Reaching Vulnerable Groups through Pandemic Policy

This course aims to provide an in-depth reflection on social work in different contexts, hereby focusing on their needs, the way the contexts have been influenced, and different challenges that have occurred during the last two years. It aims to set up conversations with multiple professionals where they give information about the hurdles on their path, the lessons learned from these turbulent times, and to give an overview of important ideas and practices that could help reshape the future of social work. In the end, the goal is to provide specific, hands-on, best practices collected from literature and professionals in Belgium and Europe that help organise social work, both during and after a pandemic. This course was developed as part of the research project 'Pan-European Response to the Impacts of the COVID-19 and future Pandemics and Epidemics' (PERISCOPE, https://www.periscopeproject.eu/). Funded by the European Commission Research Funding programme Horizon 2020 under the Grant Agreement number 101016233, PERISCOPE investigates the broad socio-economic and behavioural impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, to make Europe more resilient and prepared for future large-scale risks

• Understand challenges faced by vulnerable groups during pandemics
• Identify best social work practices in crisis
• Contribute to planning equitable health and social policies

• No deep prior experience required
• Ability to read English instructions and complete short exercises