The Atlantic Social Lab (ASL) partners met last 16-17 March 2023 in Guimarães (Portugal) for the third coordination meeting of the extension phase of the project. This meeting was organised by the Intermunicipal Community of Ave and aimed to outline the project's accomplishments at each work package.

The ASL activities are being executed in an appropriate manner. All partners feel optimistic about the progress made so far in the project. The digital platforms created for communicating the project’s development have been frequently updated. A co-created strategy for the Social Innovation Observatory sustainability was developed by the consortium.

A series of pilot actions on the digitalisation of social services in a post-covid-19 scenarios are being implemented by ASL partners, namely Comunidade Intermunicipal of Ave (Portugal), Ayuntamiento de Avilés (Spain), Fundación Municipal de Servicios Sociales del Ayuntamiento de Gijón (Spain), CRIJ Occitanie Pyrénées Mediterranée (France) and Enterprise NorthWest (Northern Ireland). These are also under current evaluation by the Centre for Social Studies (Portugal), using an approach inspired by the Theory of Change to comprehend the (potential) impacts of these small-scale initiatives. The assessment intends to provide an overview of the pilot actions, including the main barriers, facilitators of implementation and activities developed, obtained results, expected results, and durability.

The project's partnership meeting involved visits to local social innovation initiatives to identify good practices that can benefit the project's interventions. On the first day, a study visit was made to the Museu da Palha - Centro de Etnotecnologia e Design de Golães (Straw Museum - Ethno-technology and Design Centre of Golães) and to the Oficina Criativa da Trança da Palha (Creative Workshop on Straw Braiding) at Casa do Povo in Fafe, promoted by the CLDS do Sol do Ave team. The purpose of this visit was to gain a deeper understanding of the art of braiding straws, combining tradition and innovation, as well as to meet some of the craftspeople involved in the pilot action "The art of straw" implemented by the Intermunicipal Community of Ave. The second day was largely dedicated to a study visit to the Centro de Acolhimento de Emergência Social de Guimarães (Social Emergency Shelter Centre) in the parish of Atães and to the Comunidade Criativa de Inclusão Digital (Creative Community of Digital Inclusion). The latter is an itinerant project developed by the Delegação da Cruz Vermelha de Guimarães (Red Cross Delegation), for the purpose of promoting youth volunteering to include the most vulnerable population at risk of digital exclusion to develop their digital skills.

Another focus of the meeting was to present the provisory agenda for the project's final conference. The event, entitled 'Changemakers and Pioneers', will include a Social Innovation Fair. The aim is to showcase the main findings of the project and to network with other social innovation projects. It will take place in Glasgow on 18-19 May, hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University.

The Atlantic Social Lab, led by Avilés City Council (Spain) is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the INTERREG Cooperation Program Atlantic Area, with the reference EAPA_246/2016.

Coimbra, March 21, 2023

Contact person:

Principal Investigator (PI) at CES, Hugo Pinto hpinto@ces.uc.pt