Welcome to Assets Communication
An introduction
Assets Communication is the result of a collaboration between several higher educational institutions and stakeholders working together in partnership to create and develop Collaborative Open Educational Resources (COERS) across Europe as part of a European funded Erasmus plus project. The Erasmus plus project is called ‘Designing Collaborative Educational Resources (COERS) for Assets-Based Community Participation (ABCP) across Europe’ and began in December 2016. The main objective of the project is to foster cooperation for innovation, the exchange of good practices and strategic partnerships for higher education.
The Assets Com project is focused on developing innovative and open inter-professional educational resources that can be used in the further training of public sector practitioners and a range of community focused practitioners as a means of equipping them with the skills needed to foster inter-agency and inter-generational connectivity, mobilise existing community assets and engage in pioneering forms of collaboration. In so doing practitioners will become able to nurture increased participation and social capital and reduce levels of fear and distrust in the most disadvantaged communities across Europe. Importantly the proposed project will address the implementation of the 2013 Communication on Opening up Education by helping learning institutions, teachers and learners to acquire digital skills and learning methods and supporting the development and availability of open educational resources.
Project summary
In spite of general declines in levels of youth crime across Europe it has been found that local people living in deprived densely populated urban areas are more likely to have high perceptions of youth disorder and to view young people’s behaviour as problematic. Further, evidence suggests that relationships between young people living in socially deprived communities and other local residents are often fraught with mutual distrust and stereotyping. Building on the Strength-Based Approach used in social work, the principles associated with Assets-Based Community Development rely on true empowerment of local residents and community groups while significantly adjusting the mind-sets of service providers to create equilibrium of understanding and avoid a deficit view of young people and disadvantaged communities.
The project aims to design Collaborative Open Educational Resources (COERS) in the form of innovative inter-professional educational resources to enable professionals and practitioners to implement an assets-based approach to foster inter-agency and inter-generational connectivity. In turn, these approaches will nurture and mobilise existing community assets and encourage pioneering collaborative approaches towards enhancing local community participation. The first phase of the project will culminate in the co-production of comparative case studies from across northern, central and Eastern Europe illustrating traditional and assets-based approaches to youth crime prevention and inter-generational community participation from different professional perspectives. A stakeholder led gap analysis will examine what is required to enable inter-professional teams to implement assets-based approaches to youth crime prevention and promote positive inter-generational community participation initiatives. The second implementation phase of the project will see the development and piloting of an innovative virtual inter-professional learning environment and validated module materials in a range of languages.
Project outputs
The specific objectives and outcomes are as follows:
Phase 1 Objective: an inter-professional understanding of Assets based approaches to Community Participation to combat youth crime and promote positive inter-generational communication and community participation.
Phase 1 Outcomes:
1.1) A stakeholder led gap analysis of what is required to enable inter-professional teams to implement assets based approaches to youth crime prevention and promote positive inter-generational community participation initiatives. This process will produce a toolkit that can be used across geographical and socio-cultural contexts.
1.2) Comparative case studies from the partner countries illustrating traditional and assets based approaches to youth crime prevention and inter-generational community participation from different professional perspectives.
Phase 2 objective: Develop innovative collaborative educational resources to transform the way in which a range of professional groups and community stakeholders work with disadvantaged communities.
Phase 2 Outcomes:
2.1) A learning and facilitation framework based on a pedagogical and impact study review of case based collaborative elearning resources and facilitation methods and interventions.
2.2) An online collaborative learning environment for module delivery based on a case based learning approach and a Community Assets Based learning facilitator manual and student handbook outlining the pedagogy of a case based approach and how to use the collaborative educational resources in a range of European languages.
2.3) Validated inter-professional modules that will provide the basis for an International Masters programme in Assets based approaches to community participation.
The web link and the title of the COERs course are listed below. If you copy and paste the web link into your browser URL you will be taken to the Open University Open Learn Create website which hosts our course.
COERs Course title: Assets Based Working with Communities
COERS Web Address: http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/view.php?id=2773