European Journal of Social Work
ISSN: 1369-1457 (Print) 1468-2664 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cesw20
e-Inclusion and e-Social work: new technologies at the service of social intervention Esther Raya Diez To cite this article: Esther Raya Diez (2018) e-Inclusion and e-Social work: new technologies at the service of social intervention, European Journal of Social Work, 21:6, 916-929, DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2018.1469472 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2018.1469472
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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK 2018, VOL. 21, NO. 6, 916–929 https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2018.1469472
e-Inclusion and e-Social work: new technologies at the service of social intervention e-inclusión y e-social work: las nuevas tecnologías al servicio de la intervención social Esther Raya Diez Universidad de la Rioja - Law, Logrono, Spain ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS
This paper defines the concept of e-inclusion in reference to programmes and projects that promote social inclusion through the use of new technologies. This concept is related to e-social work, defined as the use of ICTs in the field of social work and social services. To illustrate the implications of e-inclusion and e-social work, a case study is presented on a community involvement project using new technologies as a means and as an end. The SAREGUNE project for community use of new technologies was set up in Vitoria (Spain) in 2004. Ten years later, it gained recognition as a European e-inclusion scheme within the ‘Leonardo Da Vinci Multilateral Projects, Transfer of Innovation’ lifelong learning programme. This article explores the origins of the idea and its significance in the fight against the digital divide and in the processes of intercultural and social inclusion within the city’s historic central district. A process of deconstruction, construction and reconstruction of the scheme is used to identify and describe the movements of rotation and revolution within the process of social inclusion, the levels of integration of e-social work at individual, group and community level, and the impact of the project in terms of e-inclusion.
ICT; interculturality; communitary social work
RESUMEN
En el trabajo se define el concepto de e-inclusión, en alusión a los programas y proyectos que promueven la inclusión social a través de las nuevas tecnologías. Este concepto está relacionado con el e-social work, definido como el uso de las TICs en el campo del trabajo social y los servicios sociales. Para ilustrar las implicaciones de la e-inclusión y el esocial work se presenta, mediante la metodología de análisis de caso, un proyecto de intervención comunitaria que utiliza las nuevas tecnologías como fin y como medio. El proyecto SAREGUNE por un uso comunitario de las nuevas tecnologías, se inició en Vitoria (España) en el año 2004 y diez años más tarde fue premiado como experiencia europea de einclusión dentro del programa de Aprendizaje Permanente ‘Leonardo Da Vinci Multilateral Projects, Transfer of Innovation’. En el artículo se explica el origen de la idea y sus implicaciones en la lucha contra la brecha digital y en los procesos de inclusión social e intercultural en el casco histórico de la ciudad. A través de un proceso de deconstrucción, construcción y reconstrucción de la experiencia se identifican y describen los movimientos de rotación y traslación del proceso de inclusión social, los niveles de integración el e-social work, a nivel
CONTACT Esther Raya Diez
esther.raya@unirioja.es
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
PALABRAS CLAVE
TICs; interculturalidad; Trabajo Social comunitario
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individual, grupal y comunitario y el impacto del proyecto en términos de e-inclusión.
Introduction The Internet and new Information and Communication Technologies have transformed social relations and integration processes. The digital divide is a further problem in addition to other processes of exclusion of individuals, groups and communities in situations of hardship. Social work as a scientific discipline and as a profession focuses its actions on processes of social inclusion. In this new scenario, e-inclusion and e-social work are complementary spheres of action for responding to the challenges of inclusion in a digital society. The article is divided into five sections. The first uses a review of the literature to come up with a definition of the main terms for the topic of study; the second presents the methodology used in developing the article; the third features the context of intervention, and the fourth the project chosen as the case study; the fifth presents the main results and finally the article ends with a summary of conclusions.
The digital divide, e-inclusion and e-social work The concept of the digital divide refers to the problem of inequality, which in its current version harbours a new factor, but in essence deals with the problem of exclusion and social inequality. The digital divide is defined as the gap between persons (communities, states, countries) who routinely use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as part of their daily life, and those who either do not have access to them, or even if they do, do not know how to use them (Serrano & Martinez, 2003, p. 175). In the developed countries, 81.3% of households have access to internet compared to 34.1% in developing nations, and 6.7% in the least developed countries (ITU, 2015, p. 5). In the context of globalization, the risk of social exclusion becomes greater for people whose traditional hardships of inequality are compounded by a lack of access to information technologies. Everyday activities such as looking for a job involve knowledge of and access to job search engines and websites. Also worth noting is the type of jobs: in the digital society, workers versed in the new technologies are more employable. E-inclusion alludes to the actions carried out to help bridge the digital divide by promoting access to new technologies for the people, groups, and communities most at risk of exclusion. This concept includes different initiatives and projects aimed at promoting access to ICTs and raising digital literacy by carrying out various kinds of educational actions. This is the role of the so-called ‘telecentres’ (also known as ‘community technology centres’). Nevertheless, the possibilities afforded by einclusion are much broader: for example, the application of new technologies in home care services, the implementation of accessibility standards in virtual learning (Hernández, Amado-Salvatierra, & Hilera, 2012) or the inclusion of persons with functional diversity (Baña, Novo, & López, 2010). Internet and the information society open a new stage for the intervention of social workers (Chan & Holosko, 2016; López Pélaez, 2014; Mishna, Fantus, & McInroy, 2017). E-social work involves using technologies in the practice of conventional social work by bringing in new elements of procedures, monitoring or follow-through by means of telecentres for social attention (Coleman, 2011). New technologies have transformed the nature and practice of social work. ‘A wider range of available digital procedures has opened up a broader dimension regarding research, therapies, interventions and social networks in the field’ (López Peláez, Pérez García, & Aguilar-Tablada, 2017, p. 1). The spread of the use of ICTs through e-social work has given rise to the development of different codes of conduct regarding online social care (NASW&ASWB, 2005; Recupero & Rainey, 2005; Ross, 2011). The use of ICTs has spread over the years, opening new opportunities for developing projects of a different nature (Del Fresno & López-Peláez,
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2013; Dellor, Lovato-Hermann, Price-Wolf, Freisthler, & Curry, 2015; Turner, 2016; Warburton, Cowan, Winterton, & Hodgkins, 2014; Wolf & Goldkind 2016). ICTs represent an additional element to the social workers’ professional practice (Hill & Shaw, 2011; Mishna, Bogo, Root, & Fantus, 2014) without forgetting that ‘ICTs must not displace professionals but rather become a complement and a facilitating element to improve attention and human communication’ (Raya & Santolaya Estefanía, 2009, p. 92). Thus, the purpose of e-social work defined as the use of ICTs in the field of social work and social services is to improve the feedback between social workers and users in all the processes in which they are involved (López Pélaez, 2015). Furthermore, the creativity of Social Work makes room for all types of interventions that can be carried out with the users, where technologies can be used as a means (for communication) and/or an end (in social inclusions and bridging the digital divide). This is the point where e-inclusion and e-social work interconnect to reduce the digital divide and promote social and digital inclusion among socially disadvantaged persons and groups.
Methodology This paper uses case studies as its research method, a type of analysis that is considered a valid research method in social sciences (Flyvbjerg, 2006; Martínez, 2006). In Social Work, the case study is related to systematization as a methodology for producing knowledge that comes from practice. Systemization links theory and practice in a dialectic perspective (Martinic, 1984). However, systemization as a research method is not a mere description of the facts. Rather, it involves a deep analysis of the work undertaken, questioning its aspects, as PNUD (2013) points out: identify what worked well, what did not work; what factors were key to success; what learning was derived from the experience. This is a process of reconstruction and analytic reflection on the experience observed (PNUD, 2013, p. 22) for the purpose of transferring knowledge that may guide future interventions. The article presents the experience of the Saregune Project as an example of e-social work using the systematization done by the developers of the Project in 2010 and the documentary analysis of the activity reports written up during its execution. The case under study is contextualized using statistical data from different sources.
Context of the intervention The project chosen as the case study was undertaken in the city of Vitoria - Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque Country. Located in the north of Spain, the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country is, according to the OECD welfare index, the autonomous community in Spain with the highest quality of life, as shown in the Graph 1. On a scale of one to ten, the Basque Country scored 7.1 points. The aspects in which the Basque country performed best with respect to the rest of the regions of Spain are as follows: Education (6.8 points) and Income level (6.2): the Basque Country tops the list in both cases. In Safety it scored a 10, along with eight other regions. It comes second in Environment (7.9), in Housing it takes fourth place (6.5) and in Access to public services it comes in fifth (7.4). In terms of Health it takes sixth place (9.5), in Civic commitment it holds twelfth place (5.4), and lastly, in Employment, although all the Autonomous Communities of Spain scored under 5, the Basque Country was at the top of the list (3.9 points). The employment indicator shows the existence of a socioeconomic problem throughout Spain as well as in the Basque Country. This index is based on the unemployment rate, the number of the long-term unemployed, salaries and the level of fear of losing one’s job. These deficiencies in the employment situation justify the existence of social inclusion and active policies. Since 2009, the unemployment rate in Vitoria Gasteiz has been above 10%, reaching 16.34% in 2013 with a subsequent downward trend to 13.07% in December 2016.1 Saregune is located in the historic quarter of Vitoria-Gasteiz. In 2004 the population residing in the city totalled 223,702. This number has been on the rise, increasing to 235,661 in 2009, of which 24,864 were foreign-born (10% of the population). By 2016 the total population had increased to 244,634, of
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Graph 1. Better Life Index, Overall Score. Source: Mazo and Galera (2016) according to the OECD welfare index.
whom 28,122 had been born abroad, amounting to 11% of the population. The city hosts a meltingpot of cultures. The most important proportion of foreign-born population comes from the American continent, followed by Africa and, to a lesser extent, Europe. Multiculturalism is a real aspect of Western societies in the early 21st century. Moreover, processes are needed for managing cultural diversity to promote intercultural societies that avoid racism and xenophobia, as was highlighted in the communiqué from the association Barrenkale in the neighbourhood where the Saregune Project was created. Addressed to the citizens, municipal political parties and Town Hall, the document informed on the ‘neglected’ neighbourhood: with a growing number of street fights; impunity in drug dealing; neglect of police functions; and a ‘premeditated’ concentration of people in problematic situations in the same setting: overcrowding of foreigners in tenements, subsidized housing of people in problematic situations who need help, etc. All of this together, without any type of preventative measures, control, or planning, is what is driving this area in the historic downtown to its current situation of general deterioration that must be stopped. (Barrenkale, 2003)
The crux of the problem lay in the gradual ‘ghettoization’ of the neighbourhood and in its being a place of transit, as occurs in the old parts of town in other cities, triggering the deterioration of the area. This is the context in which the Barrenkale association was created but where the Saregune project began, for the purpose of becoming a wake-up call for social dynamization for the Historic Centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz, which has been undergoing a worrying process of re-deterioration that must be stopped. As stated in the document titled ‘Citizen Action Project for Revitalizing the Historic Centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz by application of the NICTs’. This project aims to bridge the digital divide and thereby offer an employment alternative to people with job placement difficulties. It also proposes community development to revitalize the neighbourhood by promoting interculturalism and the relationships of the diverse local community. The following section describes the project.
Saregune: using technology for social inclusion The title of the Project, written in Euskera, the vernacular of the Basque Country, includes the word for ‘space’ (gune) and ‘net, network’ (Sare). The term network is used conveying both meanings: the
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communication network in society 2.0 and the network of community-based intervention. The play on words creates a new one that refers to the space for networking and in the network. At first, the Project was designed to combine two fundamental initiatives. One was the Red Conecta2 (literally, ‘The Network Connects’), which consists of providing spaces for access to information and communication technologies as a way to prevent the digital divide. The other is the Employment and Training3 plans financed by the Basque Government as a way to activate employment among persons with difficulties of employability. The Project is based on the creation of two plans for job training and employment, one meant to train ten people as revitalizers of the Network Connects spaces and the other to train ten more people as website designers. With this conceptualization, the Project was expected to achieve results in four dimensions (SartuAlava, 2003, p. 2): . . . .
Give jobs to 20 young residents in the neighbourhood whose disadvantaged personal and social circumstances make it difficult for them to find a job. Introduce a broad target group to the information society and knowledge society. Create local services and contents for the online space to incorporate all the richness, diversity and social dynamism of the neighbourhood. Change the rest of the city’s perception of the neighbourhood and recover its central role in the life of the city.
Thus, on one hand results were sought in the disadvantaged people by improving their employability; on the other, in the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, by providing access to ICTs; and on the community-wide level by improving the social image of the neighbourhood and establishing the neighbourhood in the social networks. With these starting points, the organization that heads the Project, Sartu-Álava,4 started up the ‘Saregune space for social and community use of technology’ in 2004. Currently, its web page defines it as: A community development centre, a meeting place in the Historic Centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz where we foster the free and open use of technologies as a tool for the social and community revitalization of the neighbourhood and the city.
For the general public, Saregune offers courses, workshops, and technological accompaniment to learn to manage in the digital world. The Project does this by offering different training activities connected with graphic design, programming and web environments. In addition, the space offers free internet access,5 with constant support from a revitalizer (previously trained in the Training phase) to guide and help users of the service as they gain digital literacy. It also organizes and/or participates in technological events such as Edit-a-thons6 and Wikimeetups. 7 The presence of Saregune at these events also helps reinforce the modern image of the neighbourhood. Along that same line, Sargune also promotes activities aimed at the neighbourhood by means of AuzoTV. This neighbourhood and community web TV in the Historic Quarter makes use of the free, easy-to-use technical means to make it visible and extendible online, thereby carrying out community revitalization based on the participation of residents and collective empowerment using ICTs as tools. With this initiative, Saregune aims to empower citizens by increasing their impact on the (re)construction of common spaces, for the triple purpose of (a) creating a common identity of neighbourhood, of common ground, especially regarding situations of perceived social injustice; (b) breaking with the overall consensus that that is how things are and they cannot be changed; (c) generating a collective awareness of the existence of possibilities, resources, creativity and people sufficiently willing to change them.8 In short, and specifically, this activity is used to produce audio-visual pieces for associations and shops in the neighbourhood.
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From the start, it looked to the strength of community development as an instrument of social integration and endeavoured to undertake activities aimed at the surroundings. One of these activities worth highlighting is the management of a webpage called elkarteak info,9 aimed at the associations. Its purpose is to announce the services and activities of the associations and improve the mechanisms for coordination among and within the associations. The website offers information on current events, it issues news from the social organizations of Álava, facilitates the design of web materials and audiovisuals and promotes voluntary work by means of an information exchange software programme. Since its creation in 2004, Saregune has become a prime example of community development through new technologies. The following section describes the process by which the Project was implemented and managed, noting the main achievements that explain its survival in a context of economic slowdown and budget cuts in publicly funded projects.
Implementation process and levels of intervention: deconstructing the project Start-up of any social intervention project requires its promoters to perform many different operations. First, a good idea is needed to kick off the project. Nevertheless, a good idea is not the same as a good result. One also needs to know how to combine different ideas, the causes and consequences of the problem, the main problem and the secondary issues. But knowing is not enough; one must also have the knowhow for managing resources (human, technical, financial) and thus raise funds that will make the project more feasible and sustainable. And that can only be done by starting off with a good idea. Furthermore, it must be born in mind that the impetus in social projects goes beyond the personal effort of an isolated subject, and it rather requires the collaboration of the other actors as well. Someone may be the promoter of the idea, the one who comes up with it and shares it with others; however, the step from the idea to the project is marked by the socialization process of the idea among the actors involved and its interiorization as a suitable response to the problems perceived. (Raya, 2011, p. 12)
All these steps confer realism to the project, moving from utopia to idea and from idea to reality (García & Ramirez, 2006, p. 8). In the Saregune Project the initial idea consisted of the uneasiness perceived in the neighbourhood and the search for solutions by one of the social agencies that work on processes of social incorporation with collectives in a situation of or at risk of exclusion. The initial questions from its promoters were asked in the following terms:10 . . . .
What kind of activities might fit? What funding exists to energize feasible actions? Who has administrative skills to develop? And what internal organization is needed to carry out the initiative?
These questions encourage drawing up a first draft of the project that goes through a process of internal and external contrast. This step is needed to give shape to the idea and gain buy-in. Intervening in the complex processes of social reality requires synergistic actions among the different actors on the ground. Once the organization considers that it has the capability to promote the project and decides to take on the initiative, the stage of external contrast begins. In the case of Saregune, the project was presented to the groups that a priori were thought may be interested in it: the Basque Government, the Fundación Esplai, the Association Movement of the neighbourhood, the City Council of VitoriaGasteiz. These meetings were key to specifying the project and matching it up with different funding programmes as a function of the capabilities and competencies of each organization. In the initial phase, the Saregune Project was configured as four pieces much like a puzzle, which involved submitting different applications to the pertinent calls for proposals:
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Request to carry out job and job training plans from the Basque Government. Request for concession of a ‘Red Conecta’ point from the Fundación Esplai. Project for social intervention from the City Council of Vitoria Gasteiz. Project for lifelong learning from the Basque Government.
This starting point set the basic organizational structure of the Project and has been used ever since its creation. Twenty young people from the neighbourhood are given job training through these programmes every year. The training stage takes 500 h; half the group is trained as Specialists in Social Application of New Technologies. Their training includes technical competencies about computers, techniques of group dynamics and knowledge of the social and community setting. The other half of the group is made up of technical personnel on multimedia environments whose training is focused on web design. This gives the learners the chance to acquire skills that improve their employability in sectors looking for workers. In addition to the training they receive, in the contracting phase the youth are hired part time by the organization to carry out two types of tasks: one group is in charge of customer service and maintenance of the telecentre, supporting and training the local people and collectives in their use of technology, i.e. helping to bridge the digital divide; the other group designs web spaces adapted to the needs of groups and collectives in the neighbourhood. Selection of the young people seeks out participants who ‘represent the current population spectrum of the neighbourhood: languages, cultural customs, gender, sociocultural and economic level, level of education, etc. to ensure a real reflection of the rich cultural and ethnic heritage in the neighbourhood’ (Sartu, 2010, p. 12). This turns the centre into a point of reference for the participants’ own personal networks, thereby attracting a broad range of people to the centre and the new technologies, showing and respecting idiosyncrasy and being an example of diversity and cultural understanding. In addition, the Project is also developed with technical personnel trained in different areas such as Social Work, Social Education, Computer Engineering) who provide continuity to the work developed. Mid- and long-term sustainability, both economic and social, involves demonstrating the capability of managing the project and making it visible so as to obtain and maintain the financing it needs to ensure its continuity over time. Similarly, it is also necessary to remove any mistrust of the new resource and achieve support for it socially, making it useful to those to whom it is meant, including young people in the process of entering the labour market as well as the people from the neighbourhood, by their involvement as users/clients of the centre. From the economic point of view, the Project has been financed through the programmes mentioned above, which have ensured its sustainability over time. The funding from the contributors is distributed as follows (Table 1). The main financing comes from the Basque Government Training and Employment Program. In this case, it is both an added value and reciprocally worthwhile for the management organization and the financing agent alike, that the actions being subsidized are linked to a community service. Indeed, the subsidy has a multiplying effect: the people of the target group directly, and the citizens who receive their services through Saregune. The rest of the funding comes from the Lifelong Learning programme and the City Hall. Its social sustainability, i.e. the ability to demonstrate effectiveness and efficiency in addressing the social problems that justified starting up the Project, can be analysed by comparing the objectives and the results. This aspect is analysed in the next section.
Results of the project: rotation and revolution In assessing a social intervention project, the process developed and the impact on its participants are just as important as its results. Social intervention projects all have dual movements of rotation and revolution, like the movement of the Earth. Every project involves movements of rotating in the
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Table 1. Distribution of funding for the SAREGUNE project. Organization
Proportion of funding
Purpose of funding
Department of Employment – Training Basque Government Department of Lifelong Learning Basque Government Vitoria-Gasteiz City Hall
Training courses Hiring the people included in the employment and training plansa Mediator for learning and contribution to maintenance costs Maintenance costs Difference between the subsidy for hiring and real salaries by collective agreement Teaching team to back up placement itineraries
64% 18.5% 17.5%
a
As of 2013 the training and employment plans were no longer financed due to a change in ALMPs. The training part is financed by Lanbide-Basque Employment Service and the hiring part by an agreement signed between the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Hall and the Department of Employment and Social Affairs of the Basque Government. Sartu-Alava (2016) Saregune Report, 2015, p. 10. Source: Sartu (2010, p. 24).
participants, the experience, the learning, and in opening up new opportunities. Changes also occur in the organization and in its ability to address new challenges. Moreover, social transformation projects go beyond the frame of annual calls for proposals. Often, as in the case at hand, it requires the combined efforts of different sources of funding over successive years. All of this makes up the orbit of the project, as we discovered in a previous work: ’The nature of calls for proposals for funding sets the rotational movement of the project. The actions in the proposals run the cycle of the project, conditioned by the terms of funding regarding the actions that can be subsidized as well as the deadlines for carrying them out, and of course, the expenses that can be attributed to the project, its execution, and its evaluation. However, a single project bound to one source of funding does not fully accomplish the proposed objective of change or improvement. Other projects may sometimes need to be developed concurrently or successively. This is the revolution, the movement of revolving through the different phases of the cycle of the project at a slower pace, transforming reality, transforming the actors and transforming itself. (Caparrós, Raya-Diez, Larraz, & Peña, 2012, pp. 26–27)
In the Saregune project, the rotation and revolution movements can be placed into the three regular levels of intervention in Social Work: individual, group, and community. Presented below are the results regarding the objectives of the project or the expected results. The Project is articulated on a set of general and specific objectives. In the exposition, the general objectives are listed with a brief indication of the aspects covered in that dimension.
Objective 1: Promote changes in the people participating in the Plans for Employment and Training that help them improve their personal circumstances and facilitate integration in society and into employment.
This objective includes eight specific objectives that specify results at the training, work and personal level. The Table 2 lists the participants trained and hired during the entire time period. Note that these are people in a situation of, or at risk of exclusion from the job market. They are unemployed, most of them long-term (i.e. jobless for more than a year); people over 45, or young people looking for their first job. In addition to these difficulties from the employment point of view there are others of a social kind, such as being a beneficiary of social assistance, an immigrant, in some cases not legalized, or a single-parent family. Table 2. Participants in the employment and training programmes, Saregune. ETP Training Contract Legalisations
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Total
10 18 5
22 10 3
12 20 4
24 20 4
17 17 3
24 10 1
24 20 1
24 9
24 9
12 9
28 20
31 9
281 191 22
Source: Saregune Report, 2015.
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The first rotation movement in the people comes from the training they received, which improves their chances of finding a job. One of the users tells his experience: I did a mid-level program on bricklaying and construction back when I was 16 years old. Then I worked in construction and then was unemployed. Before Saregune I had never thought at all about computers and even less about customer service. (Participant in an Employment and Training Program)
Being hired is a second rotational movement by making it possible to acquire work experience and, in some cases, to legalize their situation. This effect can be seen in the following comment from a participant in an employment and training programme: Being from Romania, when Saregune hired me, I got my work permit and my situation got legalized (‌) and now we’re studying social integration. (Participant in an Employment and Training Program)
The results from a 2012 follow-up on all the participants in Saregune confirmed that 83% of the people surveyed had found a job. Furthermore, 80% positively assessed the project as helping their entry in the job market and 65% were working.
Objective 2: Bridge the digital divide between the general population of the old part of town and make use of this technological setting to favour the creation of criss-crossing interrelations among individual people as well as different groups and collectives.
This objective can be broken down into four specific objectives focused on access to technology and cultural diversity, and thereby indirectly fight against xenophobia and the ghettoization of the area. The use of Saregune as a space for training and for accessing the ICTs corroborates the scope of the objective. From 2008 until 31 December 2015, more than five thousand people have received training. The courses focused on different subjects, in some cases they are an introduction to computers and in others they are more specialized, as seen in Graph 2 for the year 2015: In 2015, a total of 35 courses were taught, with Introduction to Computers and Word Processing as the most popular. This came to a total of 873.5 h of training. The intercultural dimension can be seen in terms of the places of origin of the users of Saregune. Graph 3 features the main nationalities: The shared use of the facilities by people from different countries enriches and normalizes social harmony, as several users at the centre point out: I for one had never been around immigrants before. My view on immigration has changed a lot because when you see things from outside you’re really kind of off to one side. I had no idea about the Muslim thing, for example, and when you know these people, you get a different viewpoint. (Participant in an Employment and Training Program)
Graph 2. Types of ICT courses at Saregune. 2015. Source: Saregune Report, 2015.
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Graph 3. Origin of the users of Saregune. Source: Saregune Report, 2015.
The establishment of the centre as a service for the residents of the neighbourhood is shown in the proportion of its users who are residents of the Historic Quarter of the city, as seen in the following Table 3. A total of 69% of the users of the service in 2015 came from the Historic Quarter or nearby, showing its acceptance because of the resource and its usefulness for their interests. One of the users states it in the following terms: ’To me the most important thing was doing the email thing right and getting in touch with people who had done the course with me, and through that contact, making friends. (Saregune user)
Objective 3: Support the social initiative of the neighbourhood so as to value and benefit from the potential of the social use of technologies to foster intra- and inter-associative processes that result in more effective actions.
This objective breaks down into ten specific objectives aimed at serving the neighbourhood associations and collectives in accessing and using information technologies, thereby improving their individual and collective activity.
Table 3. User origin by place of residence. Origin by neighbourhood Historic Quarter Near Historic Quarter Rest of the city Rest of the province Total Source: Saregune Report, 2015.
Absolute data 74 125 81 7 287
% 25.78 43.55 28.22 2.44 100.00
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Table 4. Ad hoc courses offered at Saregune. Association ADRA Popular cultural centers Community rehabilitation service Heart without Borders Medicus Mundi Source: Saregune Report, 2015.
Course
Hours
Participants
Twitter ICT and Employment ICT and Spanish Working with and managing the blog and Elkarteak.info Introduction to ICTs Email and social networks Social networks: Facebook /microblogging: Twitter
5 6 6 4 6 16 6
6 5 10 8 9 8 9
Table 5. Videos made by Saregune for organizations in the area. Organization Youth Area, Vitoria – Gasteiz City Hall Shops Sonrisas DELALÍ Asociación de Sordos de Alava (Alava Association for the Deaf) Asociación Goian Educación de calle (’Street education’) Gasteiz Irekiaa Equal Rights Service, Vitoria – Gasteiz City Hall
Video created Video about the meeting ’Young people and the social networks’ of Gazteak On’ Video about ’The Almond Soapmakers’ Help with editing videos for the presentation. Editing a video about the association Video about the association and its activities Video about the association and its activities Collaboration with the 12 CLOUDS Project, course-workshop on filming and editing video and editing a video about the project Video about the presentation of the Gasteiz Irekia initiative Video about the edit-a-thon for visibility of women in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Wikipedia
a Gasteiz Irekia. Initiative to support migrants and refugees in Vitoria- Gasteiz. http://www.redsolidaria.info/gasteiz-irekia/ Source: Saregune Report, 2015.
Training courses and workshops are held at the request of neighbourhood collectives or associations. Table 4 provides a sample of the courses held ad hoc in 2015: These are free, customized courses open to any nearby organizations that request them. The contents are adapted to the interest and specific need of applicants. Objective 4: Promote a different presence in the neighbourhood that can give information on the richness of the activity and the involvement of its inhabitants and can help change the outside perception of it in the rest of the city.
This objective is geared to the community level to improve the image and activity of the neighbourhood by means of three specific goals. This requires several different actions. One is to support the neighbourhood collectives regarding communication, making a presence through the Internet. This is done by organizing specific courses for offering an individualized consulting-training service for collectives that request it. Closely related is the making of informative pieces and thematic videos. A sample list of videos made in 2015 is given below (Table 5). Saregune has been awarded for its activity on several occasions. One was in the contest for Good Practices in e-inclusion in Europe, in 2014, within the framework of the RAISe project (Reinforcing the Attractiveness, Impact and Skills of e-Facilitators for e-inclusion). This award acknowledges the figure of the ‘e-Facilitator’, a function carried out by people trained in the framework of the project, and it should be recalled that for many, this training was their first experience with ICTs. The website Elkarteak.info received the Buber Prize in 2013, promoted by the Euskadi Internet Association, in the category of web or application in free open-source software. This prize reinforced the activity carried out of making the associative activity of the area more visible and its presence on the internet. In addition, Saregune’s use of free open-source software was a finalist in the Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize from the APC, the Association for the Progress of Communications, which recognize the initiatives that help ordinary people use free, open-source software.
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The Internet Users Association gave Saregune the Internet Prize in 2012 for best non-profit initiative. All these prizes and awards provide recognition of the work undertaken and show the possibilities of socially and technologically innovative intervention. It also shows that working with people in a situation of (or at risk of) social exclusion by means of e-inclusion projects opens a window of chance both for the users and for the professionals of the organization.
Final considerations The Saregune project exemplifies an e-inclusion project that uses ICTs as a means to social inclusion through training and enabling people who are in or are at risk of social exclusion. Moreover, the purpose of the ICTs and using free open-source software is to fight against the digital divide by facilitating access for neighbours and the surrounding population. The project offers a space to develop community e-social work, where technologies are an instrument by which one joins with cross-culturally different people around a common interest: the use of ICTs. This brings about greater visibility in social networks and online for the activity of the associations and the neighbourhood, thereby contributing to overcoming the risk of ghettoization and xenophobia identified in the diagnostic phase. Advancing in social innovation projects where ICTs play a key role offers new opportunities for Social Work (e-social work). It requires professionals to develop technological competencies that enable them to explore new spaces of inclusion (e-inclusion). This is possible in the different intervention levels of social work. Thus, together with the example applied to community social work indicated in this article, the role that ICTs can play in the reinforcement of information and orientation functions can be pointed out in the social work carried out with individuals and families. This even allows the development of diagnosis or follow-up interviews with family members or with other people within the living environment of the persons residing far away. This would also reinforce information programmes aimed at creating greater knowledge that counteract the negative effects derived from the lack of knowledge regarding certain behaviours, such as, for example, the use of medication (Del Fresno & López-Peláez, 2014). In group social work ICTs are also an important ally since they expand the interaction environments of people who, due to different circumstances, live in a situation of loneliness or loss of personal relationships. Here virtual environments expand the possibilities of having contact with likeminded people while avoiding the personal stigmas present in face-to-face relationships. ICTs are a complementary tool to social work and to the service of people and intervention processes. The development of e-social work, understood in the broad sense, will go hand in hand with the development of the information society and e-administration. It is worthwhile to reinforce initiatives such as the one analysed in this article, which feature a clear innovation and are able to address the problems of the surrounding area. This will enable better compliance with the purposes of social intervention and will prevent duplication of the processes of social exclusion; the ones deriving from the situation itself and those deriving from the digital divide.
Notes 1. Datos Macro, provided by the newspaper Expansión. Available at http://www.datosmacro.com/paro/espana/ municipios/pais-vasco/alava/vitoria-gasteiz. 2. Red Conecta is a network of social-based telecentres in Spain for the purpose of fostering social inclusion of all people using information and communication technologies (ICTs). A telecentre is a space with computers and/or technological equipment where a revitalizer guides the process and accompanies the people on their learning. More information at http://fundacionesplai.org/e-inclusion/red-conecta/. 3. Employment and Training Plans were regulated by law Decree 279/1998 from 20 October regulating the employment – training programme in business activities aimed at the young unemployed.
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4. Sartu-Alava is a non-profit association for the social incorporation of the disadvantaged. More information at http://www.sartu.org/es/quienes-somos/. 5. One of the hallmarks of the project is its use of free, open-source software such as FreeBSD, Linux, and UBUNTU. 6. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editat%C3%B3n_por_la_visibilidad_de_las_mujeres_de_ Vitoria-Gasteiz. 7. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiproyecto:Mujeres/Wikimujeres/Euskadi. 8. http://www.auzo.tv/filosofia. 9. http://elkarteak.info/?c=paginasfijas&a=ikusi&i=presentacion_quienes. 10. Lobato, J. (2005) Presentation of the Saregune Project. Saregune project documentation.
Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor Dr Esther Raya Diez holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of the Basque Country, a Master’s Degree in Political Science and Sociology and a PhD in Sociology, both from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is Professor of Social Work at the University of La Rioja, Spain, and researcher of the UNESCO Chair in Democratic Citizenship and Cultural Freedom. Her research interests focus on place, HRBA, evaluation indicators, social exclusion and social programme design. Dr Raya Diez has also participated in international projects on HRBA. Author of and contributor to numerous academic articles, books and chapters, she has published her research in high-impact journals and participated in collective works as author, coordinator and editor.
ORCID Esther Raya Diez
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8688-5676
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