We are approaching the final stages of the EAER project. On February 17th 2021, the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work organised ‘Digital EAER Day 2021’ to showcase all the work we have done. The EAER days were designed to connect the EAER programme with the local and regional Social Networks for people in recovery. The digital event turned out to be ‘lovely’.

EAER Final Stages

The first Dutch EAER days were on October 10th, 2019. The second Dutch EAER days were held on Wednesday February 17th, 2021. It was very important to organize this 2nd event in the final stages of the EAER project. The European Action for Employment in Recovery (EAER) project is a partnership of four European organisations with the aim to use collective knowledge to create resources that would help people in recovery access employment and to share knowledge and practice with other organisations working in employability projects with people who have a history of problem drug use. The partners have produced some amazing intelectual outputs which were showcased during the 90 minutes of the Zoom meeting.

EAER Day Highlights

The Dutch EAER Day digital zoom event of February 17th 2021 highlighted the resources created for the .@EAERpartnership project and presentations including:

• An Overview and Examples of good practice in Employability and Recovery
• DPI SocialMe Supportpackages
• SocialMe Workshop(s)

Feedback

The feedback at the end of the Dutch digital EAER Day event was very positive. On a scale from 1 tot 5 stars, 27 participants rated the presentations on 4,5 stars. We expect that the local and regional Dutch organisations will use the guides, tools and instruments developed by the EAER partnership.

‘I expect to make a lot of use of the Social Me support packages’

‘It was a lovely EAER day. I thought it was very interesting and learnt a lot of being more professional on social media’.

On Tuesday 9 February 2021, between 9:30 am-12:30 pm the final online event of the EAER Project showcased all the work produced by the partnership.

The European Action for Employment in Recovery (EAER) project is a partnership of four European organisations with the aim to use collective knowledge to create resources that would help people in recovery access employment and to share knowledge and practice with other organisations working in employability projects with people who have a history of problem drug use.

The event highlighted the resources created for the project and presentations included;

• Examples of good practice in employability and recovery
• An overview of a good practice guide to training, support, and qualifications across Europe.
• EAER online platform which will host the EAER project with a number of interactive features
• SocialMe and digital identity

More then 112 participants register and joined the multiplier event.

EAER partners

The EAER partners are:

• Scottish Drugs Forum (Scotland)
• Dutch Foundation Innovation in Welfare 2 Work (Netherlands)
• Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento (Portugal)
• Comunità “La Tenda” Cooperativa Sociale (Italy)

People who have a history of drug and alcohol problems, and those who are current problem drug users face significant social and economic inequalities and are marginalised within society particularly in terms of their education, training, and employment. Long term drug users can face a cycle of disadvantage where poor school experiences lead to low participation in post-school education and less work experience and so less vocational training. Their employment prospects are greatly reduced as are other factors including confidence and understanding of the labour market. They also face significant stigma from employers and others.

The project objectives of the EAER project are:

• To deliver positive and long-lasting effects on policy and participating organisations through building more employability and employment opportunities for people who use or have used substances
• To deliver positive and long-lasting effects on people participating in the programme through increased knowledge, skills, and motivation to improve services

GoToWebinar EAER

As said, more then 112 participants signed up and joined the online event. Speakers were Pieter van Schie (Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work, Colin Pomeroy (Scottish Drugs Forum), Diana Castro (APDES) and Valentina Chanina(La Tenda)