Prevalence estimates of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are alarming, with 1% children being diagnosed with ASD in Europe. Lately, new types of interventions have appeared, using non-formal learning activities such as art, yoga, sailing, activities with animals (pet therapy, hippotherapy), in order to develop the social skills of autistic teenagers. These activities have proven to be effective in several contexts. The integration of autistic teenagers in non-formal learning is even more important that they are often excluded from it. In this context, the objectives of the project are the followings: - Support the capacity building of youth workers, allowing them to develop their skills in non-formal learning activities with autistic teenagers, in order to be able to: o Promote the social inclusion of autistic teenagers through inclusive youth activities, using non-formal learning activities; o Enhance the access of autistic teenagers to youth activities in order to foster the development of their social competences, leading to an easier integration into the labour market. - Promote better knowledge about the situation of young people with autism and efficient inclusion methodologies. This will be done by: - Organising Staff Traning Events in order to allow youth workers to observe and exchange on different youth work methodologies applied with autistic teenagers. - Publishing a book of good practices, raising awareness on non-formal learning activities for autistic teenagers, and their efficiency. - Allowing youth workers to use an online platform in order to: o upload ideas of inclusive activities and get feedback from other youth workers from other countries; o have access to a database of inclusive activities, commented with constructive opinions. The different project's phases are divided as followed: Preparation - Monitoring - Implementation - Dissemination - Evaluation. The project will have a huge impact directly on the participating organisations, their youth workers, and therefore the youngsters participating in their activities. The involved coaches and trainers will improve the competences linked to their professional profiles, such as the ability to implement innovative non-formal learning activities, and will have a better understanding of youth work across countries. Thanks to these newly gained competences and experience, they will increase their motivation and satisfaction in their daily work and will also increase their opportunities for future professional development. For the participating organisations, the project will also have a strong impact as it will increase their capacity and professionalism to work at EU level, especially for the involved new comers, reinforcing their cooperation with partners from other countries. On the direct target groups, which are organisations working with youngsters with disabilities, the project will make available a free of use book of good practices and online collaboration platform, allowing the organisations to implement an innovative approach when dealing with the inclusion of youngsters with disabilities.
The three partner organizations of the project, Asociación Mi Hijo y Yo (Canary Islands, Spain), NCD (Cyprus), and Autisme Europe (Belgium), collaborated on this project to explore the benefits that non-formal learning activities bring to autistic adolescents, confronting and learning from the good practices and work methodologies that each of these organizations implements in their countries. The objective of this collaboration has been the implementation of inclusion initiatives aimed at adolescents on the autism spectrum that are always more fruitful and effective. Specifically, the objectives of the project have been the following: - Capacity-building activities for youth workers, to enable them to develop their skills in non-formal learning activities with autistic teenagers. In this way, the project has promoted the social inclusion of autistic adolescents through the implementation of more inclusive non-formal learning activities by partner associations and other European associations. - Improve the access of autistic adolescents to youth activities in order to promote the development of their social skills, which allows them, among other things, easier integration into the labor market. - Promote better knowledge about the situation of young people with autism and about efficient inclusion methodologies. The activities that have allowed the achievement of these objectives have been: - Organization of staff training events (capacity building activities) so that youth workers from different European countries (Spain, Cyprus and Belgium) could observe, learn and exchange good practices on different youth work methodologies implemented with autistic adolescents. - Publication of a booklet of good practices entitled “Booklet of good practices for the inclusion of autistic teenagers in non-formal learning activities”. It is a compilation of good practices put in place by the partner organizations of the project and by other European organizations that work with young people with autism. The booklet aims to raise awareness about the importance of non-formal learning activities for autistic adolescents and their effectiveness, and at the same time it wants to be a catalog from where youth workers from all over Europe can get ideas on inclusive activities, with comments and feedback for that can be implemented and improved. - Creation of an online platform to upload ideas for inclusive activities and get feedback from other youth workers in other countries on their implementation. The project has been carried out in a transnational way because it has included the observation, the exchange of ideas and the comparison of ways of working of different systems and cultures, allowing the participants to learn from each other and acquire new skills thanks to the exchange of good practices. The project had a great impact directly on the participating organizations, their youth workers and therefore on the young people who participate in its activities. The youth workers involved improved the competencies linked to their professional profiles, such as the ability to implement innovative non-formal learning activities and had the possibility to see the work methodologies of other European countries. Thanks to these skills and experiences acquired, as revealed from the focus groups organized within the framework of the project, the participants feel that they have increased their motivation and satisfaction in their daily work and have also improved their professional profile. The partner organizations, more generally, benefited from the project as they were able to work in a more transnational dimension and improve their skills when collaborating with partners from other countries. To reach a wider number of beneficiaries of the project activities, namely other European organizations that work with young people with disabilities, partners made available in English the Booklet of good practices, as a way to share also outside the project Consortium the exchange of good practices generated within the project. These activities can be an example for other organizations that want to implement an innovative approach in addressing the inclusion of youth with disabilities. Within the project activities, an online collaboration platform was also created, in the form of a Facebook group, to allow youth workers, professionals and other organizations working with youth to share experiences and discuss the role of non-formal activities in the inclusion of young people with autism. Finally, the project, thanks to its dissemination actions, made it possible to raise awareness of the importance of inclusion in leisure moments and non-formal activities of young people with disabilities.