Nowadays autism affects 3.3 million people in the European Union – about 1 person out of 150 is diagnosed with this handicap in Europe. Although specific efforts have been made by the autism plans with regards to diagnose, specialized education and access to ordinary life, the teenager phase leading towards independent life, a particularly critical phase, is very inadequately covered and funded. Facing these observations, the challenge is to better know the European frames, the will and needs of concerned stakeholders and to be able to offer existing innovative tools and methods to professionals (education, social) to accompany the transition towards mainstream and independent life. Professionals need to access networks and existing practices in terms of training and intervention processes. The TRAIL project will address these professionals in order to help them to better accompany the transition phase, teenagers being indirect beneficiaries. General objective: To contribute to the identification and the implementation of best practices for professionals and of intervention frameworks that would allow the support of the adolescence phase and their access to ordinary life. Final objective will be to enable completion and/or recommendations of national or European plans for autism. Operational objectives To identify the existing good practices, looking particularly into what has been set up in the States and in Canada with regards to means such as “toolbox” but also practices or initiatives existing in Europe – if possible during the duration of the project also study the transfer criteria and possibilities To transfer 2 innovative methods and tools already spotted : Interactive theatre and scriptwriting (Sweden – TP TEATERN) to personalize accompaniment and also to set up collaborative solutions between different stakeholders and teenagers themselves, Mobile units (APAJH38 – Lyon) intervening directly during the independant life as a tailor-made support and also adapt the HIPE 4 days-course (TOI Leonardo 2012) which will be completed with the specificities of transition phase To set up professional communities and to enrich them via tools such as social WEB in order to sustain collaboration between different stakeholders who rarely work together (researchers, professionals, institutions, decision-makers and financers) To define the criteria and indicators that would allow the anticipation of the teenagers’ accompaniment to ordinary life To study the intervention or support possibilities (and in which form) of the institutional actors or financers to make deployment of innovative actions possible, within the partnership countries. WHAT IS EXPECTED FROM THE PROJECT ? To provide tools and methods to professionals to avoid life-course disruptions which are dramatic in autism and is particularly difficult period for teenagers with autism. To make a comparative survey between the social policies of the Member states in order to detect the best practices To create the right conditions of exchanges between networks, professionals , researchers and even the young adults themselves by using the social webs and ITC based tools To collect innovative tools, methods, initiatives, projects, courses in order to offer resources to the professionals To identify which ones of these resources could be suitable and relevant The consortium is a majority of previous partners from the successful HIPE project.PAPILLONS BLANCS de Dunkerque - SAMO (France) the promoter is an association dealing with the accompaniment of people with all kind of handicap and more recently with yound adults with autism - REGIONAL DIRECTORATE FROM THESSALY (Greece) will help teenagers for the transition from school to independent life as they work in close relationship with families associations - FORO TECNICO DE FORMACION (Spain) a national certified training center for vocational training - PASSEPORT EUROPE (France) was the coordinator of HIPE4ASD and responsible for the valorization process - NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY (UK) is acting in the targeting field and which will link with some on-going activities and projects will be done and this will be of high added-value - TP-TEATERN (Sweden) and APAJH38 (France) as expert institutions which will transfer their know-how As social webs and on-line activities are key tools for the TRAIL project, INTERMEDI@KT (Greece) joined the team because of its solid experience and competencies to help and sustain the communities’ work but also its expertise in ICT tools which will be of great added-value for valorization. The French National project officer Guillaume BLANCO and many other essential actors of this field, especially decision-maker will help the TRAIL project to provide the best practices to professionals who accompany young adults with autism to enter the ordinary life in the better conditions for each of them.
Context Nowadays, autism affects 3.3 million people in the European Union - about 1 in 150 people are diagnosed with this disability in Europe. Although specific efforts have been made by autism plans in different key phases of the life of autistic people, the transition phase of adolescents and young adults in their access to a more independent life is a special phase insufficiently taken into account in an inclusive aim. In addition to having a comparative approach to the policies of the Member States to work on convergences and benchmark, the challenge is to better define the needs of the relevant stakeholders and to propose innovative tools and methods to professionals (education, social) to support the transition to an integrated and independent approach. life. Professionals and families need access to tools, devices and resources to better support this phase. Objectives TRAIL has contributed to the identification and implementation of good practices (frameworks, resources, tools) to support the transition phase of young adults with autism. These innovations are aimed at support professionals but also at young people and their families for a more independent life in ordinary life. An essential objective was also to transfer 3 innovative practices directly operational and usable by a large number of professionals: HIPE training (TOI Leonardo 2012) short session for an immediate efficiency of professionals in contact with autistic people) - Interactive Theater method allowing professionals to co-construct and script complex situations - Mobile Units of the APAJH38 allowing multidisciplinary teams to intervene at home with people with autism to help them in their daily lives. Consortium The promoter LES PAPILLONS BLANCS de Dunkerque - SAMO (France) is an association that supports people with intellectual disabilities with or without associated disorders including autism. TRAIL has logically mobilized 5 partners of the HIPE4ASD project: THE REGIONAL DIRECTORATE OF THESSALY RECTORATH (Greece) which made it possible to work on the axis of inclusive education in close connection with families - FORO TECNICO DE FORMACION (Spain) a center certified national vocational training program which also helped to deploy a skills approach in the transfer phases - PASSPORT EUROPE (France) coordinator of HIPE4ASD was able to support the coordination, the process of valorization and innovation - NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY (UK) Association The National Major Program on Autism in the UK joined HIPE in the final conference and carried out the project studies. TP-TEATERN (Sweden) Theater Company working for the social sector and APAJH38 (France) accompanying people with disabilities in different fields have completed the project as a bearer of innovative actions to transfer their know-how. INTERMEDIAKT (Greece) ICT specialist took charge of the creation of TRAIL's online environment. Activities and results A comprehensive online environment has been created to support information gathering, communities (especially for studies) and learning activities (especially during innovation transfer) and dissemination. The consortium finalized 4 studies (not exhaustive) to have a comparison between partner countries in the transition phase: 1. Comparative approach of social policies 2. Needs of professionals 3. Needs of young adults and their families 4. Survey of decision makers. The collected information and the documentary research have identified a set of innovations (validated by the Steering Committees) assembled in the TRAIL Toolkit (devices, tools and resources) covering the different fields of life of young people in transition. A training module has been created to help professionals support these young people during the transition phase. Impact and bénéfices Studies, exchanges have highlighted large differences in approaches and organizations related to the specific cultures and social policies of each country, each partner discovering devices, innovations, training modules Directly transferable. Of this collaborative work was born the desire to develop projects aimed at improving the courses for all partners, as for example in France and in Greece, the use of interactive theatre in schools, college and high School to promote Inclusion and acceptance of the difference, in an inclusive view.