The project “FixSmallArt” will examine and moderate different art methods and techniques supporting social tolerance practices and adult education for people with learning disabilities and mental illness helping their social and personal empowerment. During the implementation of this project the people with learning disabilities and mentally could develop their social and communication skills and will be supported in the informal adult education field. The aim is to connect art techniques with training methodologies making possible the empowerment of people with learning disabilities and mental health to develop their communicational skills, social status and personal responsibility. “FixSmallArt” is a partnership of 7partners from 6 EU member states who strive to enhance employment and social involvement of people with disability (PWD) through use of educational art techniques with paper. This method enables us to empower people with disability by developing their Key Competences, share old and develop new methods, and enhance visibility of people with disability who are usually left on margins of the labor market due to prejudice. Disability is a social issue that has been addressed significantly by the EU in the recent years but what is lacking still is the notion among employers that being disabled is not being unable to work. As organizations with years of experience in working with and for disabled people, we find that this prejudice persists because of lack of interaction between the disabled and the "non-disabled". The main results/outputs of the project implementation are the following: (a) O1 Facilitator Training Programme on Disabled people and mentally to professionals to work in art paper (Curricula preparation and elaboration of materials): aiming at preparation and approval of the training plan and materials necessary for the implementation of the local FixSmallArt labs as part of training of learners. (b) O2 Development of Guide to work with disabled people and mentally in art (training guideline): development of trainers’ guideline with strategies and methodologies. (c) O3 Moodle “FixSmallArt Lab” (online training materials/tools): development of Moodle courses for Trainers and learners consisted of videos from the local events and trainings; (d) O4 Local FixSmallArt labs (training of learners): organization of local courses in each country with 10 weeks duration (40 hours) where 20 participants to be involved (e) C1 Social worker’s capacity building and skills training session (international training of trainers): actual ToT with 2 participants per organization and 5 days duration, organized in Italy (f) C2 Pilot FixSmallArt_ Lab (international training) : pilot training of learners with 2 learners and 1 trainer per organization, organized in Greece Based on these main outputs is expected that 7 local FiXSmallArt labs will be organized with 8 hours duration each and the participation of at least 140 disabled people and 14 to 20 trainers. Additionally 20 trainers will be trained under C1 and 20 disabled people under C2. More than 200 people will be involved in the Moodle Lab.
The project FixSmallArt was created with core purpose to support the piloting and implementation of innovative art training methodologies for empowerment of people with learning disabilities and mental health to develop their communication skills, social status, and personal responsibility. The applied method enables us to empower people with disability by developing their key competences, share old and develop new methods, and enhance visibility of people with disability who are usually left on margins of the labour market due to prejudice. The main objectives of the project are: • Preparation of training materials and guidelines for trainers and learners (IO1 and IO2) • Actual implementation of “Paper Art lab” at international level and oriented to trainers techniques and learners testing (C1 and C2) • Local trainings for practical testing and piloting of trainers and learners techniques (E1-7 and IO4) • Digital trainings though Moodle (IO3) The project was coordinated by Medborgarskolan (Sweden) in partnership with organizations from other five European countries, who strive to enhance employment and social involvement of people with disability (PWD) through use of educational techniques connected with paper, color and wood art. Specifically, in the project were participating SOCA (Slovenia), IPSA (Greece), Anazitites Theatrou (Greece), OECON GROUP Bulgaria, UCLL (Belgium) and L’Olive (Italy). The main results/outputs of the project implementation were: (a) O1 Facilitator Training Programme on Disabled people and mentally to professionals to work in art paper (Curricula preparation and elaboration of materials): training plan and materials necessary for the implementation of the local FixSmallArt labs as part of training of learners (94 pages document, 7 labs) (b) O2 Development of Guide to work with disabled people and mentally in art (training guideline): trainers’ guideline with strategies and methodologies (110 pages and consisted of 6 modules 50 pages, published on SALTO) (c) O3 Moodle “FixSmallArt Lab” (online training materials/tools): Moodle courses for Trainers and learners (13 videos) (d) O4 Local FixSmallArt labs (training of learners): organization of local courses in each country with 10 weeks duration (40 hours) and 152 participants (e) C1 Social worker’s capacity building and skills training session (international training of trainers): ToT with 15 experts and 5 days duration, organized in Italy (f) C2 Pilot FixSmallArt_ Lab (international training): pilot training of learners with 77 learners and 102 trainers, organized in Greece Based on these main outputs were organized 7 multiplayer events with 8 hours duration each and the participation of 159 people. The activities had started at 01/11/2018 and ended at 30/10/2020.