Design and Develop
Description of the project and the local area
(Including needs assessment or/and, other data sources available for your target population and area.) Is there a history in your area of social innovation or collaborative action with communities? The projects involve La Ritournelle, a retirement home created in 2014 and located in Villeneuve d’Ascq (59). The establishment is in a recent residential neighbourhood. La Ritournelle is an establishment belonging to the AFEJI association. AFEJI manages a large number of social and medico social services for elderly people and demonstrates its continued ambition to daily pursue its “fight against all forms of exclusion. AFEJI specialized establishments are living labs to elaborate, develop, test and evaluate innovative methods to support the elderly autonomy. The establishment hosts full-time 73 residents needing help for everyday life activities, 22 of them living in sheltered units due to cognitive disorders. The average age of the resident is 83 and the average duration of the stay is about 2 years, mostly interrupted by the death of the resident. 60 professionals work in La Ritournelle, including: - A director, - 2 managers (one in charge of the sanitary and medical aspects, one in charge of housing and leisure activities), - 1 animator and 1 to 2 part-time volunteers (24 hours a week), - 1 psychomotor therapist, full time, - 1 psychologist, part time, - Nurses - Professional caregivers with various statuses taking care of the residents in the everyday activities. La Ritournelle is involved in WP1 (soft gym and trail on the coast) and WP2 (animal mediation) and plans on testing various pilots in this frame. It is not usual at all for such a retirement home, especially as the residents are mostly very old and handicapped (only a few able to walk with or without assistance, many with advanced cognitive disorders). The association AFEJI core value is to “fight against all forms of exclusion.” It reflects in the strong will from direction and professionals to be very careful not to exclude anyone from the activities. It has two implications: 1. The activities must be designed for all residents to be able to participate if willing to. Some adjustment will be made, especially for the WP1 activity (focused on physical activity and walking) to involve the residents unable to walk as well as to offer an opportunity to those who can walk to preserve this capacity by training regularly. 2. The cost must not be a limitation to participate to the activities. Activities of WP1 aim to develop two complementary concepts to maintain the mobility of the elderly: - Outdoor activities based on walking (or going outside for non-walking residents, as it also has some real benefit on wellbeing and sleep); - Indoor activities based on soft gym. These activities are designed and organised according to seasons and weather and have an emphasis on caregivers. Local business and networks are associated. Activities of WP2 look at how animals can be incorporated in a wider care concept for elderly people. So far animals are used in care only in a domestic setting and often only when people are already not able anymore to leave their home or are confined to bed. It may be promising to use animals also in a preventive care concept. Leisure farms that are now mainly targeting children as well as normal farms may thus also extend their commercial and social activities. Target population involves: - The residents of the establishment, indifferent to their health condition. - The caregivers (family and friends of the residents) - The local population especially the elderly living in the neighbourhood. We do not exclude the eventuality of widening the target population if there were any opportunity along the project. These 2 work packages create a coherent set of activities so as to stimulate active ageing and longer independent living among the targeted population. It is to be noticed that the residents’ caregivers are often over 60 themselves and thus in the scope of the SAIL targeted population. Needs assessment includes: - Study of the University Picardie Jules Verne (partner 11) about the elderly leisure activity, containing a field study run by 2 interns (psychologists to be) inside the establishment to assess their needs regarding leisure activities regarding possibilities for WP1 and WP2. - A study from the CCAS (communal social welfare centre) about the elderly in the city of Villeneuve d’Ascq and their needs; - Statistics established by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Research ; - The professionals of La Ritournelle because they have a very accurate knowledge of the residents needs and preferences; - Questionnaires distributed to the residents (especially about animal mediation). There is no known history of social innovation within the establishment or the area. However, collaborative actions of the establishment with community include: - Regular visits for shared activities from the children of the day care centre all year round. - Weekly visits and shared activities with teenagers from a Centre for Psychologically or Emotionally Disturbed Youth, during school year, - Visits and shared activities with residents from La Source, residence for ageing persons with disabilities several times a year, - Visits from the TA1AMI association’s volunteers (1 volunteer visits on a regular basis 1 residents and share activities with him/her), - Some shared activities with elderlies of the city organised by the department for senior citizens (including another retirement home).
Assets and resources
What assets or resources including expertise has your team got that helped you get started with this project? AFEJI has a strong local anchorage and implication, which has been an asset in approaching unexpected partners and soliciting to meet them. AFEJI reputation and contacts has been of great help. Another asset has been the project management led by the international department of AFEJI, which has acquired a strong experience in European projects management. Dedicated human resources from this department include: - an experimented project manager dedicating 40% of his time to this project, - a project coordinator hired in April 2018 working full-time on this project. Internally, AFEJI has an important amount of experienced professionals with technical competencies such as accountability and other supporting functions. The professionals of La Ritournelle are highly qualified, dedicated and motivated. They are key resources of this project and an asset to develop and set up durable, audacious and relevant pilots. They bring a sharp knowledge of elderly in general and of the residents in particular as they get to spend an important amount of time with them on an everyday basis. They were willing to set up new innovative activities even before the SAIL project was granted. Social innovation process experimented through SAIL has been an opportunity to impulse some new energy and methodology so as to renew processes and everyday work.
Geographical setting
Please describe where your project is based, is your project based in a rural or urban area, area of catchment for participants, is it on single or multiple sites? The project mainly takes place in a retirement home, La Ritournelle, located in Villeneuve d’Ascq, Hauts-de-France region, France. Villeneuve d’Ascq is a peripheral city of Lille, Nord and counts 63 000 inhabitants. It is an important spot at many levels: - One of the main economic spots of the Hauts-de-France region, various kinds of businesses, both French and international, have their headquarters in the city; - An academic pole with 42,000 students and 2,5000 researchers; - A hub for sports and culture. Nonetheless, it has about 10km² of greenspace, lakes, forests, hence its nickname of ‘green technopole’. Villeneuve d’Ascq belongs to the Lille European Metropolitan community, an intercommunal structure (90 communes) centred on the city of Lille and bordering Belgium. Its population is about 1, 150,000 in 2014. Learn more about Villeneuve d’Ascq : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villeneuve-d%27Ascq Learn more about the Métropole Européenne de Lille : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tropole_Europ%C3%A9enne_de_Lille La Ritournelle was built in 2014 in a newly constituted neighbourhood. It is located in front of a private hospital and surrounded by detached houses, large pavements and quiet streets. It is located about 3 km from the Parc du Héron, a famous green space of Villeneuve d’Ascq.
Current situation
`What currently happens` in relation to your project problem or issue, is your project new or are you building on an existing project?
Demand
What would you anticipate the demand might be for your proposed project at this stage and what are you basing that forecast on?
Expansion
Are you planning to expand an already-successful project with a different population or in a different setting? Please describe your reasons for this and what information you used to inform your decision?
Information capture for your project
Please make a plan and decide what strategies you are going to use and when. As a minimum everyone needs to keep their meeting minutes/notes and attendance details. Other ideas are photos/videos/diaries/attendance numbers/participant feedback/log book. In relation to the SAIL feasibility study you will need to be able to say who attended your project and when also including the participants age and gender if possible.
Acceptability
How was the project proposal recieved by a) your team members/organisational partners b) your target community/potential participants? Evidence would include: participant observati on at initial project meetings, qualitative interviews with participants and project staff or correspondence related to the proposal ie emails exchanges?
Adaptation
Have you made any changes to your original plans, why did you make the change and what information did you base your new plans on?
Key stakeholders and relations
Are there key individuals, (including participants) organisations or relationships who are central to your project, and in what way do they benefit your project?