Digital volunteering
Madrid participates in the UserCentriCities network for incorporating the principles and methodologies that facilitate the co-creation and co-design of digital services, making them respond to the real needs of citizen.
UserCentriCities is a network promoted by the Think Tank The Lisbon Council, in collaboration with Eurocities, the European Commission and Living-in.eu, that brings together European municipalities and regions, including Madrid, to support local authorities in the implementation of digital services designed and delivered, placing the citizen at the center of the process.
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Madrid has been collaborating in this network since 2021 and driving the design of user-centric digital public services through projects such as Madrid te Acompaña APP, Madrid Móvil APP and Madrid 360 APP. During the second half of 2022 Madrid has incorporated the collaboration of the third sector entity emancipaTIC, which aims to reduce the digital gap and to improve the design of digital services for elderly people. Within the framework of this collaboration, a multidisciplinary team has been set up to develop co-creation and co-design workshops in which some of the methodologies and good practices of the UserCentriCities network have been used. In these workshops have jointly participated the heads of the areas of Seniors and Volunteering, volunteers, elderly people and technological profiles of IAM and the Digital Office. |
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As a result of these workshops, a new service has been co-designed for the digital accompaniment of the elderly through Voluntarios por Madrid, expanding and improving the functionalities and capabilities of the Madrid te Acompaña application, to promote the digital inclusion and cohesion of this people and to mitigate loneliness situation.
For the design of the digital accompaniment program Voluntarios Digitales, several collaborative workshops have been held with people over 65 and with volunteers.
Voluntarios Digitales, one of the projects of the Madrid, Digital Capital which pursues digital inclusion, is characterized by having promoted, since its design, participatory workshops in which the need to configure a new digital service that would respond to situations of loneliness and digital gap, that especially affect the elderly, was identified.
In this collaborative process, characterized by the holding of interactive workshops, both face-to-face and telematic, emancipaTIC participated as an organization aimed particularly at facilitating access to technologies for the elderly.
On the other hand, the City Council has joined the association Somos Digital, in which the most relevant digital training centers at national level participate and which has an agreement with the Plataforma de Mayores y Pensionistas for the training in the digital field of the elderly.
Madrid te Acompaña is an application designed to provide accompaniment to elderly people with volunteers involved in the municipal volunteer program Voluntarios por Madrid.This program currently involves more than 18,000 volunteers and, potentially, more than 665,000 elderly people living in Madrid.
In the first quarter of 2023, first actions of Digital accompaniment by Voluntarios por Madrid have been launched in 5 Centers for Elderly in the city. It is expected to continue expanding the accompaniment in new centers and through Madrid te Acompaña.
Madrid promotes the co-creation and co-design of public services applying the principles of user-centeredness that allow the early detection of improvements in their configuration and design, as well as other programs or applications implemented. The goal is to improve the quality of life of its citizens and promote best practices applicable to the provision of municipal public services.