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• De Link (Belgium, Flanders) - the leading organization;
• Global Initiative on Psychiatry (Bulgaria, Sofia);   
• Budapesti Scocialis Forraskozpont (Hungary, Budapest);
• Initiative zur sozialen Rehabilitation – training institute F.O.K.U.S. (Germany, Bremen);  
• Associacao Cultural Moinho da Juventude (Portugal, Lisboa);  Fontys Hogeschool Sociale Studies - Faculty of Social Studies (the Netherlands, Noord-Brabant);
• Instituut voor Gebruikersparticipatie en Beleid (the Netherlands, Noord-Holland).

The idea of an Expert by Experience in social exclusion is a response to the missing link. A missing link between the policy makers or the aid providers of all services with which the excluded persons are confronted, and the excluded persons themselves. This missing link is partly responsible for the fact that exclusion persists. Our point of view is that the function of experts by training is complementary to that of Experts by Experience, with who they co-operate. People who are socially excluded have experience in exclusion. But to have the capacity to apply their experiences they need training. Trained Experts by Experience in social exclusion are people who have personally experienced exclusion, who have coped with this experience and extended it to a broader experience in exclusion. They have acquired attitudes, skills and knowledge through training in order to apply the extended exclusion experience professionally in all areas of the fight against social exclusion. Nowadays Experts by Experience play an important role in facilitating participation in society for all kind of groups who are excluded. Social exclusion is a problem for people living in poverty, for people with psychiatric backgrounds or addiction problems, and also for groups of immigrants. It is also a problem for society who declares to want a society with general well-being for everyone.

The project contains four parts: preparation, training, employment and evaluation. The objectives are growing from the needs and the acknowledges of all the partners.

A description will be made of the definition of the Experts by Experience and social inclusion, the training programs, the job profile, and the places where they are employed, their level and their position in the workplaces. It will be a description of the highest common factor of all the partners' projects.

In this part four products will be developed:
A. "train the trainer" programs for the Experts by Experience (EE), the experts by training and for the tandems;
B. a tool with 'examples of tandem working' in real work situations; This tool has two aims. It will be an instrument to stimulate the reflection of the tandem on the effects of their interventions on the growth of the excluded persons. This tool will also be an instrument to stimulate the reflection about the complementary roles of the experts by experience and the experts by training in the tandem. It gives us more knowledge about the complementarities of both functions also.
C. a tool for improving the learning process in the field of the 'life stories' - it will create a personal evaluation instrument for the students, so that they have the possibility to follow their own growth and empowerment;
D. exchange programs for sharing experiences between trainees and tandems.

In this part three products will be developed:
A. a methodology to address employers;
B.organizational preconditions and the necessary organizational changes for the employment of the EE's;
C. coaching programs on the job for the EE's in the scope of human resources management.

A special research instruments will be developed for describing results for the evaluation of the training program, of the coaching and of the effects on social inclusion. The foundation of this approach and the underlying knowledge will be described.  

This Pilot project could flow into a new co-operation between a wider partnership on the level of the European institutes, in relationship to the approach of the experts by experience and the experts by training as social inclusion workers.

To read more about this project click here

For more information about European Commission projects see:
ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm

The information given above is the sole responsibility of Global Initiative on Psychiatry and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.