Promoting integral human development to innovation and business transformation: and what if a territory changes for the better?

The Alentejo Region (AR)faces challenges of poverty, a severely ageing population, and a lack of qualified human resources, among others, which bring a severe burden to the social and care responses in the territory. There is a recognized and urgent need to innovate in social responses. The Integral Human Development (IHD) (Pope Paul VI, 1967), centered on the development of “every man and all men” (Pope Paul VI,1967, p.14), that concerns person’s every single dimension, has the potential to guide that innovation (Benedict XVI, 2009). Here we present preliminary data of two ongoing programs that are being implemented in the AR which aim to promote IHD. We look for a preventive, innovative and multidisciplinary path in social care institutions, thus contributing to the common good. The two programmes are led by two different institutions, focusing on different aspects that promote IHD. The first programme is ledby Fundação Unitate and aims to promote the IHD of people in social care institutions through social innovation and the empowerment of social institutions in the territory. The second program is ledby Lavrar o Tempo and aims to promote IHD through training in Serious Leisure. This programme consists of a Serious Leisure pilot training action to capacitate all professionals in the field of Ageing to promote IHD in their professional context among colleagues and elderly people. Both programs integrate the post-doctoral program in IHD at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon. In the first programme’s preliminary data on social impact, it has been shown that the program has helped to improve the quality of life of people in social care institutions, as well as strengthened the relationships between the institutions and the community. Regarding the second programme, preliminary data indicates that the training action develops the professionals’ interpersonal relationships, promotes a positive impact on professional practice and contributes to the acknowledgement of the elderly person’s innate dignity.