We have recently released the event report of our annual Extreme Destitution Network meeting, organised last month in Copenhagen (Denmark).

The meeting took place on 22-23 November, hosted by our Danish member Kirkens Korshaer. Around 12 participants from several Eurodiaconia member organisations – from France, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Sweden and Ukraine – came together for two days to share best practices and learn more about how the involvement of vulnerable users as actors of projects is a key element to foster social inclusion. The meeting aimed particularly at exchanging best practices of members adapting their way of working to better involve their users.

On the first day, the participants had the opportunity to learn more about the work of Kirkens Korshaer in Denmark and received updates on the work of Eurodiaconia as well as recent policy developments at EU level in relation to extreme destitution. During a roundtable session, participants shared their observations and concerns related to extreme destitution and poverty in their countries.

On the second day, members from France, Iceland and Italy were invited to share their projects with the rest of the participants explaining why and how they involved users in their projects. Based on these presentations and following discussions, participants worked in groups to develop some guidelines on user involvement in social services. They exchanged on the purpose of user involvement, the path and steps linked to user involvement but also on the challenges.

Finally, participants had the chance to visit Byarbejdet Christianshavn, a centre run by Kirkens Korshaer with a second-hand shop, a playroom for children and providing social work, shared meals and activities for vulnerable families. During the study visit, the participants had also the opportunity to exchange with one of the managers of Fodevarebanken the Food Banks organisation in Denmark.

 

To know more about our Extreme Destitution Network meeting in Copenhagen, please read the full report.

As a follow-up of the Extreme Destitution Network meeting as well as of our advocacy work on the topic, we will publish a new Mapping on User Involvement in January 2019. Stay tuned on our website!