Background of the project

CRISING project aims to develop social work education to better tackle societal challenges especially in crisis management. The project strengthens social sustainability and resilience in societies by recognizing social work as one key element in international crisis management and increases knowledge on competence requirements in social work.

The project develops skills on how to build trust with diverse groups and protect and support those in most vulnerable situations during crisis by developing training in social work and involving target groups into the development. The aim is to promote active participation and inclusion for people who have suffered from crisis or are displaced from their own communities.

The project focuses on identifying and building competences in social work education as well as networking with multiprofessional stakeholders. Though the current social work education provides skills in working with diverse people and promoting inclusion and participation, studies show there are significant competence gaps when it comes to working in international crises management or humanitarian aid situations. There is a need to develop further training and new career opportunities for social workers as the need for qualified professionals is growing.

The project is coordinated by Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland). Project partners are Abilis Foundation (Finland), Berlin School of Economics and Law (Germany), VIVES University of Applied Sciences (Belgium), Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and University of Gdańsk (Poland).

Objectives

The main objective is to identify and recognize the role and core competences of international social work in crisis management operations and develop an inclusive and participatory curriculum and e-learning for higher education.

The aim is to increase career and training opportunities in crisis management for social workers and other professionals for Europe to be better equipped to train new professionals in international social work and face future crisis.

Activities

To achieve the objectives of the project, we carry out the following activities:

• Mapping and analyzing the operational context of crisis management and the role and competences of social work.
• Mapping experiences of target groups in focus group interviews.
• Organizing dialogical multiprofessional workshops to identify best practices, core competences and promote learning.
• Implementing a pilot course (MOOC) on international social work in crisis management.
• Producing training materials, videos and articles.
• Dissemination activities through seminars, webinars and social media.