Care Assistants Search Agency (C.A.S.A.)

Italy

01-12-2008

01-12-2010

The main aim of the initiative was to improve the quality of care and help migrant care workers, in particular women, to find better jobs and facilitate their social and economic integration in European countries. The training courses were designed to provide migrant care workers with care knowledge to facilitate their access to work. This aim was fulfilled according to an evaluation carried out to test the sustainability of the project.

To address the increasing need for long term care and care quality for older and disabled people. To facilitate and support the integration of migrant care workers in the EU. An operational driver was to build a user-friendly, dedicated Internet platform to effectively manage information flow, databases and multilingual content for innovative self-training (e-learning) for migrant care workers.

 Care Recipients
 Informal carers
 Paid assistants
 Formal carers

Private care organisations and temporary job agencies could use the platform as a tool to search for carers.

 Independent Living
 Information and learning for carers
 Personal Support and Social Integration for carer
 Care coordination

C.A.S.A. provides the following online services:

• older and disabled people could create a profile and specify their needs;
• migrant care workers could create their own profile, obtain information on training courses and register their availability;
• A system administrator could access the database and match migrant care workers’ availability with older (or disabled) people.

Although the project ended in 2010, the web platform continues to provide three kinds of documents for training informal and formal carers:

- a guide on how to set-up a web platform to match older/disabled people with care workers;

- a document on the transferability of the model from the legal point of view;

- a type of first level business plan on how resources could be allocated among different expenditures.

A personal computer with an internet connection.

Both public and private

Public research funding: local, regional, national, European and international funds for research, development and implementation of innovative initiatives

European and international funds for research, development and implementation of innovative initiatives (80% of the total budget).

 

Other: please specify

Private funding: the project consortium co-founded the service with 20% of the total budget.

Not available

The project ended in 2010 and since that date the website was not able to run and update its contents.

The C.A.S.A. consortium participated in other European Calls for Tender after the end of the project but without success. The local authorities (Provinces and Municipalities) did not express interest probably due to their financial difficulties.

€ 50,000 - 500,000

€345.000 for setting up the initiative.

 Authorities
 Private Care Sector
 Health and Social Care Systems
 Third Sector
 Private Companies

Each partner of the project contributed to setting-up the web platform. The consortium’s participants were:

1. COIN Società Cooperativa Sociale - Project Coordinator. COIN is a non-profit organisation for the social and economical integration of people with disabilities by means of job opportunities and developing economical, social, professional and entrepreneurial conditions. www.coin.coop.
2. ASM - Market Research and Analysis Center - Leader for Survey. ASM is a Polish SME, specialized in: market surveys and analysis, management consultancy and European Commission (EC) multi-site European research projects (Framework Programmes). ASM supports companies and other organisations taking marketing decisions in research areas like labor market and social issues, construction market, business-to-business research (www.asm-poland.com.pl).
3. e-ISOTIS - Information Society Open to ImpairmentS - Leader for Agency modeling e-ISOTIS, meaning "Equality" in ancient Greek, works with people with disabilities and older people to integrate into society by means of innovative and accessible ICT and vocational training. www.e-isotis.org.
4. ISIS - Institut für Soziale Infrastruktur - Leader for testing of Agency model. ISIS is a social science research institute drawing up socio-political planning and practice.www.isis-sozialforschung.de.
5. Centerkontura - Development of pilot service (training package). Centerkontura is a Slovenian consultancy agency in the field of vocational training and vocational/employment rehabilitation of persons with less employment opportunities and those with special needs. www.centerkontura.si.
6. Provincia di Roma - Testing of Agency model. The Province of Rome is a second tier local authority in the Italian decentralized government. The XI Department of the Province of Rome, among other duties, promotes and supports social, cultural and economic inclusion of the province's foreign population by active employment and training policies. www.provincia.roma.it.
7. Business Solutions Europa - Leader for Communication and Dissemination. A dynamic EU Projects and Communication agency bringing Europe closer to Europeans. www.bs-europa.eu. www.animate-eu.com.

The Project Coordinator, Consorzio Sociale COIN Società Cooperativa Sociale, is a non-profit organisation for the social and economic integration of disabled people (www.coin.coop).

 Informal Carers
 Health Professionals
 Social Care Professionals
 Privately-Hired Care Assistants (inc. Migrant Care Workers)
 Volunteers

C.A.S.A. administrators search and match the demand for long-term care with the supply of migrant care workers, using an Internet platform. Specialised architect associations provided architectural consulting.

Not involved

1,001 - 5,000

The exact number of users could not be determine, because the website counter is not active. However, the stakeholder reports cited more than 1000 users during the service’s activity.

Promotion and communication are carried out mainly through online sources.

Not available

Not available

Not available

Strengths:

1. The C.A.S.A. Agency is valuable, because it matches supply and demand between migrant care workers and care recipients. This is an issue that many families in Italy face
2. The availability of a feasibility assessment.

Weaknesses:

1. Promotion and communication channels appear to be few, weak and not diversified enough.
2. The lack of further funding.
3. The lack of data on who and how the materials were used.
4. The lack of practical elements in the trainings' contents, as suggested by participants and trainers during the feasibility assessment.
5. The lack of participation by the Provincial Councils, who could have played a pivotal role matching job offers and demand. Unfortunately, they lacked financial resources and were the object of cost-cutting by the central government.

Opportunities:

1. The evaluation results enabled the partnership to validate the Agency model and allowed the participants to identify issues to be developed in the future, if the service will be financed again.
2. In the last two years, the C.A.S.A. consortium presented other tenders to European calls, although without success. They will try again as they believe in the project.

The Agency model was tested in 3 EU Member States (Italy Germany and Greece), but it was implemented only by one German Red Cross chapter. Despite this limited dissemination, the implementation of the initiative and the results of the project assessment make it possible to assume, with high probability, both its transferability to, and sustainability in other European countries and the possibility to create and implement a new project ("C.A.S.A. II ") to develop more ICT-based care interventions for migrant care workers and older people. In Italy, the C.A.S.A. model was developed in the Municipality of Aprilia (Lazio), but its scalability and transferability depends on the willingness of policy makers and stakeholders.

References:

C.A.S.A. Project website (http://www.casa-project.eu/ )

Update by Emiliano Deferrari, COIN Project Manager (February 2014)

Pubblications:

C.A.S.A. Consortium (2009), Study on the demand of long-term care and the supply of immigrant care workers in Germany, Greece and Italy available at http://www.casa-project.eu/index.php

C.A.S.A. Consortium (2009), Summary Report of ), Study on the demand of long-term care and the supply of immigrant care workers in Germany, Greece and Italy available at http://www.casa-project.eu/index.php

C.A.S.A. Consortium (2010), Technical report, feasibility report for the definition of the ICT instruments to create a web portal supporting C.A.S.A. Agency, at http://www.casa-project.eu/index.php

C.A.S.A. Consortium (2009), Feasibility Report detailing the legal, administrative and financial requirements to set up an Agency in Germany, Greece and Italy, available at http://www.casa-project.eu/index.php

Address:

Consorzio Sociale COIN , Via Enrico Giglioli n°54/a Roma Tel. 0039 06 57177001 - fax 06 5742387 segreteria@coinsociale.it

For information:

Email: info@casa-project.eu

Anna Grazia Laura (COIN) - Project Leader

Email: annagrazia.laura@sociale.it

Tel: 0039 06 570 60 236 Fax: 0039 06 232 69 417