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.  

The aim of this study is to create a system of indicators for the minimum income scheme in Portugal (Rendimento Social de Inserção), serving as a basis for the creation of a model for evaluating the service provision of this policy by local authorities. The research question that will guide our work is to what extent does the decentralisation of competences to the local level contribute to alleviating the causes of poverty and improving the quality of the services provided? The decentralisation of competences has been seen as a mechanism for combating poverty. Several international organisations, such as the World Bank, the OECD and the European Union, refer to the potential of decentralisation to enable local authorities to develop sustainable development processes. Several authors such as Von Braun and Groot (2000) and Crawford and Hartmann (2008) argue in favour of decentralisation, pointing out that local governments are better informed about the needs of their populations than the central state. Proximity makes it easier to monitor the citizen-beneficiary and can also allow for easier and more effective evaluation of social workers. However, some questions arise, namely the fact that these positive impacts of decentralisation depend on two factors, namely the resources that are made available to local authorities (Jütting e Corsi, 2005 and Harris and Posner, 2022) and also how local authorities themselves implement programmes (Harris and Posner, 2022). In the Netherlands, for example, during the process of decentralisation of competences (2003 and 2015), the problem that emerged was related to the way social workers acted in the execution and monitoring of social assistance recipients, who adopted a welfare philosophy. And it was through the initiative of the municipalities that they were open to changing the paradigm of the social intervention model (Oliveira, 2024). In Portugal, there were those who opposed decentralisation on the grounds that local authoriti...

  Social work in health is historically associated with a role in health care access, community support and humanization of services. Health care organizations, policy makers and clinicians have developed quality indicators in health care organizations as a premise to higher quality standards in health care. The intervention of social workers extends beyond medical, nursing, education, rehabilitation, and social care services", but also requires attention to be given to the quality of care practices, which includes the delivery of care services at a granular level alongside their organization (mezzo) and their development (macro). In addition, contemporary health care requires new technological advances, to ensure that are delivered in a way that recognizes the need of individuals, but also address inter- and transdisciplinary dimensions. Recent years have seen increasing integration of health and social work systems requiring skilled practitioners able to navigate this technological world. This proposal aims to respond to these challenges, developing a future Erasmus Mundus Master Programme on Social Work in Health. The consortium is composed by Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal, Coord), University of Valencia (Spain),  Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland/University of Medicine and Health Sciences (Ireland), and Robert Gordon University, Scotland (United Kingdom). The aim is to develop an educational master programme, focusing the development of theoretical, methodological, and instrumental skills in students to work in health and care at micro, mezzo and macro level in the context of public health, policy, leadership, management and evaluation. We seek develop a 2nd cycle programme that meets the demands of today's society, highly marked by digital transition, sustainability and new epidemics that affect the health and well-being of every citizen.   The future Master program will be an innovative bet, combining specialized training to promote le...

Athena Project aims to develop the digital skills of university professors, reinforcing their response to the challenges that universities face today and in the future. The project seeks to foster cooperative learning environments, making them transformative and inclusive through the adoption of new technologies, such as e-learning, gaming platforms, virtual and augmented reality, systematically modeled to activate key competences in digital learning. The project will create models that teachers can adopt and adapt to their classes, using different pedagogical approaches.

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.