Process evaluation report, TSUNAMI PROJECT

Petrova and Klamer, European Commission, 2019

The report is a result of evaluation undertaken by Stichning Economie and Cultuur and CREARE Social in the context of TSUNAMI project – A Traineeship as a Springboard out of Unemployment for those Affected by Mental Illness.

 TSUNAMI is implemented by a consortium of public authorities, cooperatives and research organisations mostly based in Piemonte region. For the period 2016-2019, the project is supported by a grant from DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission.

In order to identify the changes that are occurring throughout the project implementation, the evaluation focuses on the values and qualities that have been previously identified. We can distinguish three levels of change that have occurred following the implementation of the policy: social, professional and in the policy itself. Each level comprises different groups of stakeholders with different roles and functions and for each group the evaluation is carried out through an analytical grid defined in the previous phase.

The fundamental values of the Tsunami project defined by the consortium members of the project are well-being, inclusion, trust, innovation (creativity/new knowledge) and optimism. Pursuing these values within the framework of the Tsunami project translates not only in increasing the employment of people suffering from mental illness, in developing the professional skills of the coach and in strengthening the institutional relations of the organizations involved, but also for example in changing cultural perspectives (attitude, behavior and mentality) towards this socially marginal group, building solid relationships between institutions and individuals through shared and common knowledge, empathy, respect, ability to stay together, etc.

These values are of different importance among the actors involved in the project and are linked to their different characteristics. For example, the value of well-being pertains in particular to people with mental health problems and to Job Coaches. For the former, well-being is closely linked to self-confidence and awareness of one’s own potential, while for the latter, the value of well-being is connected above all to the development of professional skills