The AWARDS (Ageing Women workers Aimed at Renewing Development towards a Sustainable life) project elaborated this approach during 24 months of activity (01/11/2005 – 31/10/2007). Awards Project, was carried out under the “Management of Demographic Change” sub-theme of the European Social Fund (ESF) Article 6 “Innovative Approaches to the Management of Change”. AWARDS project dealt with issues that concern ageing women workers, for instance:

• a low degree of women participation in the labour market and employment rate
• risk of social exclusion and poverty (e.g. single women with children)
• a negative correlation between precarious work environment and health
• scarce supportive systems, flexible work organisation and rules that meet the women needs
• scarce integration between labour flexibility and social security policies
• limited integration between local plans and services
• few adequate social services and plans to reconcile work and life times
• limited participation of women in decision-making both at territorial and company levels

AWARDS project acknowledged that these issues converge in an overarching challenge: to create paths towards a sustainable life development. A paradigmatic definition of “Sustainable Life” constituted the SLD vision both during the AWARDS project (resulted in the elaboration of Action Plans, Pilot Initiatives and Local Scenario Workshops) and for future initiatives according to the European Charter of Sustainable Life Development (approved by the AWARDS Final Conference in October 2007).

The SLD Vision “Sustainable Life is the human behaviour based on the capabilities to access to resources integrating their economic, environmental and socio-cultural functions to meet simultaneously the needs of different persons, generations and territories.”

The following partners and a wide number of local stakeholders managed the AWARDS project.

Country	Partners
Italy	Province of Piacenza (Lead Partner) with the following associated partners: Equal Opportunity Counsellor; Assindustria; CNA; Unione Commercianti; CISL; UIL; Legacoop (observer partner)
	Province of Arezzo
	Studio Ricerche Sociali (SRS)
Spain	Fundacion Ferrol Metropoli (Ferrol)
	Fundacion Universidad Empresa (FUERM)
Poland	Wielkopolska Voivodship (observer partner)

Approach
The SLD approach is presented in the following e-books.

The AWARDS Handbook. A manual to implement the Sustainable Life Development (SLD) approach	From Chapter 1 to Chapter 5
Il Manuale di AWARDS. Un manuale per implementare l’approccio allo Sviluppo di una Vita Sostenibile	From Chapter 1 to Chapter 5
El AWARDS Manual. Manual para la implantación de un enfoque de Desarrollo de Vida Sostenibile	From Chapter 1 to Chapter 5

Methods
The SLD methods are presented in the following e-books.

The AWARDS Handbook. A manual to implement the Sustainable Life Development (SLD) approach	From Chapter 6 to Chapter 10
Il Manuale di AWARDS. Un manuale per implementare l’approccio allo Sviluppo di una Vita Sostenibile	From Chapter 6 to Chapter 10
El AWARDS Manual. Manual para la implantación de un enfoque de Desarrollo de Vida Sostenibile	From Chapter 6 to Chapter 10

The SLD methods concern:

• TAI (Transferability, Adaptability, Integrability) of Good Practices
• Stakeholder Analysis (to involve local actors in a SLD project)
• Action Plan through Local Context Analysis (hypotheses of innovative actions at a territorial dimension, determining policy trajectories and priorities)
• Pilot Initiatives through Workplace Analysis (hypotheses of innovative actions at a corporate dimension, aggregating issues and probable solutions in a number of companies)
• Local Scenario Workshop through selection of a limited number of issues that correlate Action Plans and Pilot Initiatives in a long-term perspective (vision of the next 15 years)

Tools

TAI (Transferability, Adaptability, Integrability) of Good Practices
Questionnaire to utilise lessons	Peer Review – criteria and parameters for good practice analysis and selection
Examples	The AWARDS Sources for Change. From inventory to analysis to innovation
	The AWARDS Peer Review of 29 good practices

Stakeholder Analysis: questionnaires
Local Advisory Group
Local Project Group
Local Scenario Workshop

Workplace Analysis: questionnaires
Company profile
Profilo aziendale
Perfil de la Compañía
Company benchmarking
Benchmarking aziendale
Benchmarking de la Compañía
Women Workers
Lavoratrici
Mujeres trabajadoras

Benchmarking Tool: free exercise
Company benchmarking
Benchmarking aziendale
Benchmarking de la Compañía
The Company Benchmarking free exercise is devoted to companies willing to know their own performance according to the SLD approach. The exercise is fully autonomous, spontaneous and anonymous, without leaving any evidence or data registered or kept on record.

Action Plan - Pilot Initiatives - Local Scenario Workshop: examples
Arezzo (Italy)
Territorial Action Plan	Sommario
	Piano di Azione
	Analisi di Contesto Locale
Corporate Pilot Initiatives	Sommario
	Iniziative Pilota
	Analisi del Posto di Lavoro
Local Scenario Workshop	Local Scenario Workshop
Ferrol (Spain)
Territorial Action Plan	Resumen
	Plan de Acción
	Análisis del Contexto Local
Corporate Pilot Initiatives	Resumen
	Iniciativas Piloto
	Análisis del Lugar de Trabajo
Local Scenario Workshop	Taller de Escenario Local
Murcia (Spain)
Territorial Action Plan	Resumen
	Plan de Acción
	Análisis del Contexto Local
Corporate Pilot Initiatives	Resumen
	Iniciativas Piloto
	Análisis del Lugar de Trabajo
Local Scenario Workshop	Taller de Escenario Local
Piacenza (Italy)
Territorial Action Plan	Sommario
	Piano di Azione
	Analisi di Contesto Locale
Corporate Pilot Initiatives	Sommario
	Iniziative Pilota
	Analisi del Posto di Lavoro
Local Scenario Workshop	Local Scenario Workshop