Everybody should get a fair share of opportunities in life. The Erasmus+ programme is designed to offer exciting opportunities for all young people and promotes participation in democratic life in Europe and the labour market, active citizenship, social inclusion through learning mobility projects. An international mobility project can be a life-changing experience for youth. Unfortunately some young people are not experiencing this, as they are at a disadvantage. Even if Erasmus+ offers specific support to include young people with special needs in mobility projects they are still underrepresented in the participation rates of Erasmus+ Mobility for Youth.In fact, only 1% of the youth mobility participants are young people with special needs. The above occurs despite the prevalence of 15% of youth having one or more disabilities in our general population and the fact that one in six people in the EU have a “long-term physical, mental, sensory impairment”. This occurs because, participants with disabilities are feeling discouraged even before leaving for a mobility and youth organizations don’t have the know how to make more inclusive projects towards them. Moreover, youth NGOs and youth workers lack the knowledge, skills and competences to support young people with disabilities and empower them to participate more in the mobility projects and opportunities of Erasmus+. Lastly, young people with special needs do not always have option to take part in organisations of youth without disabilities, because of accessibility and/or psychological barriers. Erasmus+ can be the tool for removing these obstacles and making young people with disabilities to be more active, change their life and empower them towards their personal and professional development.There is a great need to empower young people with special needs into participating in the mobility projects of Erasmus+ and equip youth NGOs and youth workers with the necessary skills and knowledge in supporting these young people. This issue doesn’t only occur in one country, as the low participation of young people with disabilities in mobility programs exists in an EU level. Realizing the above needs, a youth NGO, a lifelong learning center, a digital SME along with an international NGO and a social enterprise focusing on disabled people came together to form the idea of DARE:DisAble the barRiErs a 24 month project that has as an aim to empower youth NGOs and youth workers into implementing more inclusive youth mobility projects for young people with special needs and especially young people with visual/hearing/physical disabilities through 4 innovative products: -a practical guide for organizations and youth workers to support young PwVHPI and design inclusive youth projects -a digital storytelling handbook for young PwVHPI and young people who wish to become DARE ambassadors -Truth and Dare Space, an e-platform with an e-learning and e-communication space designed to train and connect youth workers and young PwVHPI -DARE app, an innovative and info tool designed for young PwVHPI who want to create or take part in Erasmus+ Youth mobilities DARE project’s TG’s are: -Youth workers, Youth NGOs members, trainers, educators, youth leaders -Young people and young people with visual, hearing, physical impairments (young PwVHPI). We chose to focus on these types of disabilities because the consortium has greater experience working with young people with these types of disability and we have designed the intellectual outputs to cover their tailored needs DARE’s objectives are: -to support the capacity building of youth workers, Youth NGOs in implementing high quality youth mobility inclusive projects involving young PwVHPI -to open up youth work to cross-sectorial cooperation allowing greater synergies across fields of social inclusion actions concerning young PwVHPI -to foster volunteering among young people and increase the peer support from young people towards young PwVHPI -to foster social inclusion of young PwVHPI, taking into account the underlying European values by making organizations, youth NGOs that realize mobilities more accessible to them -to increase the level of active participation of young PwVHPI to local and EU level through raising awareness about Erasmus+ Youth Mobility Projects and increasing their participation number in these projects With the use of non formal learning, internal and external desk research we are going to have 4 innovative outputs, a learning and teaching activity and the creation of 10 local focus groups and online activities, and involve in total 295 youth workers and 325 young PwVHPI and young people in general. Finally, DARE project aims to have a longer term impact and benefit the above groups by supporting and empowering them in order to increase the number of inclusive youth mobility projects as well as to empower more young PwVHPI to be actively involved in Erasmus+ Youth mobility and their local community
Although the Erasmus+ programme is designed to offer exciting opportunities for all young people and promotes participation in democratic life in Europe and the labour market, active citizenship, social inclusion through learning mobility projects. Unfortunately some young people are not experiencing this, as they are at a disadvantage. Even if Erasmus+ offers specific support to include young people with special needs in mobility projects they are still underrepresented in the participation rates of Erasmus+ Mobility for Youth. Only 1% of the youth mobility participants are young people with special needs. The above occurs despite the prevalence of 15% of youth having one or more disabilities in our general population and the fact that one in six people in the EU have a “long-term physical, mental, sensory impairment”. This occurs because, participants with disabilities are feeling discouraged even before leaving for a mobility and youth organizations don’t have the know how to make more inclusive projects towards them. Moreover, youth NGOs and youth workers lack the knowledge, skills and competences to support young people with disabilities and empower them to participate more in the mobility projects and opportunities of Erasmus+. Lastly, young people with special needs do not always have option to take part in organisations of youth without disabilities, because of accessibility and/or psychological barriers. Erasmus+ can be the tool for removing these obstacles and making young people with disabilities to be more active, change their life and empower them towards their personal and professional development. There is a great need to empower young people with special needs into participating in the mobility projects of Erasmus+ and equip youth NGOs and youth workers with the necessary skills and knowledge in supporting these young people. This issue doesn’t only occur in one country, as the low participation of young people with disabilities in mobility programs exists in an EU level. The DARE:DisAble the barRiErs a 24 month project managed to empower youth NGOs and youth workers into implementing more inclusive youth mobility projects for young people with special needs and especially young people with visual/hearing/physical disabilities through the delivery of 4 innovative products: - a 75-page practical guide for organizations and youth workers to support young PwVHPI and design inclusive youth projects - a 26-page digital storytelling handbook for young PwVHPI and young people who wish to become DARE ambassadors - the Truth and Dare Space, an e-platform with an e-learning and e-communication space designed to train and connect youth workers and young PwVHPI - the DARE app, an innovative and info tool designed for young PwVHPI who wish to learn more about the Erasmus+ programme and take part in Erasmus+ Youth mobilities DARE project’s TGs are: - Youth workers, Youth NGOs members, trainers, educators, youth leaders - Young people and young people with visual, hearing, physical impairments (young PwVHPI). We chose to focus on these types of disabilities because the consortium has greater experience working with young people with these types of disability and we have designed the intellectual outputs to cover their tailored needs Through the DARE project, the project consortium managed to: - support the capacity building of youth workers, Youth NGOs in implementing high quality youth mobility inclusive projects involving young PwVHPI - open up youth work to cross-sectorial cooperation allowing greater synergies across fields of social inclusion actions concerning young PwVHPI - promote volunteering among young people and increase the peer support from young people towards young PwVHPI - foster social inclusion of young PwVHPI, taking into account the underlying European values by making organizations, youth NGOs that realize mobilities more accessible to them - encourage young PwVHPI on local and EU level to learn about the Erasmus+ programme and participate in Youth Mobility Projects with the aim of increasing the number of PwVHPI in European Mobility Projects. Through collective work and the exchange of the project partners' experience and expertise, 4 innovative outputs were carefully designed and developed customized to the needs of the target groups, a learning and teaching activity was held from 12/11/2019 till 16/11/2019 and the creation of local focus groups involving youth workers and young PwVHPI and young people was implemented. Finally, DARE project was further promoted through the implementation of the multiplier events with the aim of having a long-term impact on the target groups by supporting and empowering them in order to increase the number of inclusive youth mobility projects as well as to empower more young PwVHPI to get actively involved in Erasmus+ Youth mobilities and their local community.