On 14 June, the iSocial Foundation will launch a new activity aimed at professionals of its member organizations: the “Innovation Coffees in social services”. This is a bimonthly activity, aimed at sharing knowledge about innovative initiatives of interest to our sector.

The 1st Coffee will be dedicated to exploring the possibilities that immersive technology can provide to improve intervention in social services, based on real experiences that are already being carried out today.

Immersive technology makes it possible to generate virtual environments that have more and more applications in fields such as health, education, etc., and that can also be useful in social services: aging, mental health, addictions, disability, caregivers, vulnerable young people, etc.

The Catalan company Broomx will be the guest of this 1st Innovation Coffee, as it has developed a pioneering technology that is becoming more successful, here and in other countries, because it does not use 3D glasses but allows you to create immersive spaces in the facilities of any service or entity.

The Coffee will consist of a welcome by Montse Cervera, president of iSocial, a presentation and demo by the representatives of Broomx: Ignasi Capellà, Co-founder & CMO; Robert Cornfield, Business Development, and Nile Baron, Sales Development Rep; and an open debate among participants to identify possible new applications for the social sector.

This first Coffee will take place virtually, and the next Coffees planned for this year 2021 will be dedicated to new methodologies of social intervention with ni-ni young people; remote accompaniment and support systems for people with disabilities or mental illness; and therapeutic gardens for people with long-term care needs.

On April 15, the iSocial Foundation, in the hands of our director Toni Codina, presented the Award for social integration through ICT to Jordi Palouzié, director of information systems and telecommunications of the Pere Tarrés Foundation, for his “Help them grow” campaign.

With this campaign, during the year 2000 the Pere Tarrés Foundation asked for support from companies and individuals in order to be able to accompany, during the period of confinement, the children, young people and families that it usually attends in its socio-educational centers. This allowed it to distribute the following equipment: 295 digital tablets without connectivity; 447 digital tablets with connectivity; 35 laptops; and 451 connectivity cards. In addition, every day, throughout the confinement, about 250 educators from the Pere Tarrés Foundation accompanied the families by making video calls or talking on the phone. The Foundation’s team offered them logistical support when carrying out various procedures (procedures related to the employment situation or to access financial aid from various institutions and administrations) and resolved doubts about the current situation (in relation to issues such as dining grants, health prevention measures or containment restrictions), with the aim of alleviating their emotional burden and to detect and prevent emergencies, such as lack of food or the existence of conflicts relatives. Families were also offered psychological and educational support and resources and leisure activities and educational activities to do with children.

Due to the pandemic, the holding of ICT Day 2020 has had to be postponed to 2021, and it has also had to be done virtually. The closing ceremony was attended by the Vice-President of the Catalan Government, Pere Aragonès, the President of the Catalan Parliament, Laura Borràs, and Minister Jordi Puigneró.

As soon as possible, the next annual Days will be held presential again.

Commissioned by the Federación Andaluza Enlace, for 3 years the iSocial Foundation collaborates in the process of design and implementation of the new School of training of managers of the third sector TEAL-Andalucía. It is a project funded by CEPES, and also involves EDE Fundazioa, Escuela Andaluza de Economía Social, Leit Motiv and Asociación para la promoción de la economía del bien común.

This new school of managers wants to contribute to promote the transformation of non-profit organizations and the Andalusian social economy, through new organizational models that put people at the center and moving towards organic, transversal and evolutionary processes of management, fullness and leadership. Its aim is to promote a third sector that is more efficient, competitive, sustainable and innovative in intervention, vision and purposes, and that becomes a key socio-economic agent in a context of transition to a care economy, generating employment and promoting the local economy.

The School of the third sector TEAL-Andalucía articulates on two pillars: the development of integral programs of education, learning and impact; and the creation of a community of practice. The approach is to encourage the self-organization and appropriation of knowledge through the innovative TEAL methodology, developing programs and a platform that allows the flow of information and knowledge in a free, open and neutral way.

This April we launched ResiCovid-19, a new research project that for two years will evaluate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the residential system of Catalonia and, based on the lessons learned, will propose a redesign of the current model so that it is better prepared to offer quality care and to be able to face crisis scenarios like the one we have experienced at the same time.

The project is led by UVic and has been funded by AGAUR, and its partners include iSocial, the Catalan Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, and the Departments of Social Affairs and Health of the Generalitat.

Despite recurring demands from the scientific community, to date there have been virtually no systematic and in-depth assessments of the impact of the pandemic on the residential environment, either in Catalonia or in other territories. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified the previously existing structural deficits of the residential system and the social and health care of the elderly and chronically ill people living in the residential setting.

But the pandemic also offers us a unique opportunity to rethink the model of care, which should be evidence-based, focused on the person and their uniqueness, and with staff and infrastructure that can meet their needs.

The knowledge that ResiCovid-19 will provide aims to contribute to improving the quality of care for the 60,000 people who currently live in the approximately 1,000 residences in Catalonia, and indirectly also benefit families, professionals in the residences. and to the whole social and health system.

iSocial will be in charge, within the project, of the part of international research, consisting of analyzing the learnings and proposals for the improvement of the residential model that other countries with a residential model in ours are also being considered.