Good practice:

Pole aidant/aidé - The Center of resources for caregivers

It is non-profit association of the social economy sector coordinated by the an association delivering home care service to dependent people. The center for caregivers is a place open to carers, to share and deliver personalized support for non-professional caregivers and ageing people.
It is a center of multidisciplinary competences which is articulated around several areas of activities.
We deliver training for professional caregivers of the home helper to learn them in practice how to use smart and healthcare solutions. Part of these solutions are present at the educational apartment in the premises of the association. The apartment is also useful for experts in the field to evaluate candidates' skills through professional scenarios in a pre crecruitment phase. And finally we host two different spaces (including the educational aprtment) for respite of caregivers. Two rooms where dependent people and helpers can be accommodated simultaneously. It ensures temporary physical, emotional and social care for a dependent person and it allows to keep a social and relational life of the caregivers. There is moreover a showroom on technical and technological aids for home support which is used for testing smart care solutions.

The center has 4 full time employees and a yearly budget of about 200 000 euros. We organize a large range of workshops and trainings that are free of charge for caregivers.

The number of participants to workshops has more than doubled into four years of activity: from 15 to 4688 people. In 2019 we organized 365 workshops ( just 15 at the very beginning). We try to increase our offer co designing new workshops and trainings with our beneficiaries.

In order to insure a good participation a big communication campaign need to be plan to inform and disseminate about the initiative.

Key succes factor:
Have strong partnerships with local public institutions and their endorsement.
Be supported by local stakeholders ( organisations providing services to elderly depent people. The center is a mean to spread knowledge and deliver training concerning existing smart care solutions and to have an innovative approach to prevent loss of independency particularly for caregivers.

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