Client / Funding programme:

ERASMUS+, KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education 2022

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Website: youngcare.eu

Start and end dates:
01-12-2022 – 31/05/2025

AFEdemy role in the project:

AFEdemy’s task in the YoungCare project is to create an  E-learning platform that will support both younger people in need of care and their carers by providing them with valuable low-threshold information. The learning platform will provide specific information on the situation in the different partner countries as well as on the different problems that younger adults in need of care experience in the areas of housing and living / leisure and mobility / participation and networking and care and support. In addition, AFEdemy will develop a workshop curriculum, to ensure that the information provided can be shared with groups in different educational settings, and thus the impact of the project can be increased.

☐ Coordination
☒ Research
☐ Training
☒ Curriculum development
☒ e-Learning Platform
☐ Networking
☒ Policy recommendation
☐ Sustainability

Objectives

• Giving young dependent people and their caregivers a voice and letting them partake in measures that are designed to meet their wants and needs.
• Offering these target groups a learning tool on measures and possibilities to improve their quality of life.
• Raising awareness on much-needed intervention measures among decision-makers at political and associational level.

Target group

• The main target group are informal carers for different reasons: The majority of younger care recipients live with their families. When family members need care suddenly due to an accident or through the course of an illness, this changes the lives of all household members. The YoungCare project outputs provide this target group with two learning tools to improve their knowledge base and strengthen their potential for self-help. Volunteers, too, may be ready to support younger adults in need of care and their families.
• Another target group are adults in need of non-geriatric care. They represent a higher number of people than usually expected. In 2020, 4,5% of the EU population aged 24-64 reported long-standing limitations due to health problems (Eurostat). In absolute numbers these are 11,7 million Europeans. Some diseases hinder patients to engage in a learning offer. Other diseases do not – or only to a minor extent – impede their intellectual capacities. These persons are not to be excluded from offers that strengthen their capabilities and self-help potentials.
• Lastly, also the target groups of political decision-makers and professional caregivers will be addressed in order to tackle the topic on a contextual level.

Workplan “YoungCare”

The work plan of YoungCare is divided into four work packages. The work packages WP1-WP3 will be developed in chronological order and will be accompanied from the beginning by the Sharing and Promotion activities (WP4). In the following you can see the work packages and their purpose:

• The Project Management (WP1)
• The development of the European Compendium on wants and needs of dependent young people (WP2)
• The creation of the E-learning platform (WP3)
• The Sharing and Promotion activities, including policy recommendations and guidelines for professional carers to raise awareness of the issue (WP4)

Project results

Three main outputs will be elaborated in the YoungCare project:

• A European Compendium on wants and needs of dependent young people: The compendium is based on a literature study and narrative interviews with people in need of care or their informal caregivers in all partner countries. Besides facts and figures, it will illustrate gaps in the provision of services and impacts on the lives of those concerned through portraits and testimonials and provide practical knowledge. The compendium is intended as a low threshold learning offer to enable an initial and practical examination of the topic.
• An E-learning platform: The mobility of families with people in need of care is often limited and they have few time resources. Digital learning offers are well suited for these group. The YoungCare learning offer will provide low-threshold access and focus on practical issues. Playful elements will be integrated into the learning units to make them attractive and interesting. Their contents will be co-produced with dependent young people and their informal caregivers.
• Brought Sharing and promotion activities: The dissemination activities will ensure that the project results and content are sustained and reach as many addressees as possible. The dissemination of the compendium and the learning offer will happen through multiple online and on-site activities as well as in multiplier events. In order to address the specific information needs of decision-makers at the political and associational level, policy recommendations will complement the project outputs and will be used in the campaign. They will focus on the solution of structural problems that are beyond the area of influence of individual target group members. Moreover, there will be recommendations for professional carers to raise awareness of the issue.

Media

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