Good practice:

INNOES

The Social Innovation Incubator was created by Caritas of the Przemyśl Archdiocese in partnership with the Podkarpacki Entrepreneurship Academy in frame of a project entitled "INNOES - Grant program for social innovation in the area of accessibility", co-financed by the European Social Fund under the Knowledge Education Development Operational Program 2014-2020, Priority Axis IV Social innovations and transnational cooperation, Measure 4.1 Social innovations. For the last 2 years the Incubator has supported activities aimed at improving the quality of life of people with disabilities and the elderly with limited perception and mobility. The Social Innovation Incubator is a place where people, legal persons, self-employed and entities with ideas for social innovations can benefit from experts support when developing, testing and implementing ideas and may apply for financial support for their implementation. Each social innovation could apply for the grant of maximum value 40 950,00 PLN (appx. 9100 EUR). It is planned that up to 50 organizations can receive grants. The Social Innovation Incubator operates within the Podkarpackie Regional Social Economy Support Center and aims to implement measures to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and elderly people with limited perception and / or mobility.

Project value 4.237.149,70 PLN
Project team: 5 full time employees are involved in all the project tasks - coordinator, financial manager and specialists who help social innovators. 3 offices which are situated in 3 different cities of the region provide a proper access to the project team.

Up to now 18 people and organizations received grants for social innovations. All help elderly and disabled people in ordinary life. Each support amounted between 18000,00 to 40950,00 PLN. The total amount of the grants so far reached 681111,11 PLN. Innovations which received grants: Mobile Library; Webinar German language course for disabled people; Open seizure detector of epilepsy attacks and falls; Shopping bag with fasteners for for a wheelchair trolley; Mobi Seni App.

At present population in European countries is aging. Every year there are more and more elderly people who need care and attention. Moreover there is a shortage of qualified staff in the field of elderly care on the labour market. Social innovations for people with disabilities and the elderly with limited perception and mobility can be a solution for this important problem and can improve the life of those people. Many people and organizations have innovative solutions but due to lack of funds cannot develope, test and introduce them in practice. European funds are still available. 18 grants for social innovations proves theat there is a need for such projects.