families over time.  Professionals from a wide range of services (eg social work/child welfare, mental health, social security, education etc) often intervened simultaneously addressing individual probl...

The particular needs s of social work students in adult or continuing education have not been addressed at European level, although increasing number of students are studying social work besides working in the field. The ALLISW network will undertake significant steps in developing professional education of social work offered as adult studies according to the concept of Life-Long-Learning. This calls for particular pedagogical solutions and also opens new options for direct practice research.The concrete aim of the ALLISW is to develop international learning options for MA-level adult students in work-and-study situation to match their particular situation.

  The action-research project in social work with families and children aims to implement an international master's degree, including European and African universities - MFAMILY Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree. The programme enhances the knowledge and the skills needed for working internationally with interventions for vulnerable children and marginalized families. The Erasmus Mundus project provides 139 scholarships for students, teacher mobility and lectures by Visiting Scholars from various countries.  In addition, it contributes to research with articles on innovative topics. The programme is jointly developed by Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon, University of Gothenburg (UGOT), University of Stavanger (UiS) and Makerere University (MU). The first semester is spent in Lisbon, Portugal, the second semester in Stavanger, Norway and the third semester in Gothenburg, Sweden before the students move to one of the four partner institutions to work on the master’s thesis. The language of instruction is English. The aim of the programme is for students to graduate having a sound practical foundation in: understanding the diverse and varied contexts, life situations and challenges faced by children and families in Europe and selected international settings; applying skills to work appropriately in and with these contexts; using and developing research to inform knowledge and practice for working with vulnerable children and families; and applying the values of international social work.