Hoplr, a neighborhood social network to strengthen mutual support and inclusion

Toni Codina on 10 May 2022

Social network aimed at creating social capital among neighbors in a neighborhood. It builds local communities that go hand in hand with current social changes to create fully inclusive and participatory cities.

The initiative aims to put community at the center of neighborhood life, as it considers mutual support to be one of the key elements of neighborhoods. It works free of charge for all types of mobile devices and access is based on each person’s address. To connect neighbors in the same area, neighborhoods are geographically delimited and only profiles from the same neighborhood have access to messages posted within it.

People using the application can meet other people living in the same neighborhood, ask for help to carry out different tasks, or help other neighbors with their needs. In addition, it is a good tool for organizing activities or events such as bike tours or game nights. Hoplr promotes care among the people who participate, whether it is companionship when a person is sick, shopping for elderly people who ask for it, or finding a person to take care of children for a few afternoons during the week.

As for public institutions, they cannot see the conversations between neighbors, but they have the possibility of publishing messages to inform about new developments, with which neighbors can interact and contribute ideas. In other words, it is a social network that promotes direct communication between neighborhood demands and the actions carried out by municipal authorities.

It is a social network free of commercial and advertising intervention, which works respecting the privacy of users, to create a safe environment for communication and citizen participation.

Characteristics of innovation

Lab, Bank of innovations, Cross-cutting intervention, Fully inclusive cities, Integrated care, Link with the community, New service, New technological tool, Proximity care, Self-management and participation, User empowerment

Location

Belgium and the Netherlands

Partners / Funders

Hoplr BVBA, QuaeroQ CVBA, Belfius

Genesis

Nowadays in big cities, different phenomena such as globalization, increasing individualism and the speed of everyday life have led to a lack of awareness of one’s own neighborhood and the people who live in it. That is why Hoplr believes in the power of community and collective support to foster an inclusive and networked life in the places where we live.

Level of implementation

Hoplr is a Belgian initiative and was founded in 2014 by Jennick Scheerl and Jonas Heirwegh. More than 500.000 people have contacted each other through the app, and there are currently around 2,500 regularly active neighbors.

The network operates in Belgium and the Netherlands, and the creators aim to expand its use to other countries; they want to become the largest neighborhood network in Europe.

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Prevention of children institutionalization

Toni Codina on 4 May 2022

Design for UNICEF-Spain of a public system of community detection and early intervention in children at risk

(2022)

We are collaborating with KSNET (Knowledge Sharing Network) and the suport of the iSocial member NGO Fundació Resilis-Plataforma Educativa, to develop this model for UNICEF-Spain with the participation of 10 municipalities of C.Madrid, C.Valenciana and C.Castilla-La Mancha. The project “Prevención comunitaria y participación con niños, niñas y adolescentes en el sistema de protección” seeks to modernize social services in the field of children at risk, from a perspective based on a framework of rights, an intervention and support focused on each person, and the promotion of a community and preventive approach. With KSNET, the iSocial Foundation develops various phases of research, resource map and identification of good practices that allow the development of a preventive model of community detection and early intervention in children at risk. ISocial’s work focuses on identifying, selecting, and analyzing good local and international practices that can inspire and guide this new model.

Numerous studies have shown that the institutionalization of children and adolescents can have serious consequences for their development, social inclusion and mental health. Therefore, together with the actions to improve the system of protection for children at risk, experts agree that mechanisms must be articulated to prevent and detect risk situations effectively and early. These mechanisms must be accompanied by preventive measures to ensure an inclusive environment and emotional security that enables the satisfactory development of children and adolescents. To this end, local governments, as institutions closest to children and adolescents, are in a better position to successfully implement such measures.

Goals

Design an intervention model for risk situations at the local level, differentiating between the detection model and the intervention model for a moderate risk situation.
Improve the system of detection and local intervention in situations of risk.
Generate knowledge and disseminate it to facilitate the replicability of the model designed in other municipalities in Spain.

Expected results

1. Diagnosis of the situation of the key factors influencing the likelihood of a child or young person being at risk, as well as identification of obstacles, bottlenecks, success factors and opportunities for local governments to deal with these possible risk situations in a preventive, early and comprehensive manner.

2. Map of resources, measures and actions to detect situations of risk and interventions in front of it in a preventive way.

3. Bank of good practices in risk detection and intervention.

4. Proposal for a model of community and comprehensive intervention for the detection and prevention of these risk situations in childhood for local authorities, as well as their theory of change.

Partners

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Vila Veïna, a new public community care system

Toni Codina on 3 May 2022

A new public care system in the city of Barcelona that aims to achieve a model of social and health care that is smaller and closer to the users.

To achieve this, it structures the service in a set of “Super Islands” of care, which encompass a group of houses and neighborhoods of between 10,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, with a reference point located in an open community space (for example, a library) to manage the needs of service users in an integrated manner. Thanks to this new innovative service model, professionals enjoy greater autonomy in the organization and management of their work, since they know the users more closely and are able to deal more directly and satisfactorily with all of them.

Each Vila Veïna has the essential services and benefits related to care in a centralized manner, in order to be able to deal with them closely. It also has emotional support groups and a resource bank for the care of children and the elderly, which provides material such as crutches, cradles, wheelchairs and other items necessary for the care of children and the elderly. It also offers legal and employment advice for caregivers and families in need, as well as talks and outdoor activities. The aim is to provide caregivers with access to information about existing services, as well as to create communities of care and proximity.

Each Vila Veïna has a professional who dedicates his or her working day to promoting networking, programming activities and attending to citizens in relation to care. The new profile of this professional is essential in innovation and requires a set of skills for community activation, as well as knowledge of municipal administrative systems and other administrations.

The project is aimed at the entire population living in the territory, because it is based on the idea that ‘we all take care of each other’, and the goal is to achieve a more caring community with all the people who are part of it.

In short, it is an innovative model that humanizes services and contemplates the participation of people, both caregivers and those receiving care, who are part of a community network and co-responsible for the collective welfare.

By 2022 there will be 12 Vila Veïna spaces in the city of Barcelona, and the goal is to have 115 throughout the city in the future.