Resilience Through Empathy Learning, Bridging Digital and Social Gaps

<< Background >>Resilience and empathy are key protector factors in a world of uncertainty and changing contexts, caused by pandemics, wars, economic crises, rapid digitalizing and urbanization and other disruptions. These sudden disruptions in society lead to more and social problems, such as stress and depression, obesity, environment-related diseases and addictive behavior. New social problems keep emerging. In situations of vulnerability, it is important to empower people to fight for their rights and remain socially included. Learning skills and methods to cope with unexpected emergencies and to cope with problems is the way forward.The Re-Empathy learning program, methods and tools contribute to promote emotional literacy and resilience for people in distress making them more capable to face crises and disrupted events. The online learning environments also enhance digital skills and encourage also people in remote area to use innovative tools to communicate with other people in the similar life situation or with similar job functions.The Re-Empathy training program was demonstrated with teacher, trainers, mentors, coaches and with people and distress in Denmark, Italy, and Portugal and other participants from EU countries. << Objectives >>The main objective was to make the contents, tools and methodologies developed in a previous project available to a wider audience via a user-friendly eLearning platform to foster emotional literacy and resilience for people in distress. The project’s target groups were adult education professionals, such as mentors, coaches, trainers and teachers, educators as well as social professionals, including social workers, psychologists, sociologists, social educators, social service providers in formal, non-formal and informal learning. Since many professional and their clients in the target group were not used to use distance learning and digitalized content the Re-Empathy put great efforts into designing the learning environment into an easily accessible platform with highly motivational courses, including games, short quizzes and tests, intuitive to use with the final target group.Through training and empowering the professionals and providing free access to tools and methodologies they can then motivate and empower adults in distress to cope and adapt to changes and uncertainties through personal and social learning processes and competence development to foster resilience.This objective has been achieved and will keep going on. << Implementation >>Project objectives where achieved, on time, and deliverables were available on time, with an efficient project budget use by ADCL. Regular project meetings (recorded) using the meeting BigBlueButton tool integrated into the learning platform were organized: online kick-off meeting, 14th Nov. 2022; Kick-off meeting in Rome, 11-13 Jan. 2023, hosted by CIAPE, Italy; Monitoring online meetings: 31th Mar., 3th July, 11th Sept. and 30th Oct. 2023; Final online meeting 29th Dec. 2023, planning the sustainability and exploitation of the outcomes.All outcomes were developed: Design of the Re-Empathy learning platform by Leading Interactive: https://re.empathy-learning.eu/ (acess data on the annex 1); Bootcamp in Denmark, 8-12 May 2023, 10 participants, by Ed-consult; Resilience through Empathy Learning Course, with 10 learning modules authored and designed by ADCL, CIAPE and ed-consult available at https://re.empathy-learning.eu/login/index.php.Dissemination and Sustainability: Redesign of the previous Empathy logo; Dissemination on The Empathy Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/EmpathyinNFE; Dissemination on LinkedIn, regional Meet-ups, workshops and meetings with EWEMA; Final Online project Conference, Tuesday Dec.19th 2023.<< Results >>The most tangible result was the Re-Empathy learning platform: https://re.empathy-learning.eu/ with ten interactive and game-based training modules, certified with badges and a certificate. (evidence in annex 1). The learning platform is user-friendly and simplified, based on the open source Moodle platform, with contents and methodologies for the capacity building of professionals and for integrating adults in distress. The platform includes social learning elements such as for a and a big-blue button for instant face-to-face meetings.All project partners have been very engaged with target groups, final beneficiaries, stakeholders and staff in the organization’s and involved them to test the user-friendliness of the learning platform.Some learners only completed online modules, others attended received onsite support in training meet-ups, where we guided the learners through the modules. 75 people were registered and about 50 learners participated in the usability survey. The project finished with a final European onsite conference. There was a high satisfaction and further meet-ups are planned. The RE-Empathy training program will be sustained, enhanced and further developed at least for another five years.