In order to create resilient communities and reduce individual frailty and loneliness, EMPOWERCARE sought to develop a holistic community asset approach using research-based solutions to respond to current gaps in the care of people in the target group (those aged 65+ and those aged 50+ with at least one chronic condition). EMPOWERCARE addressed the issues facing our societies concerning the care of our ageing population; older people, in fact, are not being involved in decisions concerning their own health and wellbeing. 
In combining the work of a number of existing and tested partner solutions from across the 2 Seas area, the EMPOWERCARE project ensured that older people were at the forefront of improved technology and better care for their communities. This was planned to not only improve their situation, but also to tackle the financial issues of an ageing population, improve social cohesion and implement a community of practice dedicated to the problem at hand.

EMPOWERCARE took a holistic approach with 3 areas of activity: Empowerment, Technology Strategies & Workforce Development resources. These contributed to a person-centred approach to care and technology knowledge transfer whilst reducing isolation/loneliness and increasing solidarity amongst older people. Community Asset Based Development approaches got to the heart of what matters most to local communities by harnessing skills and expertise of local people, co-creating innovations that made a real difference to lives, health and wellbeing. The project opposed a medical deficit model and instead focused on empowering people to take more responsibility for their care using technology and local services to keep them in work, healthy and motivated. This would support people to have greater control over decisions that affect their health and wellbeing. Learning networks enhanced shared learning amongst professionals and families to ensure durability and transferability.

This was translated into the following outputs:
● An empowerment strategy to deliver what matters to individuals and communities in order to manage their own care.
● A package of resources to enable transformation of the workforce.
● A technology Blueprint on initiatives and technology that support enablement at individual and community level.
● A comprehensive evaluation report on the value of the EMPOWERCARE approach (Strategy, Workplace Transformation and Technology Blueprint). 

Check the “Outputs” section below to download related material and see “Main Achievements” section for further information about the achieved results.

The European Commission states that “the majority of regions with high shares of elderly persons are in rural and sometimes quite remote areas.” The 2 Seas area is largely rural and partner experience has shown that traditional services are physically & financially at capacity, and that many older people live in areas far from hospital or care homes. All 4 countries have a variety of ways of providing care for older people, yet ongoing poor standards of care, often due to lack of communication between hospitals, doctors and carers can result in unnecessary hospitalisation. 

EMPOWERCARE combined the varied expertise/approaches from each partner country to co-create a financially sustainable & durable system that ensured the wellbeing & resilience of older people in their community. 

A cross-border approach allowed different but compatible approaches, bringing partners together to provide stronger co-creation. The countries in the 2 Seas area were at different stages of a comparable journey, but together they were able to understand more of the journey, and the different routes they had taken/could take in the future. Each part of the 2 Seas area had one or more established concepts from which others could learn. The problem of an ageing population and ensuring the wellbeing of older people via a financially and socially sustainable model was prominent in all four countries. 

Cross-border learning allowed partners to combine their expertise in different areas to ensure a holistic approach. EMPOWERCARE combined partners with expertise in health technology, social cohesion solutions, and integrated workforce approaches and local organisations with appropriate access to the target population. 

With regards to technology, it was important for developers to have the widest possible market, which a cross-border project assisted in providing access to diverse academic input and evaluation, from different countries and bringing different perspectives.