Inclusion Europe embarks upon new projects

Inclusion Europe started 2 new projects. The first project is called Pathways. It is about making learning more accessible for adults with intellectual disabilities. The second project is called Topside. It is about people with intellectual disabilities supporting their peers in making decisions.

In November, Inclusion Europe together with its members started two new projects: Pathways II and Topside. Both projects succeeded in the high competition for EU funding and received support from the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. Meanwhile Topside will develop peer support and peer training as a new component in informal adult education, Pathways II aims to make mainstream education programs more accessible for adults with intellectual disabilities. Both projects will be finalised in October 2013. 

Training Opportunities for People with Intellectual Disabilities (Topside)

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter CRPD), ratified by most EU Member States and the European Union, has created new opportunities for people with disabilities. Among others, it recognises the right of all people with disabilities to take control over their own lives. To realise this right, people with intellectual disabilities need adequate support and appropriate training to develop relevant skills needed to make own decisions and lead an independent life.

The project Topside aims to tackle this challenge by advancing the concept of peer training and peer support in Europe. It is undertaken in partnership with disability organisations in Finland (KVTL), Romania (Pentru Voi), Scotland (ENABLE), Catalonia (Dincat), the Czech Republic (SPMP) and the Netherlands (Perspectief).

Peer training should provide people with intellectual disabilities with the skills and qualifications necessary for decision-making. These include communication skills (expressing opinions, holding and defending positions), communication methods (interaction with others, alternative communication methods), understanding relationships, taking the initiative (looking for help and advice, problem-solving), basic social and civic skills (respect, politeness, requesting information, a meeting or an interview), learning to use informal training material and information resources.

With this in mind, the project partnership will create and test a training curriculum for people with intellectual disabilities to train and support their peers. It will consist of various modules covering different areas of necessary expertise and experience. Most of them will be common modules applicable in all European countries, adapted to the national context, culture and background of each country.

To facilitate the use of the curriculum in practice, the project will consequently develop a set of methodological guidelines for trainers who will be preparing a team of self-advocates as peer supporters. The guidelines will rely on a variety of methods and exercises such as role play, site visits, theatre plays, videos or peer exercises.

The peer supporters will then be provided with a set of accessible and user-friendly teaching materials to train and support their peers to take their own decisions in life. The material will contain easy to understand questions, words, pictograms and symbols to help the supporter to communicate with people with intellectual disabilities and keep record of the exchanges and answers.

In order to ensure a truly European approach to peer training, the project will seek the recognition of leading organisations of and for people with intellectual disabilities across Europe. The possibilities of transferring the results to other non-project countries and official certification of the training will also be examined.

The new role of Peer Supporter will develop self-confidence, empowerment as well as a variety of important skills, and may even provide additional employment or volunteering opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to reinforce their active citizenship through the recognition of their skills.

More information about Topside can be found at www.inclusion-europe.org under the section “Projects”.

Pathways to Adult Education for People with intellectual disabilities (Pathways II)

Due to the inaccessibility of lifelong learning programmes and materials, many adults with intellectual disabilities are denied the opportunity to develop their skills and competences in a mainstream setting.  This not only goes against the notion of inclusion but also significantly hampers their chances to succeed in the job market.

In 2009, Inclusion Europe together with partners and self-advocates in Austria, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal and Scotland developed tools to make the lifelong learning programs more accessible.  Besides the well-known European standards on making information easy to read and understand, a training programme for lifelong learning staff, a methodology on involving people with intellectual disabilities in the preparation and quality control of materials, and a checklist to assess accessibility of written material, were also developed.

After the remarkable positive feedback generated by this project, Inclusion Europe and a number of interested members have now decided to make its results available to people with intellectual disabilities and adult education staff in other European countries. Pathways II thus builds on the heritage of the original Pathways project and multiplies its impact, covering almost all the European Union.

After the first project meeting held at the end of November, Inclusion Europe’s members in Croatia (Association for Self-Advocacy), the Czech Republic (SPMP), Estonia (EVPIT), Hungary (ÉFOÉSZ), Italy (Anffas), Latvia (Rupju Berns), Slovenia (Zveza Sožitje), Slovakia (ZPMPvSR) and Spain (FEAPS) will now translate the Pathways materials and adapt them to the cultural and education context of their country.

The Pathways partners do not content themselves with the mere transfer of materials but aim at a truly systemic and structural change.  The project puts a strong emphasis on the dissemination to ensure that more people with intellectual disabilities have access to lifelong learning programmes in a larger number of European countries. National-level training events will be held in each of the country. The project actively targets education providers and decision-makers to achieve concrete action in the area of education to improve the accessibility of lifelong learning programmes for adults with intellectual disabilities.

More information about the Project Pathways can be found at www.life-long-learning.eu.