Hope in Stations

The project 'hope in stations' aims to strengthen the integration of social services delivered to homeless and 'itinerant' persons at and around train stations. Homeless and itinerant persons are present at train stations throughout Europe. While they are in the focus of social policies as well as local management strategies, the problem of exclusion from society in several dimensions (housing, employment, social security, health care, etc.) remains unresolved. The current situation is characterised by a diversity of involved stakeholders (public administrations, railway companies, NGOs, etc.), which are guided by different objectives and values, resulting in a fragmentation of service provision and its public and private support. The actual level of support still highly depends on the local political and cultural context instead of systematic and evidence based approaches. 'Hope in Stations' brings these stakeholders together to develop an integrated approach to homeless and itinerant persons and chooses the railway stations and their surroundings as the target location. This intervention will take place at four different train stations in Europe:

- Berlin (Station 'Zoologischer Garten') - Brussels (Central Station) - Paris (Gare du Nord) - Rome (Termini Roma)

The ZSI is responsible for evaluating these interventions on the basis of an experimental evaluation design. Experimentation generally focuses on impact assessment respectively on a generalised causal relation between an intervention and a defined outcome. This methodologically demanding design relies on the comparison of pre-test and post-test indicators as well as the comparison between a treatment and control group.

Team:

• Mag. Alexander Kesselring (project leader)
• Mag. Dr. Andreas Bohonnek
• Dr. Mag.ª Stefanie Konzett-Smoliner

Section: Work and Equal Opportunities

Partners:

• Agence nouvelle des solidarités actives (Coordinator)
• Ferrovie dello stato italiano
• Istituto Superiore di Formazione e Ricerca per i Trasporti
• SNCB
• SNCF

Tags: poverty, social inclusion