NEF project: Digital and empowerment in social work training – it’s on!

How can we strengthen the empowerment of vulnerable people in the digital age? That’s the core question of the Erasmus+ project NEF – Digital and Empowerment in Social Work Training (cooperation partnership) launched in November 2024 for a three-year journey.

NEF starts with a simple fact: access to rights and autonomy increasingly depends on digital tools — yet not everyone has equal access. This project aims to identify, promote, and co-develop innovative tools and practices to make digital technology a true driver of self-determination for vulnerable people!

Empowerment, in the NEF context, means giving each person the means to act on their own life by directly involving them in decisions, choices and tools that affect them. It also means adopting a “working with” approach in social work, where professionals become facilitators of autonomy.

What NEF is doing:

• identifying and promoting existing empowerment practices across Europe,
• designing and testing digital training modules for social workers,
• adapting and testing a dedicated digital tool with users,
• disseminating results at national and European level.

Our main target audiences:

Vulnerable people (in situations of disability, precarity, digital exclusion…) are directly involved in every step of the project.

Social workers and students in social work, who support these groups on a daily basis.

A committed and complementary partnership:

• IRTS Hauts-de-France (France), project coordinator and expert in social work training;
• Habble (France), developer of digital solutions to support people with disabilities and promote autonomy;
• CNASR (Romania), National College of Social Workers of Romania, representing a professional network of 11,800 members;
• ASSOC (Romania), a grassroots organisation that has been committed to the social inclusion of vulnerable groups for 30 years.
• Logopsycom (Belgium), educational innovation center focused on inclusion and digital tools;
• Aproximar (Portugal), Portuguese cooperative promoting social policy and empowerment.

Stay tuned! The NEF project has just begun — we’ll be sharing updates, calls for contributions and results regularly!