Our way to be and to behave is deeply influenced by our visual perception which determines our understanding of the situation and the space that surrounds us. Visually impaired people can easily become isolated from their community and, even worse, from themselves because they do not feel confident with themselves and this makes them feel inappropriate in every context. This also reflects and affects their everyday life because they generally find it harder to get employment, to attend school, or to take part in day-to-day community activities. We believe that exclusion comes first from within due to the lack of confidence that's why V.I.S.I.ON aims to help visually impaired children starting from the "self" to overcome the barriers that they easily build to brace themselves from society; it gives them the confidence to believe in themselves and to “spread” their self-assurance and confidence around them. Basically, it concerns the creation of a method for "teaching their self awareness and their consciousness of the space around" to visual impaired kids through the expression of theatre. The project envisages developing the training method with the participation of at least 10 v.i. children (11-17 years old) from Sofia, V. Tarnovo, Palermo and Luxembourg and 5 from Cardiff and test it in a number of workshops organized in theatres and schools in the different countries involved. We expect a percentage of at least 60% among the children affected by visual impairment to become involved in this activity in the long term. The number of children actually participating actively in our workshops during the project lifetime is expected to be around 50 but more will be involved through dissemination and sharing of the method. After the end of the project we expect a sharp increase in the number of children willing to take part in these activities, which will be a multiplication effect based on the project achievements and its future continuation and sustainability. The project responds directly to the following aims of strategic partnerships: - enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education, training and youth work by developing new and innovative approaches and supporting the dissemination of best practices in the field of theatric and artistic approaches for building confidence and awareness of visually impaired children; - promoting take-up of innovative practices in education, training and youth by supporting personalized learning approaches, collaborative learning and critical thinking, open and flexible learning and other innovative learning methods, as the ones, which will lie at the grounds of the training method to be developed; - promoting structured interregional: enhancing the commitment of local and regional public authorities in the qualitative development of the education, training and youth fields; - enhancing the professional development of those working or active in the education, training and youth fields by innovating and increasing the quality and range of initial and continuing training, including new pedagogies in support to traditional education methods; - improving the capacities of organizations active in the fields of education, training and youth, notably in the areas of quality of learning provision, internationalization, equity and inclusion, qualitative and targeted activities for specific groups as is the V.I.S.I.ON target group, which is very well defined, with existent issues and need for support; - fostering equity and inclusion in education, training and youth, to enable quality learning for all as well as to prevent drop-out and promote participation of disadvantaged groups in society. The main results are: -Transnational cross-thematic report with focus on the problems, needs and potential enhancement of visually impaired children - developed in all national languages of the partners and in EN (+EN-Braille). - Conducted pilot testing of the program in Palermo with coinciding train the trainer activity. - Conducted national workshops plus international closing week in Palermo -Developed training program as structure and methodology encompassing the specific expertise of psychologists, tiflopedagogists and theatre experts on the issues related to visual impairment and the methods of building self assurance and confidence through theatrical and artistic approaches -Train the trainer guide - a tangible document (with structure and proposed contents), explaining the activities (and their meaning) to be performed on the stage (also using music, street sounds, nature sounds and skin contacts) and the interaction between the director and the children. -Questionnaire/interview for evaluation (of the developed training program as well as for self-evaluation), to be presented to the children & trainers twice - before they start and after they finish trainings C1 and C2. -WE SHARE THE VISION flash mob -Website (accessible also to V.I.P.)
Our way to be and to behave is deeply influenced by our visual perception, which determines our understanding of the situation and the space that surrounds us. Visually impaired (v.i.) people can easily become isolated from their community because they do not feel confident with themselves and this makes them feel inappropriate in every context. This reflects and affects their everyday life because they generally find it harder to attend school, get employment or take part in day-to-day community activities. We believe that exclusion comes first from within due to the lack of confidence, which is why V.I.S.I.ON aimed at helping v.i. children to develop physical and vocal confidence of expression and to utilize this self-assurance in their everyday life. The project was focused on the creation of a method for "teaching self awareness, confidence and consciousness of the space around" to v.i. children and young people through the instruments of theatre. The organisations, involved in this project - 8 partners from 5 countries - demonstrate an array of expertise, extremely beneficial for the complex endeavour under the VISION project. The coordinator from BG - FDCBPCS - has years of experience with socially responsible projects, implemented within international consortia. FDCBPCS experience in cultural and peer learning as well as the direct impressions from the practice of the Italian partners - MusicÁrte and I'Bohemiens (artistic and cultural institutions) - in theatrical work with blind and visually impaired adults - formed the grounds of the VISION project. The mentioned Italian partners excelled at organising and conducting the activities with the v.i. participants in Palermo. They were involved both in the elaboration of the IOs and the conducting of the piloting with the children. They also hosted the two big successful testing events - C1 and C2. The 2nd BG partner - the school for v.i. children "Louis Braille" - is an educational institution, which is specialised in teaching v.i. children. They provided the setting for the work with the children in Sofia and participated in all scientific activities. "Hope for all" association from BG - a socially active NGO, working with children and young people with disabilities - was responsible for the group of v.i. children in Tarnovo. The partner from Wales - UCAN Productions - is an artistic organisation, working with v.i. children and young people via drama approaches for development of physical and vocal confidence. UCAN were exceptionally important for the project due to their twelve years of experience in the field, their immense access to the v.i. community in Wales and England, their excellent connections in this educational sphere and their contribution towards increased visual awareness among the team members and the broader community, involved in the project. In LUX - Dante Alighieri Societa - is a cultural and creative non-profit organisation, which not only supported the project scientifically, but also involved v.i. workshop leaders in demonstrational workshops with students from the European school II in LUX and their parents, most of whom are employed in the local EU institutions. Inforef from Belgium boasts scientific, managerial and technical experiences from numerous EU projects. Inforef was responsible for the technical side of VISION - they developed videos and created and maintained the accessible project web-site with exceptional professionalism, quality and strictly following the accessibility recommendations coming from our v.i. participants. The project developed a training method, consisting of visual awareness guidelines for facilitators of drama workshops and an abundance of exercises, which can be used for the purpose of developing physical and vocal confidence among v.i. people. About 50 v.i. children from BG, IT and the UK were at the core of the project and participated in testing its approach. The main results are: - National reports on experiences and good practices, supported by a transnational report summarizing the results. - A transnational cross-thematic report from psychological, theatrical and tyflopedagogical perspective. - Pilot testing of the programme in Palermo - short-term staff training (C1). - National workshops plus an international closing workshop week in Palermo (C2), where children from BG, IT and the UK worked together with facilitators in mixed groups. - A training programme encompassing the specific expertise of psychologists, tyflopedagogists and theatre experts for building self assurance and confidence. The provided theatrical exercises are all accompanied by clear guidelines for the trainers, explaining the activities (and their meaning) to be performed, plus visual awareness and safety instructions. - Questionnaires/interviews for evaluation, presented to children & trainers. - WE SHARE THE VISION demo workshops with the VISION approach. - an accessible Website and abundant video documentation.