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Periphera's Work Programme (part 2)

The target users for the applications in development in Periphera are those European citizens who:

are marginalised for personal, cultural or geographical reasons
are in danger of social or economic exclusion
do not have ready access to new and advanced technologies
are likely to benefit from teleservices for the purpose of professional training
want to gain employment and social integration into the wider EU economic society.

This includes long term unemployed, disabled, cultural minorities, migrant groups, and people who through personal circumstances find themselves on the social periphery.

In addition, the project addressed the user organisations who provide support to the proposed end users, including local authorities, community projects, disability support organisations, and other organisations providing training and assistance in re-entering the social and economic streams of European society.

The central strategy of the project was the establishment of a set of Telematics Application Sites (TASs) where training was provided to one selected target group, and where they were then given access to a telecentre providing the means to conduct Teleworking in their chosen area (see TAS descriptions for complete details). These centres were supported by the project partners (i.e. future sponsors) through brokerage (e.g. arranging employment) and through continued support as part of larger community actions in the local area.

The Periphera project demonstrated a wide range of benefits from newly developed applications exploiting Euro-ISDN, Multimedia PC communications, and integrated telematics solutions. It provided 'centres of excellence' in new ways of working enabling new opportunities for employment, and so provided examples and 'good practice' contributing to the further exploitation of new telematics technologies by developers and target user organisations.

On the end-user side, the provision of 'self-help' initiative using the very latest technologies greatly increased the socio-economic competitiveness of excluded groups in seven different sites, providing a model for exploitation of new employment opportunities throughout the European Union. Social and socio-economic integration of excluded groups through telecentres offering employment opportunities established them as having equal opportunity in the new distributed organisations and virtual organisations which their telecentres now serve.

The Periphera model, when distributed and implemented widely, will offer potential for bringing back many hundreds of thousands of marginalised European citizens into the world of work,. Their socio-economic integration will reduce the national and local authority burdens substantially, and will provide a self-help approach to re-integration. A detailed cost-benefit study was included as part of the evaluation activity within the Periphera project period.