SONYA

With a growing aging population, the EU faces increased demand for quality social elderly care. However, intricate legal and policy landscapes for Social Economy organizations (SEs) contribute to poor working conditions, gender bias and innovation challenges, hindering the provision of sustainable and inclusive social services by SEs. This is particularly exacerbated in rural areas, where access to facilities and technology deployment and logistics is complicated. The EU context is facing the urgent need for affordable services and to rethink the dominant recipient model of social care, which challenges the sense of dignity, identity and quality of life of both elderly people and care givers. SONYA emerges as a pioneering initiative to assess the role of SEs in retaining and attracting social elderly care workers to foster social innovation effectiveness in rural areas. Our vision seeks to scale up SEs successful activities beyond tool, support services and methods development by empowering SEs to develop participatory multi-actor networks and social and environmental community initiatives, identifying and transferring social innovations for inclusive employment and better working conditions while measuring impact with scientific precision for improving legal and policy frameworks supporting SEs. SONYA is implemented by a consortium of scientific partners with expertise in operationalising multi-actor participatory models, sustainability assessment, workers' rights and effective representation, and policy making; enabling entities representing 3 EU SEs models varying in size, network development and national context; and support actors. SONYA will facilitate a transition towards more respected, inclusive and valued social elderly care services, beyond medical care. Targeted SEs will be able to efficiently create quality jobs, contribute to equal opportunities and socioeconomic inclusion of disadvantaged groups and help revitalise EU’s rural and depopulated areas.