The workshop, held at “Tochka Kipeniya - Petrozavodsk” premises, gathered over 50 participants, including social service providers, representatives of NGOs, businesses, authorities. The aim of the workshop was to familiarize the participants with the methods of empowering vulnerable groups for designing social innovation, which have been worked out previously in the international project SEMPRE. The programme included a presentation of the project, panel discussion on current challenges for the system of social services in the region, group work, and a foresight session for identifying the prerequisites for user involvement in social service design and improvement.

KarRC RAS staff involved in organizing and implementing the workshop included Leading Specialist of the Department for International Cooperation A. Smirnova, Researcher at the Laboratory for Digital Technology in Regional Development E. Konovalchikova, and staff of the KarRC RAS Institute of Economics: Director T. Morozova, Senior Researcher R. Belaya, Junior Researcher A. Bykova.

SEMPRE Accelerators project activities continued on February 13th. Project Coordinator Doris Scheer (Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein) and Project Partner Annette Nielsen (University College South Denmark) were introduced to the work of two Karelian NGOs. At first, the guests visited the Dom na Skale NGO, which focuses on assistance in rehabilitation of people with a substance abuse background. SEMPRE project participants also visited the regional NGO Preodoleniye, based in Kondopoga. The organization offers help to people with mental disabilities, and one of its areas of activity – art workshop “Karakuli (Scrawls)” was introduced in more detail.

The aim of the SEMPRE Accelerators project is to test the tools for improving the quality of social services and designing innovative social techniques, in particular in social entrepreneurship. Such tools are meant to enable interactions between social service provides and social service users and their environment in order to empower them.
Based on the results of the work on these two days and feedback from the workshop participants, the action plan for SEMPRE project implementation in the Republic of Karelia and Kaliningrad will be produced.

SEMPRE Accelerators project is implemented within the Interreg Baltic Sea Region 2014 – 2020 Programme and financed by the European Regional Development Fund with financial support from the Russian Federation.