MIRADAS PARA VER LO INVISIBLE: LA EDUCACIÓN DE ADULTOS PARA LA INCLUSIÓN DE LAS PERSONAS SIN HOGAR ATENDIENDO A SUS CAUSAS Y SUS DIVERSIDADES

<< Background >>The most recent studies show that a new profile of homeless people, young LGTBIQ+ adults, has emerged as a direct consequence of the exclusion they suffer because of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation, which often ends in them being kicked out of their family home. This is already the leading cause of homelessness in Spain, and the situation is especially severe for people from already segregated backgrounds, such as the roma people.This new profile of homeless person lives in a situation without hope or prospects and is also subject to discrimination in all areas, leading in many cases to physical risk and harassment by violent groups. They are also people who have suffered the hatred and shame of their own family environment, who rejected them for who they are.For them, adult education is an ideal path to enhance their literacy and their educational and digital skills (after the frenetic digitalization we experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic) as a means to rejoin the regulated education system and access the training courses, aids, and medical care that currently require digital processes generated due to the pandemic.<< Objectives >>As a result of this context and the severe difficulties faced by these young adults, the four European entities DIVERSE YOUTH NETWORK (which defends the LGTBIQ+ collective), AGFD and 144 MIRACLES (for the roma people), and IN-SITU CLM (specialists in homelessness along with 144 MIRACLES) have sought to:‒ Develop an effective strategy for literacy and formal education that would adapt to the new profile of homeless people, favoring their reintegration into the formal education system through adult education as a means of building their lives and their futures.‒ Build an international and intersectoral network capable of supporting the inclusion of homeless young adults, improving our capabilities to answer effectively to their specific needs and the quality of our work by opening up to new agents who aren’t usually included in this sector from a transnational perspective.‒ Raise social awareness on homelessness by promoting active European citizenship, and bring the European dimension closer to the local level.‒ Promote the transformation of adult education to facilitate its access for homeless people.<< Implementation >>During the 27 months of the project we carried out multiple activities divided into 5 large groups:‒ MANAGEMENT ACT. of the project, including the SELECTION, TRAINING, EVALUATION, MONITORING, and HELP WITH THE INCLUSION OF THE PARTICIPANTS.‒ TRANSNATIONAL MEETINGS in Spain, France, and Hungary, that allowed us to create the educational and social strategy.‒ ACT. WITH HOMELESS PEOPLE TO GENERATE THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL ACTION PLAN, developing its strategy together with its own users, but also starting to implement and test it. To do this, we distributed backpacks with simple and appealing training contents, which were complemented with effective actions with teachers and trainers, both at street level and at the facilities of the partner entities.‒ ACT. WITH TEACHERS: TRAINING SESSIONS ON EDUCATION ON HOMELESSNESS, 2 day conference meetings in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real, Spain) with more than 40 teachers, trainers, and experts in adult education and homelessness.‒ PROMOTION ACT.: HOMELESS PEOPLE WEEK, thanks to meetings with high-profile political leaders, adult education centers, large social events to present the project, virtual actions, etc.<< Results >>In this project we have developed the “EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL ACTION PLAN: LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT OF HOMELESS PEOPLE SUBJECT TO MULTIPLE DISCRIMINATION”, which establishes the training and social care for homeless people in three stages:1.– Social care activities, in which backpacks with training contents were distributed, to be used by them during the long hours on the street.2.– Activities at street level in which teachers provided informal training on materials and could answer questions while providing them with primary care resources and services.3.– Formal education sessions at the facilities of the entities in which, in a warm and safe space, we carried out more traditional training actions.This project has also consolidated an international and intersectoral network, supported by FEANTSA and EAPN, and capable of adapting the work on homelessness to the new profile and aiming it towards adult education.Lastly, the project has had an absolutely positive impact on our entities thanks to the structural results, and on the users themselves by having achieved significant levels of inclusion, according to the follow-up studies we carried out.