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DIGNITY &
HEALTH
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Contact us:
Luigi LEONORI
D&H-5P projects
SMES-EUROPA
Place Albert Leemans 3
B - 1050 Brussels
Tel: 0032 2 538 58 87
smeseu@smes-europa.org
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The European Council of Lisbon in
March 2000 recognised that the extent of poverty and social
exclusion in Europe was unacceptable.
Despite national
differences, in both the nature and severity of the problem,
exclusion is a structural problem in society and constitutes
a political challenge for Europe: the building of the European
Community must take place within a framework of citizenship rights
and solidarity cohesion.
SMES,Santé Mentale Exclusion
sociale - Mental Health Social Exclusion, began in 1992 in Rome
as a result of the 1st European seminar on the appalling neglect and
abandoned homeless people living in extremely poor health & social
conditions and suffering from mental health problems.
SMES operates at the interface, intersection of mental health and
social exclusion. Social & Health service providers strongly
contribute to ensure social inclusion of people suffering by social
exclusion & mental health disturbs. But this contribution is not
sufficient without support and efforts of all civil society,
beginning by who have
political responsibility of more vulnerable citizens.
That’s why SMES would realise with
five partners of enlarged Europe the D&H5-P, involving themselves in
the process of sustainable inclusion, using of common objectives and
the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion (NAPs/inclusion) with
the discussion about
quality
and
accessibility of social services and to bring together
stakeholders that should be involved in this process such as
excluded themselves, social service providers and local and regional
authorities.
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SUMMARY
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1. Aim: To promote the right and increase access to health
and social services for homeless and socially excluded people in the
5 different accessing countries in EU
2. Target groups: Professionals and non-professionals working
directly with homeless and socially excluded people. This would, for
example, include social workers, psychologist, G.P. doctors, nurses,
and NGO staff.
3. Main activities :
- 1 workshop
in each of the 5 different accessing countries in EU
- 1 European
conference in Prague that gather all 5 countries and
representatives from EU
- Publication and dissemination of discussions and recommendations
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Objectives
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1. To
present and discuss in each of the 5 countries the daily practice
and local dispositions that either interferes with or encourages
access to social and healthcare services for homeless and vulnerable
people.
2. To present and discuss objectives of national action plans that
might be effective in increasing access to health and social
services
3. To increase local workers knowledge of EU objectives included in
NAP, as it can be applied to problems arising in their daily work
4. To increase awareness of EU action and intiatives with national
and regional policy makers.
5. To produce local reports and materials which can both assist
local practice and inform local policy and planning
6. To produce a final project report to enable wider dissemination
of the local findings and to encourage international benchmarking.
7. To
serve as information source for further questions (?)perceived
needs and constraints in the target countries.
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Justification
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Contacts were made with Eastern European organisations during
previous pan-European SMES seminars. They requested assistance for
increased contact between themselves and EU organisations working
with the homeless, particularly those with serious mental illness.
They identified
needs and constraints in the following sectors:
A. Low public awareness of legal entitlements and the rights of the
individual citizen.
B. Poor access to health and social care for homeless and socially
marginalised
people
C. Poor integration of social and health services in public, private
and NGO sectors.
D. Lack of knowledge of European models of social work practice.
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Beneficiaries
Events &
activities
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Direct beneficiaries: most of NGOs invited are organised within
self/mutual help system of social support
Indirect
beneficiaries: socially and economically marginalised groups and
those in extreme poverty
Homeless and
disadvantage people often do not use normal or official avenues to
gain entitlements or assistance for themselves. Thus mainstream
health and social services will often not have any significant or
consistent contact with them.
The
participants involved will belong to organisations that have a track
record of engaging with and fighting to provide services to
homeless and socially disadvantaged people. They will therefore have
regular contact with these groups and will already possess the
necessary background knowledge and experience of working with them.
They will be in a position to immediately use knowledge gained in
the workshops in their daily work with homeless and disadvantaged
people.
Participants
will be people who work with inadequate resources to provide care
and support for a very deprived group of people. The project will
help them to develop knowledge and skills that can be used in their
daily work with individual clients and will not generate any direct
extra costs for their organisations.
Time/Location |
Visits/exchange |
Small Seminar &
workshops |
October 1st
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Brussels
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STARTING
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Preparing programme and |
Preliminary activities &
webpage |
November 03-08
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D&H-1P PRAGUE (CZ)
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Small
Seminar & workshops
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03-06
07-08
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Visits/exchange
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Friday : Definition of D&H-5P
Saturday: Prague’s context |
December 08-13
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D&H-2P BUCHAREST (RO)
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Small
Seminar & workshops
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08-11
12-13
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Visits/exchange
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Friday : Prague’s
results
D&H-P1
Saturday: Bucharest’s context
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January
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Working in
program
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Webpage
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February 02-07
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D&H-3P SOFIA (BG)
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Small
Seminar & workshops
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02-05
06-07
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Visits/exchange |
Friday : Bucharest’s results
D&H-P2
Saturday: Sophia context |
March 22-27
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D&H-4P WARSAW
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Small
Seminar & workshops
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22-25
26-27
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Visits/exchange
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Friday : Sophia’s results
D&H-P3
Saturday: Warsaw’s context |
April
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Working in
program
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Monitoring
of reports & webpage
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Mai
10-15
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D&H-5P
RIGA
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Small
Seminar & workshops
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10-13
15-1 |
Visits/exchange
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Friday : Warsaw’s results
D&H-P4
Saturday: Riga’s context |
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17-19
JUNE
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PRAGUE
8th
EUROPEAN SEMINAR SMES
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Relevance of
the project to
* target groups
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This project will increase local knowledge of EU human rights
legislation, an integral part of membership of the European
Community. It is consistent with the “open coordination method” for
ensuring the development of common European social policies.
It will strengthen the effectiveness of organisations working for
the protection of socially disadvantaged "minorities"
(?). It's already possible speaking about "minorities"
when the extension of exclusion, and of the exclusion's risck it's
drammatic in Europe ?
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*
objectives of
the programme |
The massive technical
progress in all productive sectors and the introduction of the free
market into Eastern European countries has had the effect of
removing large numbers of uneconomic jobs. These jobs, although
economically ineffective, were significant support mechanisms for
many people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, with
limited skills and resources. Without this support, it has become
apparent that there have been increasing numbers of homeless and
socially marginalised people in these societies.
To address their needs will go some way towards reducing the
negative impact of the free market in these countries, by building
on democratic principles.
N.B.:note that democracy is new for Eastern
societies; people need models to create new behaviours and learn to
take an active part in the society, for their own and other persons’
benefit. |
* priorities of
the programme |
By focussing on the
potential impact of EU law, this project will heighten awareness
that legal mechanisms are not merely for societal control but that
they can also be used to establish the rights and entitlements of
individuals.
The focus will
be furthermore on the knowledge and understanding of the Social
Exclusion Programme / National Action Plans among welfare
organisations and other social service providers. Models of
cooperation with administration at national, regional and local
level in combating social exclusion will also be debated.
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