There is no space in our society for homeless people (HL people), no matter if the traveller takes the road in search of freedom or runs away from difficult situations; The streets sometimes mean giving up materialism in search of adventure, but in many cases it is a journey that involves invisibility, negative perceptions, exploitation, criminalization, addictions and loneliness, all of this affects the reality of HL people, who quickly forget their previous lives and become just homeless. As human beings we have an innate need to connect with other people, connections give meaning to our lives; we want to be present for the people we love and for the things we love to do. HL people are blamed and criminalized, as an incentive for them to stop being homeless, however, we are only putting barriers to their re-connection. They may reach their lowest point when they lose hope, and are no longer able to bear to be present, then see themselves immersed in destructive paths.In Spain it is estimated that there are more than 30,000 HL people, of which about 30% have mental illness and 11% schizophrenia. This situation confirms that far from integrating vulnerable people, society expels them. ATL project proposes a genuine way to solve the so far intractable problem of homelessness: Investing in their experience and equipping them to be able to reconnect other HL people. ATL will improve HL people’s situations through the specific creation of tailor-made training opportunities and also, stable employment. ATL will train them in something that no one is more suitable than HL people themselves: Supporting third sector organizations to decrease the number of HL people by adopting the role of Journey Certified Supporters (JCS). JCS will support other HL people from the inside, in an unconditional, non-judgmental, respecting and valuing way to build and help building happy, fulfilling and connected lives. ATL Training Model objectives: (1) Provide professionals working with homeless people (PwHL) with global and comprehensive training solutions to address target groups' individual situations.(2) Jointly design an innovative training model and methodology, integrated in other services, which provides HL people with real self-actualizing opportunities and also practical and sustainable job solutions. The goal: to re-enter society and support others to take the necessary steps towards it.(3) Sustain happy and connecting lives among HL people by providing them with a sense of identity and purpose as Journey Certified Supporters (JCS) and by re-connecting them with their communities.(4) Reduce the number of HL people and the likelihood that someone will experience homelessness in the future.(5) Employ a number of JCS and promote others on the labour market to establish a dynamic and sustainable employment system.A team of experts specialized in working with HL people (AP, P2, P3, P4, P5), in Peer support (AP, P2) and in Restorative Justice (P1) will jointly create an innovative tailor-made training program based on individual case management, covering knowledge, skills, practice and values of supporting others, with elements of Restorative Justice, to restore family ties and reconnect them with friends and fellows as a protecting factor. In contrast to traditional approaches, ATL Training Model is a methodology that seeks to create value for others not only offering HL people something but training them to contribute within their communities by using their own experience effectively in helping others. These are ATL Training Model main activities: (1) To design and test a training programme fully transferable which includes a teaching/training curriculum and supporting materials, addressed to professionals and needed to certify HL people as JCS. (2) To create an Online Training Service, where PwHL will find all the information needed to replicate ATL Training Model, including: JCS Online programme, JCS Vocational Qualification, readers’ digest systems and ATL Serious Board Game.(3) Organise an awareness-raising campaign to not only promote a change in third sector organizations' model to address the situation of HL people, but as equally important, to deeper the understanding of homelessness locally and change people’s perceptions, promote reporting, dispel stigma and target the causes that fuel intolerance or invisibility of our target groups.ATL will, in this way, provide an innovative training model, not being applied in any place yet, which takes advantage of HL people's previous knowledge and skills, to allow them to pass from being excluded to take an active role helping others.ATL Training Model goes beyond and supports 'Housing First' movements by helping HL people to also accommodate what they have lived on the streets and offer them real opportunities for training, employment and reconnection.

Individuals who are homeless are likely to have experienced some form of previous trauma in their lives; indeed the experience of being homelessness can be seen as a traumatic experience in its own right. Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) and Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) offer a framework for providing services to traumatised individuals who have or are experiencing homelessness. Both Trauma Informed Care and Psychologically Informed Environments do​ not rely on either diagnosis or formal therapy. What they do create is a framework that emphasises the impact that trauma has had on an individual and encourages the development of strategies to better respond to the needs of trauma survivors. A number of homeless services in Europe have begun to implement trauma-informed services or use psychologically informed environments there is great variability in how these services are implemented. Many Homeless and mentla health support providers have an emerging awareness of the potential importance of TIC and PIE in homeless services, the meaning of TIC and PIE remains unclear to some. How to incorporate them into an organisation can often be unclear.This project aims to give front line staff and organisations who work with people who are homeless and have a mental health support needs a better understanding in TIC and PIE and how to incorporate them into their therapeutic approaches to supporting these people.The Europe 2020 strategy puts Work Based Learning, along with the quality and relevance of education and training at the core to its efforts to improve inclusion. In ‘Agenda for new skills and jobs - A European contribution towards full employment’, (European Commission 2010) participation in Work-based Learning is encouraged across the union and in the 2017 report “Teachers and trainers in work-based learning/apprenticeships” found that Work-based learning in Vocational education and training provides important benefits This project recognises that to achieve this with reference to Trauma Informed Care (TIC) and Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) it is necessary to increase the competencies of organisations and staff and to meet the needs of service users, involves collaborating with best practice providers across Europe, to learn and develop Work Based Learning. Over two years, 3 seminars will take place cover;1.Introduction to Psychologically Informed Environments and Trauma Informed Care (theory, methodology, and practice)2.Application of Psychologically Informed Environments and Trauma Informed Care in the practical Context 3.Challenges and Problems with applying Psychologically Informed Environments and Trauma Informed Care Each seminar will take place over 4 days and will be broken down into 4 days 1. TIC and PIE project/services visits2. Talks on TIC and PIE3. Workshops on TIC and PIE4. Evaluation/reflection day. During these four-day seminars leaders in best practice will give insight into how they use Trauma Informed Care and Psychologically Informed Care can be used to support those who use their services. Inspiring change in services across Europe and imparting greater understanding on the practicalities of what TIC and PIE are in practice and not just in theory.Central to each seminar will be the voice and experience of those who use and are supported by homeless services in Europe. Visits to projects to see PIE and TIC being used in a practical setting and to allow experts to show how TIC and PIE can be used to improve a service will also be central to each seminar. The larger objectives of the project are;To develop core competencies​ of staff working in homeless organisations across Europe on Trauma Informed Care and Psychologically Informed Environments through talks, workshops and service visits.To begin a social dialogue on how best to implement Trauma Informed Care and Psychotically Informed Environments in services To improve the health and well being of Service Users in participating organisations and wider Homeless and mental health services in EuropeTo recognise the importance of informal learning via sharing best practices Provide participants with the skills to recognize the impact of trauma and encourages the development of strategies for better responding to the needs of trauma survivors.Embedding of TIC and PIE methods into the strategy of partner organisationsStaff training will have a strong emphasis on these models and methodsImproved quality of service -providing effective, medically-evidenced care models for those most at risk.Enhanced capacity and expertise across the services

"<< Background >>CONTEXT/BACKGROUND WHY despite increasing the number and diversity of services offered, despite professionalism and important training for workers, despite increasing social and health budget, especially in many metropoles, a certain number of homeless and mentally ill people - seemed - preferred to stay on the street rather than accept the solution offered by the services ? Are the interventions integrate social & health, coherent with real request of person in need, respectful of the dignity, accessible to marginalized and excluded people everywhere they are, congruent and sustainable?Are sufficient and adequate services in emergency centers?FROM ASSISTANCE TO PARTICIPATION To identify models and good practices to facilitate ACCESS of homeless people to SERVICES and to enable social and health workers, of public and private sectors to meet Homeless Mentally Ill People where they are. The Dignity and Well-being (D-&-WB) SMES project to address especially at those workers who are particularly confronted with people living on the margins, with complex social & health problems and needs. The project propose these specific objectives:1.Promote and facilitate networking and a great collaboration among the workers of Institutions, Organizations, Associations involved in the ‘extreme precariousness’ field, in order to achieve effective synergies and transform the different daily practices into effective networking models.2.Building the capacities of each participant, through international and intersectoral exchanges, through study's visits, workshops promoting listening and confrontation about the differences both of the problems and of the methodologies and adequate and efficient answers to be adapted3.Identify efficient and innovative services and structures able to prevent the chronicity of problems sometimes only social or health problems, recommending absolute priorities both in terms of prevention and sustainability.4.Involve all civil society: politicians, administrators, citizens and media, because this is a structural problem of society and not only and specific for professional workers .5.Life-long learning: taking advantage of this opportunity to continue in this initiative by fostering the progressive establishment of a network that aims at continue even after the project has been completed.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS This project will to involve partners working in 4 different sectors, who are 4 pillars in supporting inclusive and participative projects: 1. Social Assistance; 2. Mental health; 3. Housing sector; 4. Participation citizenship, at least from four European countries. To involve in co-working professional workers in social – health - mental health field, in private and public services, including volunteers’ people, who, day by day, are faced with a set of old and new issues, complex needs, with political and social pressures, far from the ethical respect of person dignity.DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES1.Four STUDY’s VISITS of SERVICES in 4 European countries, each two months, concerning the 4th fields : social – health – housing – recovery, including 4th inter-vision workshops after study's visits program - in order to deepest exchange visions about people – services – method, collecting through a common protocol and final small seminar . 2. Four WEBINARS alternating with study visits in order deepest analyse the PROFILES / Narratives collected by Each Partner about ‘PERSON’ in need and ‘SERVICES’ offered concerning accessibility and quality - congruence & sustainability. These Profiles will be collected in final synthetic report.3.EVENT & CONFERENCE: plaidoyer - 1st semester 2023 : event at Eu Parliament Brussels; - 2nd semester 2023 : XV Conference SMES in RomeMETHODOLOGY to be used in carrying out the project :1.Observe : visiting the services system listen and observe and participate in inter-vision meetings with the colleagues<< Objectives >>Objectives of the projectThe title of our project ‘Person First’ was chosen by analogy with the ‘Housing First’ approach in the fight against homelessness. Without denying the importance and effectiveness of Housing First policies, our project starts from the premise that shelters and related services will keep playing an indispensable role as ‘entry-level’ services for homeless people. The fact that tens of thousands of people still live and sleep in the streets of Europe, despite the existence of shelters, calls into question the quality of these services: apparently, there is a mismatch between the needs of homeless persons and the services offered to them. Homelessness is often a state of mental rather than material distress. Instead of reducing the role of shelters to basic material services (a roof, a bed, a shower, a breakfast etc.) we see shelters as a person-centered place of encounter (crossroads), diagnosis (observatory) and re-connecting (bridge). The fight against homelessness and housing exclusion is gaining momentum in European social policy. The covid-19 crisis has raised awareness of the poor hygienic conditions in reception facilities. New sanitary regulations will most probably force shelters to invest in more decent infrastructure and, in this sense, contribute to enhancing the quality of the services on offer. The lockdown measures also revealed the need for more integrated service provision – including mental healthcare, as residents had to stay in shelters 24/7 and for longer periods. Interestingly, homeless services as well as policy makers discovered the effectiveness of integrated approaches. This experience will undoubtedly inform the implementation of Principle 19c of the European Pillar of Social Rights (‘adequate shelter and services for homeless people in order to promote their social inclusion’). Through a combination of peer learning, research, training and dissemination, our project aims to contribute to a set of social minimum standards for the quality of emergency (or should we say ‘re-emergence’?) services for homeless people. Our project will also include opportunities for dialogue with (self-organisations of) homeless people, so that they can voice their own needs and expectations from services. In the final stage, we aim to share our conclusions with national and European policy makers, because national action plans to fight homelessness should raise the quality - and European social minimum standards should prevent the degradation of services in regions / cities where homeless services are being commercialised.FROM ASSISTANCE TO PARTICIPATION that's the main objective of ""Dignity and Well-being”To identify models and good practices to facilitate ACCESS of homeless people to SERVICES and to enable social and health workers, of public and private sectors to meet HOMELESS mentally ill people where they are. The D-&-WB project to address especially at those who are particularly confronted with people living on the margins, with complex social & health problems and needs. We propose these specific objectives:1)Promote and facilitate networking and a great collaboration among the workers of Institutions, Organizations, Associations involved in the ‘extreme precariousness’ field, in order to achieve effective synergies and transform the different daily practices into effective networking models.2)Building the capacities of each participant, through international and intersectoral exchanges, through study's visits, workshops promoting listening and confrontation about the differences both of the problems and of the methodologies and adequate and efficient answers to be adapted3)Identify efficient and innovative services and structures able to prevent the chronicisation of problems sometimes only social or health problems, recommending absolute priorities both in terms of prevention and<< Implementation >>DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES1)Three STUDY’s VISITS of SERVICES in three European countries, concerning Social Assistance Services – Health/Mental health Services – Home / housing services 2)Three WORKSHOPS and small seminar - after study's visits program - in order to deepest exchange visions about people – services – method, collecting through a common protocol.3)PROFILES collected by Each Partner about SERVICES and PERSON in need, concerning accessibility and welcome - e-quality and congruence - sustainability and care. These Profiles will be collected in final synthetic report.4)EVENT & CONFERENCE: Plaidoyer Event in 1st semester 2023 at Eu Parliament; XV Conference SMES in Rome (1992-2023) 2nd semester<< Results >>1.Improving the knowledge of professionals2.Participation of the institution and policy makers in health and social services3.Participation of formal and informal training4.Transforming the charitable approach with homeless in respect of the fundamental rights5.Building capacity to co-working together: public & private services – health & social sectors6.Improving knowledge about complex needs and adequate answer."

The project Dignity & Well-Being: exchange for changing (D&WB) aimed at creating a strategic partnership for vocational education and training of professionals working with homeless and refugees with a special focus on the most deprived and severely mentally ill as well as promoting improvements in terms of quality, innovation and excellence in the training of professional workers in social and mental health field, especially for those working with homeless and refugees with mental illness.To accomplish these two general objectives, based on an international network of professionals working with homeless in different kinds of organizations and countries, the project developed four Short term joint staff training events that consisted on the presentation and discussions of cases studies, which allowed to identify and learn new and innovative solutions and, at the same time, to produce a manual, a training curriculum and training tools that can be shared and spread among other professionals and organizations.The project network included eight organizations that have a long experience on the delivery of services to the mentally ill and the most social excluded, combining organizations from both the public and private, as well as the health and social sectors.It used a methodology based on intervision by peers in Short term joint staff training events with relatively small groups of experienced professionals. Through a program of visits and workshops, the participants had the opportunity to present case profiles, focused on situations of homelessness, to evaluate similarities and differences in the difficulties and interventions and to identify good practices considering the four pillars initially identified (Social, Health, Housing and Recovery) and three beams introduced during the project (Outreach, Networking and Staff care).From these four Short term joint staff training events and a lot of research work between them, resulted two intellectual outputs: A training curriculum aimed at the grounding of professionals working in the social and of mental health areas to understand and respond appropriately to the needs of homeless people and a manual reflecting practical approaches to working with homeless people with mental health problems.Both intellectual outputs are complementary and can be used in the delivery of lifelong learning activities aimed at the professionals working with the homeless.The Multiplier Event gave the opportunity to present the Intellectual Outputs and to discuss the conclusions of the project with a wider forum, with more participants and experts from other countries outside the partnership.The partners implemented several dissemination activities taking the results of the project to a wider audience, raising the awareness of the complexity of homeless conditions. The dissemination of the project was, therefore, an opportunity to disseminate values and information on the approach to these complex problems and the mentioned audience are the main stakeholders but, at the same time, the vehicle to spread information and training tools that will help professionals in their efforts to fight social exclusion.Partners will continue to develop activities of the same scope and promote new projects together or with other partners in the context of a wider international network of professionals working with homeless in different kinds of organizations and countries.