The purpose of our project is to allow intellectually disabled and as well as discriminated because of their origin and economic conditions of children and young people to use on equal terms as their healthy peers, with cultural goods and its own creation. Because of their deficits they have limited opportunities to participate in cultural and social life. A group of direct beneficiaries are school students from 9 countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania, Macedonia, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Turkey. During the project activities, they will be authors of books of legends and tales from each country. They will make the mascot of their own design and prepare a theater play based on their own script. They will participate in workshops of bookbinding, drawing, creating puppets and theater and many others competitions.The aim of the various tasks is to develop students` social and civic competences, by increasing their knowledge of art in its broad sense and reducing their beliefs about being alienated from society. Through the international activities they will familiarize themselves with the diversity of cultures and different perspectives on art. They will strengthen their ability to use ICT to communicate with students from other countries. Due to participating in workshops they will develop their skills in simple occupations, which they will be able to perform in the future, giving them a sense of being needed in the labor market. In an innovative way, they will strengthen their reading competence and created international products of the project, in the form of series of books with legends and tales of each country, increase motivation to read, not only all students of partner schools, but also the local community in which the project will be implemented. The workshops for our students in which they can participate, regardless of their limitations significantly enrich the offer of our school, encouraging students to attend it. The school itself will become attractive in the eyes of parents and the local community. Due to these actions cooperation between teachers will strengthen, their ability to communicate with each other and problem solving will increase, as well as a better understanding of the teachers and parents of students with disabilities. The local community, which will be indirectly benefited and watched manufactured products, realizes the fact that people with intellectual disabilities are equal participants in cultural life and there is nothing to prevent them from being its creators. All developed products and achieved goals will have a lasting impact on all recipients of the project
The main goal of the 3-year project called "Our story - a real story" was involvement of intellectually disabled and discriminated because of their origin and economic background children and youth in using on equal terms as their healthy peers, cultural goods and its creation. The project involved cooperation of 9 schools that provide teaching in the area of special and integrated education. The participating schools came from the Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Romania, Italy, Portugal, Northern Macedonia, Turkey and Poland. Each year of 3 years long project ended with the production of a specific project product. In the first year it was a series of 9 books with the legends of each of the participating countries. To implement the planned activities in the first year, children and young people attended reading meetings during which they listened to their national, regional and local legends. Then they selected two of the most interesting national legend and one regional and local one. After choosing the legends, they made drawings that illustrated the published books, and developed their own texts. In order to understand the process of creating books, students participated in bookbinding workshops and visited professional printing houses. The result of strenuous work were series of 9 books in a bilingual version (in national language and English). Each partner of the project published a series of books in several or over a dozen copies. They were donated to the local libraries and school libraries to promote the project. The Selected legends were read by the teachers and school staff and recorded in the form of audio books. In the second year of the project were implemented activities related to animated and puppet fairy tales. While watching cartoons students chose their favorite national fairy tales. The two most popular tales from each country were distributed among partners and presented at a specially organized meeting. Then, drawing and puppet workshops were organized, during which students learned the secrets of cartoon characters and puppet tales creation . A trip to the animated film studio was made, where participants learned about the history of animated and puppet cartoons in their country. The ending product of the second year were mascots made by workshop participants, namely the three most beautiful ones were selected in a competition. The third year of project activities focused on puppet theater and actor. While carrying out these tasks, students had the opportunity to participate in puppet theater performances and the actor, where they had the occasion to watch the art of acting. In schools the theater classes were also held for students preparing the final performance, who were the authors of script as well. The main character of each performance was the winning mascot from the second year of the project. All performances were recorded and distributed among the project partners, and then presented during several showings. The prepared performances were the product of the third year, and also the culmination of the entire project. The implementation of various tasks contributed to the development of social and civic competences by increasing their knowledge of art in its broad sense and reducing their belief in being alienated from society. Through international activities, they became acquainted with the diversity of cultures and different perspectives on art. By participating in the workshops, they developed their skills in simple professions that they will be able to perform in the future, which gives them a sense of being needed on the labor market. In an innovative way, their reading competences were strengthened, and the international products of the project, in the form of a series of books with stories and legends of each country donated to libraries, increased motivation to read, not only among the students of partner schools, but also the local environment in which the project was realized. The created series of books and the recorded audio book are permanent evidence of the successfully completed project. In addition, "Our story - a true story" contributed to increase the level of language skills among teachers, and established contacts have developed into acquaintances and friendships.