Auzosare, technology and community action against the social isolation of elderly people living alone

Publications Bank of innovations

Auzosare, technology and community action against the social isolation of elderly people living alone

Agintzari

Image from Freepik.

Intelligent technological platform that allows for the detection and knowledge of situations of solitude and social isolation among the ageing sections of the population, and for effective responses from the community and social services.

Auzosare has developed a Big Data Risk Assessment system, which allows the organization, storage, manipulation, analysis and modelling of large amounts of data from the real world and linked to a spatial reference. It identifies people older than 65 who live alone and catalogues them at different levels of vulnerability or risk based on physical and health indicators, relational, economic, housing, basic resource distance and aid, etc. It feeds on information from the sponsor, the cadastral and municipal social services; as well as information identified by agents of the person’s community network (Beharis), previously trained in social gaze.

The smart tool is targeted at three different profiles of people: fragile elderly people who are in a solitude situation that negatively impacts on maintaining their autonomy; community volunteers who, through simple training, participate in identifying situations of vulnerability; and municipal professionals who incorporate new technology tools and exploit the community’s potential for social intervention.

The platform is based on knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the community networks and key agents of each municipality or territory, and is being implemented experimentally in both urban and rural municipalities of Euskadi. It includes a technological tool that allows the situations of social isolation to be detected; a community activation program and key actors from each territory; and an app that allows connecting to municipal social services.

Agintzari

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

IntermediaJOB, intelligent job portal with a non-discriminatory algorithm

Publications Bank of innovations

IntermediaJOB, intelligent job portal with a non-discriminatory algorithm

Intermedia

Image from the Intermedia website.

Digital platform for the selection of professional profiles, especially aimed at people with vulnerabilities, which differs from other portals in the fact that it is able to make an intelligent matching of skills between job offers and candidates, and does not discriminate based on learned patterns.

This is a paradigm shift since, instead of working like other recruitment platforms that only take into account the candidate’s training and work experience as reflected in a CV, IntermediaJOB also values the rest of the learning that the candidate has acquired throughout his life, both in the training and professional and personal fields. This makes the match between the applicant and the company much more reliable than with other portals.

This tool is only possible thanks to innovation, which is why it is awaiting the incorporation of machine learning, a technology that would improve the reliability of the skills match, as well as big data to take advantage of successful experiences, or the use of bots to make technology more accessible to people.

What has already been implemented are the algorithms used by IntermediaJOB. The platform excludes all those better-positioned candidates who have more knowledge than necessary in a workplace, as well as those that value people of one gender more than another, for the simple fact that they follow learned patterns.

Beyond being just a platform where job offers can be posted, it also allows students to find their university internships.

IntermediaJob

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

Alella Poble Cuidador, a community support network in loneliness, illness and the end of life

Publications Bank of innovations

Alella Poble Cuidador, a community support network in loneliness, illness and the end of life

Ajuntament d’Alella, Fundació Sant Francesc d’Assís and Fundació La Caixa

Picture taken from Alella Poble Cuidador’s web.

Community network that promotes the articulation of collective action to care for people in the municipality who suffer from loneliness, a chronic illness or are at the end of life, and their families, so that they feel cared for and accompanied , whether they live in their private home or live in any of the health and social entities in the village. The goal is to create a safe, friendly, and caring community environment for these people.

Alella Poble Cuidador acts in three areas of intervention: care and support, training, and education and awareness. In each area of ​​intervention it has structured a set of resources (families, social and health centers, schools, companies, etc.) to promote the development and use of personal and community skills and resources for the care and the accompaniment, and to assert, throughout the life cycle, the values, beliefs and practices for good living and good dying.

At the same time, it carries out activities such as care and support; group meetings of bereaved people and caregivers; training of professionals and caregivers; support for the preparation of the advance directives document; exchange of orthopedic and sanitary equipment; support for the organization of farewell ceremonies; intergenerational musical encounters; and theatrical lectures.

Emotional and professional support available to everyone.

Citizens of the municipality can participate in the network by registering, at no cost, to benefit from the services offered; becoming network partners and participating in working groups; becoming network volunteers; collaborating financially; or following current affairs and network news.

A consultancy has externally evaluated the results of the program, which can be consulted on the web. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. The network has, in addition to volunteers, a team of specialized professionals.

Alella, poble cuidador

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

Kletskassa, supermarket cashiers against loneliness

Publications Bank of innovations

Kletskassa, supermarket cashiers against loneliness

Kletskassa has been driven by the Dutch government and more than twenty corporations in the country.

Image from Jumbo’s website.

Network of chat boxes (“kletskassa” in Dutch), in operation at the payment boxes of various supermarket chains, which at the time of payment of the purchase offer a moment of conversation with the cashier to people who are in no hurry and that they may feel alone.

The initiative is part of the action plan of the National Coalition against Solitude, created by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands, along with about twenty major organizations in the country. This institution fights against the social isolation that a part of the population suffers through campaigns that encourage interpersonal connections, such as having a coffee with a neighbor, or talking to the cashier of the supermarket. Hugo de Jonge, Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, says: “Everyone can do something to break the loneliness of others”.

Some large supermarket chains, such as Jumbo, have opened “kletskassa” in all their establishments.

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

Projecte Alimenta, community kitchens and food workshops to get away from welfarism

Publications Bank of innovations

Projecte Alimenta, community kitchens and food workshops to get away from welfarism

Ajuntament de Barcelona, Fundació Privada Jovent

Image from the Ajuntament de Barcelona website.

A programme to escape from the welfare-based approach to food aid. It offers community kitchens and workshops where people who receive food can also learn how to optimize their food, prepare healthy dishes and extend food preservation. This promotes the right to decent, sustainable and healthy food among people in a situation of food vulnerability.

Each Espai Alimenta is located in a different area of the city and managed by a social organization. The aim is not only to offer a space to meet needs, but the programme also seeks to enable people in need of food aid to create a community bond and exchange knowledge.

Ajuntament de Barcelona

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

e-NABLE, network of 10,000 volunteers making prosthesis with 3D printers

Publications Bank of innovations

e-NABLE, network of 10,000 volunteers making prosthesis with 3D printers

e-NABLE

Image from Enable the future Instagram profile

Online community of 10,000 people worldwide who voluntarily use their 3D printers to create hand and arm prostheses for adults and children who need it.

Individuals and organizations who wish to collaborate with the cause access the web to find users from more than 100 countries who need a prosthetic and have posted photographs showing and explaining the required prosthetic. The voluntary, then, contacts this person, downloads all the necessary information from the website, and adapts the available designs, which are in open source and free of rights, to the specific need of the person who will benefit. Once the prosthesis is printed, the voluntary person disinterestedly forwards it to the final beneficiary, who often lives in another country or continent.

In this way, through domestic manufacturing technology, people with low resources who cannot access a prosthetic because of their high price and/or the need to adapt them to children’s growth can have a free and customised prosthetic.
As an online portal, each can connect with people demanding from all over the world, although also can easily find plaintiffs living nearby and deliver the prosthetic to them personally.

e-NABLE

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

Easy Reading, making webpages accessible to people with cognitive disabilities

Publications Bank of innovations

Easy Reading, making webpages accessible to people with cognitive disabilities

Athena, Dart, FunkaNu, JKU, KI-I, PIKSL, Texthelp, TUD, W3C

Test of the Easy Reading software. Retrieved from the Easy Reading website

Software for Internet users with cognitive disabilities that offers a wide tool package to make it easy to read and understand any existing web page. It can be installed on the computer of those people who need it, and Easy Reading is responsible for adapting the content of web pages in the way most useful way for the user: making the structure simpler; changing the colours and design; explaining the content with symbols, videos or images; defining the words that the text includes; passing the text to a voice; etc. The software offers all these functions semi-automatically, as they require a certain interaction with the user.

To develop the project, “peer research” has been used to take into account the real needs of users, involving those who will use the end product, in this case people with cognitive disabilities. These are the main target group of Easy Reading, but not the only one, as it can also benefit old people with cognitive disabilities or other people with cognitive difficulties.

Easy Reading

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

Helpper, people with support needs connect with people willing to help them

Publications Bank of innovations

Helpper, people with support needs connect with people willing to help them

Helpper

Young helpper helping an elderly woman to do groceries. Retrieved from Helpper’s website.

Service that connects people who need some support for their daily life tasks (helppies), with people close to them, in the same neighbourhood or village, who are willing to help them (helppers).

Helppper is a model that seeks the comfort of both sides, because it allows helppers to specify what their availability is (schedule, types of service they can offer, if they offer it free or with remuneration, etc.); and the helppies to select the support to be received (what person, for which support needs, schedule, modality, price, etc.). Helpper offers three subscription modalities: Basic, Standard and Premium, to make it easier for each person to personify the level of assistance they want to receive.

People with disabilities, with chronic diseases, elderly people, parents and mothers who are very busy, and even carers who need help in caring for dependents, can access the service.

The types of assistance or possible tasks to offer/receive include: small home repairs; food aid; support with administrative processes; travel and transport support; company to mitigate unwanted loneliness; babysitting; etc.

The service is available in French and Dutch.

Helpper

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

Cycling Without Age, voluntary rickshaws service for older people

Publications Bank of innovations

Cycling Without Age, voluntary rickshaws service for older people

Cycling Without Age

Ole Kassow, founder of Cycling Without Age, driving two users. Retrieved from the Cycling Without Age website

Voluntary service to promote active ageing and good treatment of older people, from the creation of new intergenerational relationships to combat unintended isolation and loneliness.

Cycling Without Age allows the elderly to feel emotion again and the freedom of a bicycle ride in which they can feel “the wind in their hair”. The service is made possible by voluntary people of all ages, who offer themselves to ride elderly people in two-seat rickshaws to recover a type of mobility that many of these people can no longer experience because of their old age.

It is a service that provides an improvement in the quality of life of both voluntaries and users. For the former it can be a way to exercise, connect with the community and other people and create unexpected relationships; and for the elderly it means to feel freer and avoid unwanted loneliness and isolation: during the rides they can tell personal stories while visiting the city or territory where they have lived all or part of their lives and rememorize episodes they can share with the volunteer and other participants.

There is no fixed timetable for rides or volunteers, but everyone decides how much time they can and want to contribute, making Cycling Without Age an activity that is done for the pleasure of doing it, not out of obligation.

It is an activity that began in Denmark, where bicycles are widely used, but has spread rapidly to 51 countries around the world, among which Catalonia, where it’s called “En bici sense edat”, making this experience available for more people. The Catalan initiative “En bici sense edad” is already present today in four Catalan cities and in April 2021 it received the prize of Social Innovation Maria Figueras i Mercè Bañeras from Plataforma Educativa.

Cycling Without Age

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.

3D Community, social housing built with 3D printers

Publications Bank of innovations

3D Community, social housing built with 3D printers

New Story, ICON, Échale

Two kids in front of one of the houses built in Mexico. Retrieved from New Story’s website.

3D-built housing, which enables high-quality housing parks to be generated and in a much faster and more affordable way than with traditional construction options.

The first housing park with this technology has been built in Tabasco, Mexico, and consists of 50 houses. The houses are made with the collaboration of ICON, a construction technology company. Thanks to its 3D Vulcan printer, which uses a cement mix called Lavacrete, it can build secure and durable constructions with very little time, as 3D printers can work uninterruptedly for 24 hours, until completion of construction. End touches, such as roofs or windows, are added in the traditional way, employing local builders.

Families living in these early Mexican dwellings previously participated in the process of designing their home, bringing their vision of their own needs and what they thought important to have at home. These families were selected through interviews and surveys in the area, to identify those with the greatest need. The houses have a social mortgage of about 400 pesos per month, a mortgage that does not return to New Story, the sponsoring organization, but rather to a Community fund from which families will be able to dispose in the future to invest in this community. In this way, it not only innovates in the way it is built, but also creates a community of owners that empowers the people who are part of it.

New Story

Banc d’innovacions

Imatges Posts Web 6 min 1

Barnahus, care service for child victims of sexual abuse

Barnahus is an integrated unit formed by a specialized multidisciplinary team, whose objective is to prevent the re-victimization of children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4you, accessibility certification for people with disabilities

Access4You is an Innovative initiative based on the certification of accessibility of the built environment for people with special needs
Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to care, support for people who care for others

Help to Care is an innovative mobile application created to support people who care for others in Kent and Medway, England.
Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º, immersive reality speech therapy for individuals with hearing impairment

Audivers 360º is a pioneering speech therapy project with immersive reality, aimed at children and adults with hearing loss.