Bringing in the voices and knowledge of people who have gone through recovery processes or experienced exclusion and emotional distress helps build social and healthcare services that are more empathetic, realistic, and effective. Increasingly, it is recognised that those who have lived through such experiences possess practical and relational knowledge which, when acknowledged, complemented with training, and professionalised, becomes a powerful tool for mutual support and collective empowerment.

This approach gives rise to a key new role: the expert by experience — someone who combines personal lived experience with formal training and the ability to offer support through emotional proximity. This model, internationally known as peer-to-peer support, is gaining traction in areas such as mental health, addiction, homelessness, gender-based violence, and child protection. The inclusion of peer experts strengthens the human dimension of care, creating spaces of trust, motivation, and tangible improvements in autonomy and wellbeing.

This role is gradually being integrated into public and community systems through specialised training, competency accreditation, employment, and professional supervision. Countries like the UK and Finland have already embedded peer worker roles into their services, and emerging initiatives in Catalonia are moving in the same direction.

In this Innobreak, we’ll explore two initiatives that are piloting and consolidating peer support models in the field of mental health:

• Entre Iguals – Fundació Drissa (Catalonia): A pioneering pilot project implemented in the province of Girona, offering personalised support for people with mental health challenges. Led by “peer support agents” — a new professional role filled by trained individuals who turn their life experience into a practical support tool. This support, delivered through workshops, is integrated into the social and healthcare care plan, bringing closeness, empathy, and measurable improvements in autonomy and stability.

• Mental Health Support Services for the Elderly (Finland): A service offering peer-led support groups and one-on-one accompaniment for older adults facing mental health or substance use issues. These are facilitated by professionals and experts by experience — individuals who have faced similar challenges and, thanks to specific training and paid roles, provide professionalised support based on trust and emotional proximity.

SPEAKERS:

Xevi Benzal Ventura, Communications Team at Fundació Drissa and person with lived experience (Fundació Drissa)

Jordi Cid, Programme Coordinator at the Mental Health and Addictions Network of the Institute of Health Assistance of Girona (XSMiA, IAS)

Hanne Vartiainen, Project Technician at the Mental Health Services for the Elderly, City of Helsinki

Access to decent housing is one of the major social challenges of our time. Yet, existing housing options often fail to meet the complex needs of many groups: migrants, people at risk of residential exclusion, those experiencing unwanted loneliness, or living in precarious shared arrangements. Increasingly, there is a shared understanding that stable and direct access to housing is the first step toward social inclusion, enabling individuals to build their life projects.

This perspective invites us to explore more inclusive and community-based ways of living—such as intergenerational and multicultural housing models—that strengthen social bonds, reduce isolation, and foster cohesion. Housing becomes more than just a physical space; it becomes a tool for connection, mutual support, and shared enrichment.

At the same time, technology opens new possibilities to transform housing access and community management: from AI-powered diagnostics and early detection of needs, to digital platforms that connect people, resources, and communities in more agile and transparent ways.

In this Innobreak, we’ll discover two pioneering initiatives leading this transformation:

• SällBo (Sweden): a groundbreaking initiative that turns housing into intergenerational and multicultural living spaces, where people of different ages and backgrounds share daily life. Through community activities and shared dynamics, it strengthens social ties, reduces loneliness, and builds mutual support.

• Kloosiv (Catalonia): a web platform that combines technology and social intervention to support vulnerable groups in accessing dignified housing. Using AI and advanced tools, it offers a comprehensive pathway including diagnostics, work plans, follow-up, conflict management, and impact evaluation.

SPEAKERS:

Dragana Curovic, Social Housing Project Coordinator (Helsingborghem, Sweden)

Laura Ayala, Chief Operations Officer (Kloosiv Housing, Catalonia)

Social services and supports for people with disabilities —and other groups in situations of dependency— have traditionally been organized from an institutional logic, offering standardized responses that often fail to consider people’s real preferences and needs. This approach has limited access to an autonomous, fulfilling life connected to the community.

In contrast to this model, two key ideas are emerging with great transformative potential: self-directed supports and personal budgets.

Self-directed supports place the person at the center, recognizing their right to decide how they want to be supported, by whom, and in what they want to invest their supports. It is a model that champions freedom, autonomy, and decision-making capacity, and understands that supports must adapt to the person’s life — not the other way around.

The main tool to achieve this goal is personal budgets, which consist of allocating a financial resource that the person can use flexibly to configure the supports best suited to their life project. This model goes beyond the rigidity of pre-assigned supports, such as fixed placements in centers, and opens the door to more meaningful, community-based, and personalized options.

This shift in perspective not only improves people’s quality of life, but also promotes a structural transformation of the social services system: toward a logic of trust, personalization, and co-production. It is a true paradigm shift that involves professionals, administrations, and communities, and places people’s dignity and will at the heart of social action.

In this Innobreak, we will reflect on the potential of self-directed supports and personal budgets through two pioneering initiatives that are already paving the way in their territories.

• Individualised Funding (New Zeland): A support system that, through a personal budget, allows people with disabilities to decide how, when, and with whom they receive their supports. With the guidance of agents —mostly volunteers— users can design their own life plan and gain autonomy, independence, and freedom of choice.

• Pilotaje de Apoyos Autodirigidos (Spain): a pilot project that explores, with a small group of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, how a support system based on personal budgets could work. The goal is to assess its viability as an alternative to current services and to investigate what would be needed to make the model sustainable.

SPEAKERS

Simon Anderson, Marketing and Relationship Team Lead in Manawanui (New Zelanda)

Amalia San Román, technical coordinator at Plena Inclusión España, and Núria Ambrós, social consultant (Spain)