Digital Social Route Plan for Western Austria 

In Western Austria, there are at least 300,000 people living in need of social support services. This concerns very different people such as young people in crisis situations, single parents, people living in poverty, people in need of care or people at risk of poverty due to job loss

The access to social support services is often characterized by various hurdles, often the knowledge about offers and their accessibility is missing or feelings of guilt and shame prevent people to take help. This increases the risk of lack of care, aggravation and chronification of the precarious situation for those affected. 

 
Digitization can increase exclusion here, but it can also offer opportunities if implemented correctly. Both are underscored by recent experience during the Covid 19 pandemic. 

The digitization of a social route plan for western Austria is to be implemented in a three-country consortium of five scientific institutions, three IT companies and 14 social institutions. The focus is on the living situation, needs and requirements of people who need social support. Accessibility, usability, anti-discrimination and consideration of diversity dimensions form central basic principles of the development work. 

 
Together with potential users, we work on the development of digital tools in an integrated and participatory process. An innovative service design thinking and a service user involvement approach are combined to implement this solution as close as possible to the needs of the people concerned. 

 
The impulse-giving project aims at several digital tools as a result, through which people in need of social support services receive information about counseling centers, offers as well as legal frameworks in as flexible and low-threshold a form as possible. 
 

At the end of this project there should be a best-practice example that enables as many people as possible to access social support services in a low-threshold way and thus promotes equal opportunities.