Official announcement of the 23rd European Social Services Conference
The European Social Network (ESN) was in Portugal to officially launch our next year’s conference. The 23rd European Social Services Conference will take place in Lisbon on 6-8 July 2015.
The theme of the conference is ‘Making Connections – Improving Lives. Building partnerships for better outcomes’. The event will explore the evidence and experiences in service and sector cooperation and what this means for people’s lives, service efficiency, and the impact on social welfare development for the future.
On 15 October, representatives of government, public authorities, foundations, social partners and civil society gathered at the Ministry of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security in Lisbon to hear about our next year’s flagship event.
The meeting was opened by Mariana Ribeiro Ferreira, the President of the Institute for Social Security, an ESN member, who expressed her delight that the conference was coming to Portugal for the first time.
Virginia Brás Gomes, Senior Adviser at the Ministry of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security, described the rich learning opportunities from working with ESN over the past years and the value of the conference as an important event for learning and networking. Rita Valades, Director of the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, also an ESN member, who shared her experience from our 22nd European Social Services Conference in Rome.
A special announcement came from the City of Lisbon who will be joining ESN to exchange knowledge and experience with our members from 34 countries and support the development of effective social policy and social care practice.
Finally, the meeting was informed that Corinne Cahen, Minister of Family and Social Integration in Luxembourg, had confirmed that she will speak in the opening session next year. The European Social Services Conference will take place at the very beginning of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Call for workshops
We are inviting colleagues from across Europe and globally to bring their experience to our 2015 conference and present for discussion innovative practice on a wide range of issues within the overall theme of the conference – working in partnerships.
Where possible, we encourage you to use this unique workshop opportunity to ‘co-present’ achievements with partners with whom you have developed new partnerships or other forms of cooperation.
Please find here more information about the call for workshops. Deadline for receipt of proposals: 28 November (French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese) and 5 December (English).
The European Social Network (ESN) would like to thank the following organisations for supporting our next year’s conference: the Ministry of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security of Portugal, the Ministry of Health of Portugal, Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, the Institute for Social Security, Gulbenkian Foundation and Montepio.