Apptu@, an app that helps break isolation and alleviate stigma in mental health

Publications Bank of innovations

Apptu@, an app that helps break isolation and alleviate stigma in mental health

Grup ATRA

Image from the Grup ATRA website.

Innovative, interactive and close mobile app that allows for more continuous, close and close contact between users, professionals and volunteers of three mental health programs: Actua, Actua Jove and Actua Dona. This app also aims to raise public awareness about the collective suffering from mental health problems, while providing information that may be of interest to all citizens.

The three programmes included in Apptu@ are community-based, integrative and care-focused that provide support for life in a self-employed capacity for people with issues resulting from mental disorder, as well as women who have also suffered or suffer from male violence in parallel. With Apptu@, social contact between beneficiary and voluntary persons is enhanced.

The application is divided into two parts: one public and one private. Within the public, which is destined for any individual in society – such as people from the mental health collective, health professionals and the social sector, people interested in volunteering, relatives, students, young people, collaborating administrations, etc. – you can know the Actua programmes, as well as the different services and resources that form the Grup ATRA. It also attempts to promote inclusive volunteering and networking. But basically, the app aims to give visibility to the people of the mental health collective, as this helps to break stereotypes and alleviate stigma.

As far as the private part is concerned, Apptu@ allows one to work agreements and goals individually with the users of the program, following them more directly and continuously over time and making them participants of the common project that is Actua.

Apptu@

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

Mentoria Social, mentoring for vulnerable young people to promote social inclusion

Publications Bank of innovations

Mentoria Social, mentoring for vulnerable young people to promote social inclusion

Coordinadora Mentoria Social

Picture from “Projecte Rossinyol”, a study that analyzes the impact of mentoring on migrant teenagers. / APPlying Mentoring

Platform of organizations that develop mentoring projects for young people and other vulnerable groups.

Coordinadora Mentoria Social, comprised of 11 partner entities and 8 member entities, brings into contact mentors with people at risk of social exclusion, mainly young people. With the aim of ensuring social cohesion and equal opportunities, the mentor is a voluntary person who is assigned a person to offer him or her their knowledge and experience.

In this way, both people share a few hours a week that enable mentoring to overcome labor, social, academic, etc. due to mentoring support and guidance.

Coordinadora Mentoria Social, through the formations it offers, also works to promote a quality mentoring model in the field of social action.

Coordinadora Mentoria Social

Be Girl, project against menstrual poverty, and the stigma and taboos it entails

Publications Bank of innovations

Be Girl, project against menstrual poverty, and the stigma and taboos it entails

Be Girl and Plan Internacional

Colombian girls with their Smart Cycle. Retrieved from the website of Be Girl.

Project to combat menstrual poverty, as well as the stigma and the taboos it entails. It consists of an offer of reusable and affordable menstrual products, training workshops and a pendant that helps to monitor the menstrual cycle itself.

Be Girl products consist of reusable menstrual products, such as panties or cloth pads, made of waterproof and absorbing materials that prevent loss and allow for affordable and safe menstruation, both for the environment and for users. They have a useful life of two years, avoiding waste from traditional pads and tampons, as well as being safer, hygienic and more economic in the long term. Its design is comfortable, beautiful, and efficient to respond to the needs of people who menstruate.

The project also offers menstrual cycle knowledge workshops, which include the use of Smart Cycle, a tool that allows one to know the menstrual cycle and its different parts (menstruation, ovulation, maximum fertility day, etc.). It is a pendant that helps track the menstrual cycle and better understand one’s body. These workshops are intended for both girls and boys, to show menstruation as a natural and free of stigmas. They are performed in schools and leisure sites, to make them safer and freer from menstrual taboos.

Be Girl products can also be purchased online, and with the benefits of the sales, the impulsive organizations fund the free distribution of products to girls with few resources.

Be Girl

Positive Sparks, platform to give voice to isolated or excluded young people

Publications Bank of innovations

Positive Sparks, platform to give voice to isolated or excluded young people

The Bytes Project

Youngsters participating in a face-to-face workshop from the project. Retrieved from Bytes’ website.

Youth participation platform which helps to give a voice to young people who are more isolated or excluded, to express their concerns, needs and opinion on the services offered by the community. The platform uses “Machine Learning” to analyse and interpret young people’s responses in a fast and automatic way.

In addition to empowering the most excluded young people and facilitating their participation, Positive Sparks allows social services and organisations working with young people with difficulties (mental health, drug abuse, school drop-out, etc.) to detect deficiencies in services, improve their interventions and identify new needs requiring new responses or services. The platform also offers the Public Administrations to use Positive Sparks for the development of youth-related public policies.

Within this initiative, more specific projects have emerged, such as Rural Sparks, which helps to give a voice to young people with difficulties in rural areas. On the other hand, Positive Sparks is not only a virtual platform, but also organizes workshops and presence activities to better meet young participants and to interact with them at first hand. Workshops are imparted by the Bytes organization in collaboration with other organizations, teaching centres, etc. It is currently a tool only available in English.

The Bytes Project

Kuvu, intergenerational rent to fight the loneliness and precariousness of elderly people and youngsters

Publications Bank of innovations

Kuvu, intergenerational rent to fight the loneliness and precariousness of elderly people and youngsters

Kuvu

Intergenerational cohabitation thanks to Kuvu

Platform that brings into contact people older than 55 who have a free room, with young people seeking rent at affordable prices. In this way, these elderly people earn an income and stop living alone; while young people who want to become independent and do not have the means to do so, or prefer to do so in a calm and familiar environment, can achieve it for an affordable price.

Unlike other European models, where accommodation is free for the young in exchange for care activities, the Kuvu model involves an economic transaction and places those involved in a relationship of equal conditions and responsibilities, since these are two self-employed people who simply seek company and share day-to-day. Kuvu seeks to generate cohabitation and accompanying relationships, as would two roommates. Both people may have an independent life, but share some moments of the day with the other person. There is no set number of hours for participants to spend together, because the relationship is hoped to occur naturally.

In order to ensure that coexistence will be viable, at the time of registering on the platform, a form must be filled with information about living habits, so that Kuvu can pair the people who are most compatible for living together. In addition, Kuvu makes a personal follow-up to the experiences it generates to try to make them as successful as possible.

Kuvu

Raaji, chatbot to inform and empower girls and women

Publications Bank of innovations

Raaji, chatbot to inform and empower girls and women

Aurat Raaj

Girls using the chat-bot Raaji. Retrieved from Aurat Raaj’s website.

Chat-bot that informs girls and women about gender issues and helps them empower and defend their rights. It uses a virtual character, Raaji, which is able to answer questions and have a conversation through artificial intelligence algorithms. It provides information on issues considered taboo which are of great importance to female empowerment, such as issues of reproductive health, security or economic autonomy. In addition, a team of professionals detects if there are cases that require professional intervention and are derived from them to the most appropriate services.

The Pakistani organization that has developed it, Aurat Raaj, also collaborates with schools and social organizations to make workshops and activities to empower women and girls, and to try to break some stigma surrounding topics such as menstrual hygiene. To further expand this task, they have created an animated series where the main character, Raaji, passes through different situations considered taboo but which are part of the day-to-day life of many girls. In this way, girls see themselves in a character that they identify with, who normalizes and overcomes these situations, encouraging them to take the initiative through activities such as training courses, personal defence, etc.

Chat-bot is a versatile tool available in English and Urdu, and has also been adapted to Covid-19 to provide reliable information about the disease for girls and boys, in an easy way. Raaji is a sample of how technology can help expand and take the work of social organisations further, creating a tool that is easy to access and which allows the easy and private reporting of issues of great importance and on which there are taboos or misinformation.

Aurat Raaj

Simplon, bringing out the technological talent of vulnerable people

Publications Bank of innovations

Simplon, bringing out the technological talent of vulnerable people

Simplon.co

Foto: Simplon.co

Simplon is a French, social, solidarity-based, innovative organization company that works to transform the digital sector into a more inclusive sector by discovering people with hidden talent among vulnerable social groups,  and forming them professionally  so that they can find a qualified occupation in the sector.

Since its creation in 2013, Simplon has trained in digital technologies, free of charge, more than 5,600 people with this profile, mainly refugees, adolescents at risk of exclusion and long-term unemployed people. These people with technological talent which remained hidden or which they had never had the opportunity to develop, have learned to develop their skills and abilities in this field to be able to work in the sector: programming mobile applications and web pages, management of digital projects, entrepreneurship of innovative projects, or technology training.

Simplon.co

Noves Oportunitats, educational center for training and job placement for youth

Publications Bank of innovations

Noves Oportunitats, educational center for training and job placement for youth

Fundació El Llindar

Model of accompaniment and guidance that combines quality and qualified training and work to combat educational dropout

The Educational Center Noves Oportunitats advocates for extended, comprehensive, and personalized training pathways. Thus, it guides and accompanies young people towards adulthood by promoting their return to the educational system and access to professional qualification. The program offers tailored itineraries for each individual. Youth can choose from various training offerings, ranging from a flexible adapted ESO (Obligatory Secondary Education) to a certified Level 2 Vocational Training.

The program consists of three phases. The first corresponds to Initial Qualified and Specialized Vocational Training (Levels 1 and 2). Secondly, young people have access to training grants for internships in different workplaces. Finally, the Noves Oportunitats Educational Center offers the Youth Services area. This last phase is designed to extend professional training while guaranteeing real work experience through companies with social economy models.

Beyond promoting education and work experience, the center guides and accompanies young people through personal meeting spaces where, jointly, their professional future is constructed. Students acquire transversal competencies such as learning ability, teamwork, and responsibility.

IPS Methodology for the employment insertion of young people with mental disorders

Publications Bank of innovations

IPS Methodology for the employment insertion of young people with mental disorders

Fundació Joia

Metodologia IPS

Pioneering methodology for employment insertion specialized in intervention with the mental health collective

The IPS methodology considers both training and job placement as part of the person’s recovery process from the very beginning. The traditional approach introduced this aspect at the end of clinical intervention with the youth. The new system prevents chronicity, facilitates recovery, and increases work motivation.

Weekly face-to-face contact between clinical professionals and job placement professionals allows for the creation of a climate of trust. In this way, workers from different fields work towards the same goal for the youth.

Fundació Joia IPS Methodology