The main topics of the research activities are:

Child and Youth Welfare 
This area includes topics such as child protection, out-of-home care, outpatient care, care leaving, district social work, children's rights, and children and adolescents as victims of crime. 
 
Aging, Care, Diversity, Gender and Migration 
This area deals with the consequences and requirements associated with demographic change, which have a significant impact on the development of the social services sector. Central topics include the aging of society, migration and the increase in cultural diversity, gender roles and generational relations, as well as the management, organization and financing of care and care work. 
 
Social Policy, Innovation in the Social Sector, Social Security and Participation 
This focus area includes the proactive design of local social policy, integrative social planning and participatory monitoring of these areas, with particular attention to integrated and socio-spatial approaches to action and the promotion of civil society involvement. 

Research Projects:

• Design of a sustainable care security for South Tyrol’s future (SuCa)
• Carrying out a study on poverty among children, adolescents and families in South Tyrol

CARE- Designing sustainable care provision for South Tyrol's future

Research Team: Weissensteiner, A., Viganò, F., Paone, N., Cavrini, G., Loch, U., Cisotto, E., Tappeiner, G.

Duration: 2021-2022

Partners: Representatives of the Association of Residences for the Elderly in South Tyrol, Sanitary Service

Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano

Summary: In recent years, due to demographic change and the socio-economic context, the question of a future orientation of care provision has become increasingly acute. In order to find a workable solution for South Tyrol, care organisation and care financing must be considered together. A viable concept must consider the existing and planned care services and care facilities, the wishes, and ideas of the South Tyrolean population as well as the various forms of financing.
Many of the related questions have socio-political and distributional implications. Only if these circumstances are sufficiently taken into account a financing instrument will be able to achieve what the South Tyrolean population rightly expects from it. The fact that there are different approaches to care provision in OECD countries shows that there probably is no "best model". Therefore, there is a need for a project with the claim to work out proposals based on local conditions and to show their strengths and weaknesses. Based on scientifically valid data and proposed solutions, democratically legitimised politicians can then make informed decisions.

Goal: The aim of the project is to evaluate current social practices in South Tyrol to secure long-term care measures. The following study focuses in particular on long-term care provision in South Tyrol for people aged 60 years and over.
Results: The data concerning costs were collected from residential homes for the elderly, other services in care, home care, home nursing; within a questionnaire the needs of family caregivers, the consequences of demographic development, scenarios, and their financial consequences as well as care models in Europe were analysed. Finally, visions for the prevention and organisation of care were elaborated.

PEACHES (Participation in Early Childhood Educational Services)

Research Team: Laura Trott (PI) & Sabine Tiefenthaler

Project duration: 12 months (05.22 - 04.23)

Partners: Elena Martorana (practice researcher of La Strada-the Way) & Family Agency of the Land

Funding: internal funding

Summary: The PEACHES study deals with the development and continuity of contacts with families with refugee and migration experiences in institutions for families with young children from different perspectives.
Data collection: In the project presented here, the entire process was designed and carried out by a participatory research group consisting of two academic researchers and one practice researcher of open services for families with young children. Data collection was carried out using different qualitative methods, such as participant observation and focus groups.

Participants: A total of 85 early childhood professionals (early childhood services, ELKIs and other low-threshold services for families with young children) with the following professional backgrounds participated in the focus groups: early childhood education and care, social work, social pedagogy and psychology. In addition, the participants had different roles such as directors, coordinators, childcare workers and educators. The participants came from both rural and urban areas of South Tyrol.
Data analysis: The data material was analyzed according to the constructivist Grounded Theory (KGT) (Charmaz 2014). Charmaz (2014) emphasizes the involvement of the co-researchers and affirms that the emerging theory is based on co-constructed knowledge building due to this approach.

Results: Through the data analysis, the following dimensions of shaping and maintaining contact with families with refugee and migration experiences could be elaborated:

• language and communication
• social capital and social support
• cooperation and collaboration with different actors

Furthermore, a brochure for professionals on the topic of equal participation of all families in early childhood services was developed together with the participants. The brochure presents best-practice examples on the topics of communication, building trust, cooperation with different actors and creating an inclusive attitude. The findings from the focus groups were related to current findings from science and links to important topics are provided.

Professionalization, Transition and Autonomy in outreach socio-pedagogical family services - PTA 

Research Team: Ulrike Loch (PI) & Sabine Tiefenthaler

Projektdauer: 42 Monate (08.22 – 12.25)

Partner: Bezirksgemeinschaften Südtirols und Einrichtungen des Dritten Sektors
Finanzierung: interne Finanzierung

Summary: The research project named "Professionalization, Transition and Autonomy - PTA" of the Competence Center of Social Work and Social Policy of the Free University of Bolzano has the goal to investigate processes of autonomy development of families in the context of the outreach socio-pedagogical family service in South Tyrol. [Aufsuchende sozialpädagische Familienarbeit, Educativa domiciliale]. It is a service of basic socio-pedagogical care, coordinated by the social service and carried out in cooperation with social pedagogues from the districts or the third sector (e.g., EOS, La strada, Südtiroler Kinderdorf).

Goals: The general aim of the study is to identify patterns of autonomy development of the families supported by the outreach socio-pedagogical family service. Derived from this, the following three aspects, which cannot be considered independently of each other, are focused on:

1. Professionalization: The aim is to investigate the relationship between the quality of service, the training of professionals, and the design of the service and resources and their impact on autonomy development.
2. Transition: The aim is the exploration of transitions from supported adolescents into adulthood. Resources and barriers to the autonomy development of adolescents will be examined.
3. Cooperation/Network: The aim is to understand in which cooperation/networks the service is involved, and which impact these cooperation/networks have on the autonomy development of families.
   Study design: A participatory approach means that the project is developed and effected in collaboration between actors from the scientific field (unibz) and practice (social districts, third sector). It can be defined as a collaboration between the Competence centre and the social districts and the third sector, where the University is the project leader but will consider the ideas and expert-knowledge of the field from the named actors in order to be able to develop the most effective way to implement the research project. Within the research project
   – ethnographic observations.
   – open interviews in single settings with professionals, parents and minors will be conducted at different stages of the support process of the families,
   – focus groups with different professionals;
   – age-appropriate methods for involving adolescents (community mapping, photovoice) will be used.

Through this broad research approach and an iterative research process, the everyday practice of outreach socio-pedagogical family services become observable in its range. The research data will be anonymized and later analyzed with qualitative evaluation methods. The results will be made available for professional of practice as well as published scientifically.

DICO II - Digital Communication

Duration: 2022

Research Team: Lintner Claudia, Zadra Franca

Funding: internal

Summary: The research project DICO II analyses the possibilities offered by new technologies for the methodological development of social work (social work, social pedagogy). The research project focuses on low-threshold social work (e.g., street work). The aim of the research project is to better understand how technological innovations are used in everyday work to make the service more accessible. Furthermore, the project investigates the impact that the use of new technologies has on the theoretical and methodological development of the disciplines. Description of the services to be provided: The appointee will be required to: 1. conduct a literature review focusing on the methodological and theoretical development of the re-digitalisation of social work, 2. recruit potential interviews, 3. conduct 20 narrative interviews with professionals and users, 4. transcribe the interviews, 5. produce a summary including the research protocol for all interviews, 6. produce a project report including key findings from the interviews and literature review.