M-CARE newsletter 6

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Newsletter 6
M-Care(MobileTrainingforHomeandHealthCaregiverForPeoplewithDisabilitiesandOlderPeople-539913-LLP-1-2013-1-TR-LEONARDO-LMP)projecthasbeenfundedwithsupport
fromtheEuropeanCommission.Thisnewsletterreflectstheviewsonlyoftheauthor,andtheCommissioncannotbeheldresponsibleforanyusewhichmaybemadeoftheinformation
containedtherein.
Editorial
Welcome to the 6th and final M-CARE Newsletter.
It covers the final activities realized within the frame of the M-CARE pro-
ject in the period October — December 2015. This issue will make an
overview of actions and interventions made by all Partners in the last
project months, as well as will look forward to the future as well, with a
string of relevant future events announcements.
In the first section you can find information about the pilot phase in Bul-
garia, Belgium, Germany and Turkey. If you want to know how the test-
ing was run and what the main conclusions and recommendations are,
go to this heading of the Newsletter.
In the dissemination section you can learn more about final dissemina-
tion events of M-CARE project held in Brussels, Sofia, and Plovdiv. In
addition you will be informed about various dissemination events in
Partners’ countries where the project was promoted.
Last but not least the Newsletter ends with special section dedicated to
project sustainability. Here you will find news about how Partners en-
sure further use of M-CARE outcomes in their countries under the head-
ing “Sustainability”.
Don’t forget to follow the progress of the project on the official M-CARE
website which will remain active even after the end of the project. We
wish you a pleasant reading and in case you want to contact the editor’s
team, please use interprojectsbg@gmail.com.
The whole team of M-CARE project would like to thank all of you for
supporting us in the last two years. No matter that the project will end
on 31st December 2015 we would like to assure you that our efforts to
promote and mainstream the M-CARE training programme will continue
with the same enthusiasm and dedication.

M-CARE PILOT PHASE
Piloting in Turkey
The pilot phase ended
on the 23rd of De-
cember in Turkey with
the delivery of the
certificates of atten-
dance to the partici-
pants. A total of 20
participant completed
the training success-
fully. We had 3 trainers from the research group who were work-
ing with an academic degree in Gazi University. Two of them were
physiotherapist and one of them was working in vocational health
care school. They all have teaching and training experience since
they are expertise in that field.
In the first part of the piloting phase the participants were trained
by the lectures offered by the trainers. The main role of the train-
ers were to provide didactical support to the piloters, as well as to
give practical courses about some modules, like first aid, hygiene
and mobility. The practical sessions took place in the laboratories
of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy
and Rehabilitation at Gazi University. The piloters also had the op-
portunity to have face-to-face support, individually from the train-
ers.
The piloters went through all training modules, using the mobile
app, also exploring the content through the online training plat-
form, using electronic presentations as well as the hard copy of
the al modules. After completing the training all the participants
went through an assessment process done for all the modules in
the training. All the participants improved their knowledge and ex-
perience regarding the modules in the field of care giving. Among
the highly recognized modules were hygiene, physiological needs,
daily care at home, psychological empowerment and mobility.
In order to get more impressions about the feedback given by the
Turkish piloters, here are some statements by piloters:
Zülal: This training offered be the opportunity to know more
about the needs of a disabled people.
Suna: The practical training gave us the opportunity to try
and feel the right and the wrong movements.
Kudret: Using the app gave me the opportunity to study on
the modules everywhere and every time.

Piloting in Bulgaria
The pilot phase in Bulgaria has ended on the 18th December with
a Final Certification event where all 22 participants received their
certificates for participation in M-CARE training programme out of
the hands of the Belgian coordinator PhoenixKM. Piloting went
swiftly and the training content was positively assessed both by
trainees and trainers.
Regarding the profile of the participants we had personal caregiv-
ers, social workers, personal assistants, medical nurses. All of
them are currently employed either by the Municipality of Plovdiv,
or by private elderly care agencies in Bulgaria, therefore we con-
sider their positive feedback as reliable and valuable.
The trainers, who facilitated M-CARE pilot phase in Bulgaria, were
3 experienced professionals. One of them is a VET trainer, another
is a Pedagogical expert in the field of non-formal training, and the
other one is a practitioner who is working as a PCG. The main role
of the trainers was to provide didactical support to the piloters, as
well as to give additional clarifications about the training content
upon request. Another important trainers’ task was to help the
participants to interpret the training content in a proper and safe
way so that all have common understanding about the practical
materials and guidelines.
Trainers played a significant role and gave a huge contribution to
the success of all participants because they executed the assigned
responsibilities in a professional manner.
The piloters went through all training modules, using not only the
mobile app but also exploring the content through the online
training platform and using offline electronic presentations. In ad-
dition the piloting included several face-to-face workshops where
the participants discussed in the group the topics taken from the
content.

Thus, the per-
sonal caregiv-
ers had the
chance to util-
ize the training
materials using
a variety of
teaching meth-
ods. The com-
pleted quizzes
showed that
the participants
increased their
overall level of
competence and skills to provide qualitative and reliable care to
their clients. All 14 training modules were highly evaluated, how-
ever, the participants distinguished some modules as the most
useful ones. For example, among the highly recognized modules
were disability awareness, hygiene, physiological needs, daily care
at home, first aid and risks, communication and social inclusion,
psychological empowerment, and PCG burnout. The other 6 mod-
ules were also well received but the piloters considered them a bit
aside from their direct field work. However, they would explore
them in order to enhance their skills and attitudes needed for their
career promotion.
In order to get more impressions about the feedback given by the
Bulgarian piloters we give you several quotations:
Elena: I think that M-CARE mobile app tend to be my pocket
e-handbook that I will use during my daily work.
Kristina: This is a great training content that helps me a lot
in order to serve better my client with dementia.
Nina: M-CARE training modules are very practical and I am
sorry that they were not at my disposal when I started
working as a PCG. Now I feel more confident with what I am
doing and I would like to recommend the training course to
my colleagues.

Piloting phase in Germany
The piloting phase for
the contents of the M-
Care Learning Portal and
the M-Care Mobile App
was carried out among
EVBB members Interna-
tionaler Bund (IB) and
Christliches Jugend-
dorfwerk Deutschlands
(CJD). The participants
involved were mainly
trainers. They evaluated
the contents of all the different modules and contributed along
with the EVBB Advisory Board to the recommendations given to
the project team.
The piloting from EVBB
side went well, recom-
mendations from practi-
cal point of view, e.g. to
involve stakeholders in
the learning pathways as
well as additional experts
and establish practical
“try-out phases” etc.
were given as well as
from the content-driven
view as well, e.g. to dou-
ble check the compliance with national rules for PCG once again or
the integration of a guide in the mobile app for first time users
etc.
EVBB will distribute the results and outcomes of the M-Care pro-
ject within its network of more than 50 members in Europe, Asia
and Africa.
(source of Photographs: Internationaler Bund)

Piloting in Belgium
Piloting took place in Flanders with 27
trainees and 3 trainers (1 expert user
who shared own experiences and 2 (ex-)
PCGs of which one with current position in
state centre for social support.) To ensure
a close cooperation during the project and
fine-tune all materials in time for the pi-
loting, 1 PCG trainer also participated in
some of the project meetings.
Induction training sessions for the train-
ers were organised on 2 occasions in
March and April 2015, while 14 sessions
were organised for the trainees.
Based on a close cooperation with the trainers and trainees, the
Belgian piloters identified a number of issues that were swiftly ad-
dressed by the Belgian pilot coordinator:
 The first aid module was extended upon request of partici-
pants to include a wider range of cases. This was included in
the online version.
 The mobility module lacked a unit on handling of wheelchairs:
The limited knowledge how to handle a wheelchair was raised
by several piloters, as well as by expert users from our advi-
sory board. The Belgian coordinator immediately took action
to introduce this as additional training material, addressing
the core issues.
 The policy modules will require regular up to date informa-
tion. A list of links is already helpful. This request is especially
relevant due to the the changes in the personal budgets
made available to people with disabilities.
Some users expressed their satisfaction:
Nelly: “I consider this a VERY complete training, I have 5
years experience as PCG, and have never seen a workable
training, this one makes the difference, the more via the
modular approach. Very well done “
Els: “The home visit to a PCG performing the work with a
client was very revealing and helped us to understand many
of the techniques that had been taught.”
Andy: ““Nothing about people with disabilities without peo-
ple with disabilities” has always been my personal motto. I
am glad this training has been very close to what is happen-
ing on the field itself. A big thumbs up to the organisers!”
Belgian trainers and trainees also were invited and attended the
final M-CARE event in Brussels on 1 December 2015.

M-CARE dissemination events
M-Care mobile app presented at gi-Cluster Networking Day
Professor Constantinos
Mourlas presented M-Care
project at gi-Cluster Net-
working Day, in Athens,
on 10 November. The
event was focused in
identifying networking op-
portunities between uni-
versities and the industry.
In this context, the pres-
entation focused on the
work undertaken under
the framework of the pro-
ject both in academic terms (research, analysis of user require-
ments, gamification theory) as well as in terms of content and
technological solutions production (implementation of the applica-
tion).
About 150 people repre-
senting academic institu-
tions, research institutes,
and gi-Cluster members
attended the M-Care
presentation. During the
round table sessions the
representatives of the
New Technologies Labora-
tory of the Department of
Media - University of Ath-
ens had also the opportu-
nity to further discuss
with the participants cooperation prospects regarding the future
exploitation of the project’s outcomes.
It is noted, that the gi-Cluster comprises of small and large com-
panies, academic and research institutions, all involved in the
Gaming and Creative Technologies and Applications Industry.
M-CARE presented at Games and Learning Alliance confer-
ence 2015
University of Athens had the opportunity to present the M-Care
mobile application at the Games and Learning Alliance conference
(GALA 2015), in Rome on 9th December.

GALA is an interna-
tional conference
dedicated to the sci-
ence and application
of serious games.
The conference is or-
ganized by the Seri-
ous Games Society,
which is building a
scientific community
at international level
for shaping future research in the field. This community repre-
sents a significant blend of industrial
and academic professionals committed
to the study, development and deploy-
ment of serious games as really useful
and effective tools to support better
teaching, learning, training and assess-
ment.
The app was presented at the Games
for Health workshop, focusing espe-
cially on the adoption of gaming tech-
niques in situations where health and
well-being are involved.
Discussing the M-Care app with us-
ability and accessibility experts
The M-Care application was presented
at the Usability and Accessibility days 2015, at the University of
Athens (UoA) on 19 December. The event gives the opportunity
to the academic society to discuss recent developments in the
field of usability and user centered design and share good prac-
tices.
The New Technologies
lab of UoA presented M
-Care and had the op-
portunity to discuss its
features with several
experts. The app re-
ceived very encourag-
ing comments for both
the gamification fea-
tures and the multiple ways offered for accessing the learning ma-
terial, while some expressed their concern that the low penetra-
tion of smartphones/tablets among low skilled workers in Greece,
considering a challenging fact for future projects focusing on mo-
bile vocational training.

M-Care Final Dissemination Event in Sofia, Bulgaria
On 9th December 2015
Interprojects Ltd. team
organized a final dissemi-
nation event on national
level held in Sofia, Bul-
garia. The main purpose
of the event was to make
in-depth presentation of
M-CARE final outputs, as
well as to discuss with
key stakeholders and policy makers on national level the opportu-
nities for future mainstreaming of project results.
The event was officially opened by Mincho Koralski, the Executive
Director of the National Agency of people with Disabilities. In his
welcome speech he congratulated the M-CARE project team about
their achievements and the precious work that they have done. He
emphasised the importance of such European projects which di-
rectly impacted the quality of the national system for social ser-
vices. Afterwards the organizers read out the welcome address
sent by the Bulgarian Minister of Health.
Then the floor was given to the team of Interprojects LTD who
demonstrated the mobile app, the e-learning platform, as well as
the Bulgarian version of all training modules. The presentations
were followed by fruitful discussion where the participants shared
that they found M-CARE results very applicable to the work of
PCGs and furthermore the representative of the State Agency for
Social Services and Support commented that they are coming just
on time. He further explained that since 2016 all over Bulgaria
about 2300 new personal caregivers will be appointed on perma-
nent and part-time contracts. This means that M-CARE Training
Programme might be included as a training tool with this planned
new job placements.
The event was attended by more than 40 participants coming
from disability organisations, state institutions working in the field
of social affairs, policy makers such as National Ombudsman, the
experts from the Bulgarian Presidency administration, etc. In ad-
dition there were also representatives of VET centres, NGOs, and
Daily Care centres. All participants received conference packs con-
taining M-CARE dissemination materials and the event was ended
by a cocktail where the participants continued networking in in-
formal environment.
For your information you can find the video from the conference
and the conference presentations on M-CARE website, slide share,
and youtube.

M-CARE presented at "Capacity Building Seminars for Civil
Society Organisations"
The fourth and the last seminar within the scope of the Project:
"Capacity Building Seminars for Civil Society Organisations" was
held by Ministry of Family and Social Policy, General Directorate of
Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly in Eskişehir
between 7 and 8 December 2015. The seminars were aimed at
monitoring and promoting the implementation of United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the rele-
vant stakeholders. The participants of the seminar included repre-
sentatives of civil society organizations working in the field of dis-
ability, representatives of General Directorate of Services for Per-
sons with Disabilities and the Elderly. Approximately 80 persons
attended the seminar.
The presentations made in the seminar were mainly focused at
providing a rights based approach for disability studies, eliminat-
ing possible inadequacies in the capacity of CSOs, strengthening
the structure and operation of disability CSO's and providing infor-
mation and raising awareness on the implementation process of
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
M-CARE project was promoted in
this seminar through a short pres-
entation on current situation of the
project in general and the outputs
of the project. The participants
were informed about activities and
the partners of M-CARE Project. In-
formation on the mobile application and the website of the Project
were also announced to the participants.

M-CARE Dissemination Conference in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
December 2015 was the most intensive month for dissemination
of M-CARE final outcomes. The second consecutive event was or-
ganised in Plovdiv on 21st December 2015 in the format of confer-
ence entitled “Human capital development through education and
training”. The attendees were 85 in number coming from public
administration, daily care centres, sheltered houses for people
with disabilities, rehabilitation and social inclusion centres, NGOs,
VET schools, and other training providers. Among the participants
were also people with disabilities, psychologists, personal caregiv-
ers, teachers and trainers, and journalists.
The conference started with welcome speech by Veselina Boteva,
the Head of Social Services Department under The Municipality of
Plovdiv. She declared the readiness of the institution that she pre-
sents to keep on using the valuable M-CARE results for training of
staff recruited by the municipality.
Then the floor was given to the In-
terprojects LTD team who presented
M-CARE final outputs using different
attractive tools such as videos, dem-
onstration, and discussions with the
audience.
The conference programme also in-
cluded presentations by guests
speakers who talked about new
pedagogical approaches for educa-
tion and training of people with dis-
abilities and professionals working with them. One of the most at-
tractive part of the conference was the so-called awarding cere-
mony dedicated to the organizations who collaborated with Inter-
projects LTD in order to achieve better opportunities and make
people with disabilities more independent and equal citizens. 24
plaques were handed to journalists who disseminated the project,
organizations and individuals who supported the implementation
of the project and contributed to its sustainability.
The conference was publicised by The Bulgarian National televi-
sion, Daric Radio and Maritsa Newspaper who published materials
and interviews with the speakers. You may find the video and
written materials of the conference on M-CARE website, youtube
and slide share.
Although this was the final dissemination event in Bulgaria of this
project our team will plan a number of activities in order to keep
the interests towards the project alive.

M-CARE presented at EUROSTAR TV
M-CARE project was presented at EUROSTAR TV channel by Gazi
University coordination team Prof. Seyhan Firat and Alper Güzel.
Various events
M-CARE was also disseminated at following string of events:
 3-5 June 2015, Interdisciplinary Symposium “Social Compe-
tence, Creativity and Wellbeing”, Plovdiv, Bulgaria: part of
presentation: Keynote on social inclusion
 15-22 June 2015: meeting with Latin American policy makers
in Colombia (Bogota) to highlight relevant European inclusion
projects.
 22-23 October 2015: ITAG 2015 presentation together with
UoA of paper on mobile application
 2 December 2015: 5th LLL Week “Investing in Education for
Inclusive Societies” from 30th November to 4th December
2015 within the European Parliament in Brussels: Guidance
And Counselling: Taking Validation To The Next Level
 7-8 December 2015: EDPWD policy event in Brussels

M-CARE transnational partner meeting in Brussels
The 5th project meeting
took place in coincidence
with the final dissemina-
tion event in Brussels, Bel-
gium. Within the meeting
the Partners reported the
findings from M-CARE pilot
phase and based on them
they decided to make final
amendments in the project
outcomes in accordance with recommendations given by the end
users in each partner country.
The meeting ended with an agreed action plan including all com-
mon steps that should be taken by all partners in order to bring M
-CARE to a successful end, as well as to ensure that everything
that we achieved will remain public and accessible for the stake-
holders.
Forthcoming events
M-CARE partners will be involved in following forthcoming events,
to which we kindly invite you:
 27 May 2016: Vocational education and training for salesper-
sons of healthcare product, Brussels, Belgium.
 3 June 2016: Transition management for SMEs – Cross-
generation issues, Ankara, Turkey.
 26-29 July, 2016: CAVA 2016
(International Conference of Adap-
tive and Accessible Virtual Learning
Environment) has been launched
and will be hosted by Fundación
Universitaria Tecnológico Com-
fenalco, Cartagena de Indias. Phoe-
nixKM will do a keynote “Inclusive
Higher Education: into general aca-
demic courses on campus, across disciplines and departments
- a challenge that will lead to a triumph”.
 21 October 2016: Educational serious games and robotics for
children with learning disabilities, ITAG, Nottingham, UK.
 November 2016: Volunteering and disability, Ankara, Turkey.
 2-5 November 2016: ACCESSIBLE İZMİR 2016 congress, Iz-
mir, Turkey, PhoenixKM will do a keynote.
 June 2017: Supported employment job coaching implementa-
tion in Europe, Sofia, Bulgaria.
 June 2018: Educational serious games and robotics for chil-
dren with learning disabilities, Brussels, Belgium.
 June 2018: Supported employment job coaching implementa-
tion in Europe, Istanbul, Turkey.

M-CARE Final Dissemination Event on European level
On 1 December 2015, the final M-CARE conference was organised
in Brussels, Belgium at VLEVA premises.
The event “Caring for people with dis-
abilities and older people: challenges,
opportunities and (mobile/online) train-
ing solutions” focussed on the impor-
tance of good quality personal caregiv-
ing (PCG) for people with disabilities
and older people. Focus was on caring
in a broader perspective, and how M-
CARE’s (mobile/online) training solutions can contribute to suc-
cessful PCGs.
We were honoured with an opening speech by MEP Helga Stevens
(N-VA), who is also Vice-Chair of the ECR group, and Co-Chair of
the Disability Intergroup.
The feedback received was very positive and supports our inten-
tions to further deploy M-CARE outcomes across Europe.
“I would like to seize the opportunity to thank you for such
an interesting event last week. I have to say I am very im-
pressed with the quality of your report. Your work is also ex-
tremely useful and meaningful. Thank you for the interaction
as well as the new perspectives that you and the team al-
lowed to emerge. It was a great event, well done to you and
the team! Do keep me on your mailing list : I’d love to hear
about your upcoming activities.”
N. G., participant
A full coverage of the event is available online, including the slides
and videos, while also an online picture album is available.

Sustainability
Ensuring sustainability is at the same time challenging and re-
warding activity which proves that all invested efforts and re-
sources come back in the form of real use in the practice of what
was achieved. Since the beginning of the project the M-CARE part-
nership have started to work on it following the straightforward
approach integrated in the commonly agreed exploitation strat-
egy.
Now two weeks before the administrative end of the project we
may conclude that all partners achieved solid results in terms of
embedding of project outputs in the practices of different types of
social organizations providing services to people with disabilities.
You may visit the national versions of the M-CARE website in order
to learn a specific information about partners activities in this
area.
Interprojects LTD team, as a dissemination leader, achieved con-
crete results in terms of sustainability that we are glad to share
with all readers.
First of all, we signed agreement for collaboration of Municipality
of Plovdiv who is the biggest employer of personal caregivers on
the territory of the region. The main subject of this agreement is
M-CARE training programme which will be included as a training
tool for induction training of newly recruited personal and social
assistants. In fact, in the beginning of 2016 about 300 PCGs will
be recruited by the local authorities in Plovdiv and their work
placement will be co-funded by the European Social Fund and the
state budget. This agreement opens new opportunities for lasting
access to the M-CARE training platform by the interested users.
In addition, another cooperation agreement was achieved with the
National Association of Deafblind People who are also willing to
embed M-CARE training modules in their curriculum for PCGs.

It is important to know that at least in the next five years the Bul-
garian users will have access to the M-CARE results in different
formats (e-learning, workshops, and group trainings).
For more information, please visit the M-CARE website which will
be updated with relevant information for your convenience.
M-CARE app available on Google Play
The completeness of M-CARE curriculum
and training content forms the perfect
basis for a PA training. In addition, the
mobile training and learning approach is absolutely novel, espe-
cially also because the learning content can be dynamically ad-
justed in all languages by the country administrators. These both
facts allow for the mobile application to have a long lifespan and
extensive usability, while highly customisable.
The mobile app can be downloaded from Google Play.
TVPA launch in 2016
As a direct outcome of M-CARE project, PhoenixKM has estab-
lished a spin-off PCG training “TVPA” (Training voor Persoonlijke
Assistentie). This will start in 2016.

Consortium
Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey – Project Coordinator
Gazi University is one of the biggest universities of Turkey
with over 68.000 students including 56.000 undergraduate
and 12.000 postgraduate students currently studying in its
171 academic departments.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Seyhan FIRAT
Email: sfirat@gazi.edu.tr
Ministry of family and social policy, General Directorate of services
for elderly and disabled people, Turkey
The General Directorate coordinates the activities
on preparing national policies and strategies aimed
at prevention, education, employment and rehabili-
tation services, ensuring that people with disabili-
ties fully and equally participate in social life with-
out facing any discrimination.
Contact person: Mr. Tayyar Kuz
Email: tayyar.kuz@aile.gov.tr
PhoenixKM BVBA, Belgium
PhoenixKM is a consultancy with extensive
expertise in the field of education and train-
ing that targets people with disabilities, but
also their stakeholders, while making use of
the benefits offered by ICT.
Contact person: Mr. Karel Van Isacker
Email: karel@phoenixkm.eu
INTERPROJECTS Ltd., Bulgaria
INTERPROJECTS is a training provider, having its activities
fully directed towards people with disabilities and older
people. Their team consists of experts in the field of acces-
sibility issues, career orientation and guidance, employ-
ment, mentoring, e-games and networks of employers of disability etc.
Contact person: Mrs. Tonka Cholakova
Email: interprojectsbg@gmail.com
University of Athens, Greece
The Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Edu-
cation and the Mass Media operates within the Faculty of
Communication and Mass Media Studies of the National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Laboratory serves re-
search and educational needs in the domain of new tech-
nologies and their applications in communication, education
and the mass media.
Contact person: Prof. Constantinos Mourlas
Email: mourlas@media.uoa.gr
Europäischer Verband Beruflicher Bildungsträger, Germany
EVBB is an Umbrella-Organisation of 50 Vocational
Training Centres in 21 European and International
countries and is based in Germany. In 2012 EVBB set
up a “Quality Charter”, taking into account the actual
developments in European Quality Policy such as EQAVET and EQARF.
Contact person: Mr. Fritz-Gerhard KUHN
Email: Fritz-Gerhard.kuhn@evbb.EU

M-CARE newsletter 6

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