Disabled individuals are at the forefront of disadvantaged groups facing many difficulties in social, business, educational life. However, sexual education is one of the most important problems that are overlooked from the most basic problems of disabled people. The concept of sexuality that individuals who are in the process of healthy development due to external factors such as various prejudices and socio-cultural values, learn outside the educational environment in an unofficial way becomes a much more difficult subject when it comes to disabled individuals. However, there is a need for sexuality education that includes specific learning/teaching methods and techniques appropriate to their learning competence so that disabled people can positively behave in the social integration process, protect themselves from possible sexual violence and health risks, and find the sexual identity of disabled people. Therefore, Persons who will play a key role in education should adopt the complementary role of each other, rather than seeing the responsibilities of parents, and school partnerships on sexuality education, and be creating alternatives to each other. According to the UNFPA World Population 2014 report that every year 91 thousand daughters giving birth and 1 in 3 of marriages is composed of girls under 18 years of age and in this ratio "Around 68% of girls with developmental and intellectual disabilities are at risk of exposure to sexual violence before the age of 18". In the other mean, Children with disabilities are 3.4 times more likely to be sexually abused than their non-disabled peers. DESEM is designed to develop a sexual education model/methodology for mentally disabled individuals. Each activity that constitutes the project content will provide coordinated work of educators/guidance specialists and disabled families, which are the main actors in sexuality education. The consortium established with 7 countries under the coordination of General Directorate of Special Education and Guidance Services. DESEM project consists of 3 intellectual outputs and several sub-outputs that will meet the determined needs. IO-1-Needs analysis and Benchmark report; The needs analysis studies and the Benchmark report will form the basis of the sexual education model for the Mentally disabled individuals and will be the compass that determines the route map of the project. Determining best practices across partners will help to identify the socio-cultural point of view of the sexuality education model and to determine the most appropriate methodology to be used within the education model. IO-2- Sexual Education Model Learning/Teaching Toolkit; The toolkit consists of 3 different modules for the main actors of sexual education. A) For special education teachers/Guidance teachers/Sub-Teachers, B) For parents of mentally disabled individuals, C) Visual training tool for mentally disabled individuals. IO-3-E-Learning Platform and mobile app; E-Learning Platform and mobile app user audience will be special education teachers/Guidance teachers/ Sub-teachers and parents of mentally disabled individuals. In order; -to develop the professional skills and teaching methods related to sexuality education of the trainers through web based distance education method, -to improve the competence of the parents for the development of effective communication skills between the family and the child, -to ensure that the information about the sexual education which was learned in the official learning environment by mentally disabled individuals and has been supported by knowledge by the family in the home environment. By effective dissemination of sexual education model across Europe and through raising awareness prejudices about sexuality education will be removed. The level of sexual health will improve, and the level of abuse against disabled people will decrease by increasing the level of education and awareness through sexual education. Will contribute to the achievement of the objectives related to the development of Professional competences, social inclusion, the right to access education/training stated in EC, WHO, Erasmus +, UnCRpD, European Agenda for Adult Learning, Education 2030, UN SDG and the European Disability strategies'.
DESEM was managed to develop a sexual education model/methodology for mentally disabled individuals. Each activity that constitutes the project content provided coordinated work of educators/guidance specialists and disabled families, which are the main actors in sexual education. The partnership started the studies with the needs analysis to determine the project target groups' real training needs. In this context, each partner organized local workshops to engage with the main privacy education actors ( Special education teachers, guidance teachers, caregivers, and parents of disabled individuals). The local workshops' main aim was to discuss the problems in the field with target groups, and their real training needs to create a questions pool for the next step of the study. Each partner was prepared a local workshop report and shared it in the partnership with other partners. After the local workshops, two different questionnaires about the educational needs of the main actors of privacy education were applied to parents and trainers in partner countries to develop such a project program. The needs analysis, evidence-based support for developing the program, and teaching materials were provided. Results on the needs analysis of parents and trainers were represented under three different titles: personal information and views on participating in such an education, views on the content of the educational program, and suggestions. Benchmarking report; the partnership was created a benchmarking report under the IO1 studies. This report was prepared to examine the context of the international and national legislation for disabled individuals in special education to provide an overview of special education teachers' training needs, guidance teachers, caregivers who have intellectually disabled children, or the person who takes care of the intellectually disabled individual. After completing the project's research phase, the Learning/Teaching Toolkit has been developed. Originally the partnership had to develop 2 training materials named a guide book for teachers and a supportive book for parents/caregivers. However, when the partnership compared the project's research phase's obtained results, the partner has decided to enlarge the training toolkit package to increase the target group's benefit by developing more supportive training materials. Despite its written application form, the partnership has developed 5 additional training materials under the Learning / Teaching Toolkit. These training materials are named Framework Programs for Trainers, Framework Program for Parents/Caregivers, Guide Book for Trainers, Activity Book for Trainers, Activity Book for Parents/Caregivers. In this context, the project's lead partner (General Directorate of Special Education and Guidance Services/TR) has made official studies to include framework training programs in the special education system to ensure sustainability. Thus, both framework programs prepared were approved by the General Directorate of Lifelong Learning and included in the formal education system. Both framework programs link; https://hbogm.meb.gov.tr/modulerprogramlar/ (Bakım Veren Kişilere Yönelik Zihinsel Engelli Bireyler İçin İhmal-İstismardan Korunma ve Mahremiyet Eğitimi and Eğiticilere Yönelik Zihinsel Engelli Bireyler İçin İhmal-İstismardan Korunma ve Mahremiyet Eğitimi). The partnership established an E-Learning platform to develop the professional skills and teaching methods related to sexuality education of the trainers through web-based distance education method, to improve the competence of the parents for the development of effective communication skills between the family and the child and to ensure that the information about the sexual education which was learned in the official learning environment by mentally disabled individuals and has been supported by knowledge by the family in the home environment. The E-learning platform has been integrated into mobile applications to enable the target groups to access information within the motto of any time and anywhere in line with technological changes for using the communication tools in education (https://www.desemproject.eu/e-learning-platform/) During the project lifecycle, the partnership engaged with many national and international organizations to increase the impact of the project on educational authorities and, of course, on society's lives, such as UNFPA, Hungary Education Ministry, universities, public schools, etc... The partnership was achieved more than exceptional results inline with the application form identified. Because each partner was ready to work on this area to support disabled individuals and the education system, they also worked in harmony to bring success to the partnership. At the beginning of the project, the partners were confused about society's prejudice and possible acts. However, the partners have agreed on the project topic's importance to support disadvantaged individuals through innovative approaches. So, It can say; another achievement of the project was a starting point to break the prejudice and use innovative approaches in the special education area.