The European Association of Motor Disabled People (AEHM) is an association under the 1901 French Law which has six centers for the support of people with motor and multi-handicap disabilities. Created in 1964 at the initiative of a small group of parents of children with cerebral palsy (BMI), it now has a little over 600 residents for around the same number of employees. People accompanied by AEHM services, who are very vulnerable due to their physical ailments, are often declared "unable to work" and therefore even more marginalized. In 2017, a UN report alerted France to the way in which support for people with disabilities is provided, which mainly takes the form of care in specialized institutions and does not allow people to be socially included. The AEHM (which had just renovated its associative project in order to focus on the needs of the people received and on the skills of the professionals), concerned by this injunction, decided to examine in a more concrete way the question of the inclusion through innovation of support systems. It is in this context that the CUP-E+ project (Citizenship, social utility and participation of people with disabilities in Europe) is taking place. The objective of this project is to identify and promote the skills of these people who are only asking to participate in civic life. This recognition of skills, which is carried out with a view to social utility, can be achieved by the construction of concrete tools. Through the partnership between three countries (France, Spain and Italy) with very different social and cultural models, and by involving university partners and field structures, the CUP-E+ project aims to achieve two tangible results: The construction of a tool to identify skills in a situation of disability and an adapted skills reference framework. In addition, there are intangible results such as increasing the self-esteem of people with disabilities and strengthening the skills of professionals. These tools will be achieved through the joint reflection of the partners on the issue of the skills of people with motor disabilities. To avoid methodological pitfalls and to focus on this under-exploited field of research, strategic partners will rely on existing guides and tools (AEFA Guide, Different/competent documentation, Participatory ICT Results, etc.). Four transnational meetings are planned over two years to work together intensively and collegially on the issues raised and to share observations made in the field. Three learning activities are organized to enable professionals and people with disabilities to participate in workshops, exchanges, visits and actively contribute to the construction of tools that directly concern them. The activities allow the direct participation of 160 people from all structures (teachers and university students, professionals from the socio-medical sector, people with disabilities). The impacts of the project, through the creation of tools, are reflected both on the direct participants in the project activities and on the indirect beneficiaries (professionals, supported persons, students): increase in knowledge, identification/valorization and/or reinforcement of skills. In the long term, the results produced will be transformed into awareness-raising and training tools on a larger scale. The reflection undertaken will serve as a basis for the re-evaluation of support measures: the enhancement of the skills of all people must be integrated and taken into consideration when assessing needs, care, services and orientations. The CUP-E+ project lays the foundations for a reflection that, if it has already begun on other populations, focuses on the citizen participation of the most vulnerable people.
The evolution of the medico-social sector has led AEHM to rethink its service offer and its functioning in order to allow an effective participation of people with disabilities in social life. In order to rethink an entire model to make it more participative and inclusive, AEHM considered it essential to experiment with new ways of doing things through new projects so that the observations and innovative activities could be used by the association to drive change. With the CUP-E+ project, AEHM wished to experiment what represents a truly inclusive approach where people with disabilities are the driving force behind the project and the reflections that refer to it. AEHM has thus proposed a framework allowing to start a large-scale reflection so that the competences of people with disabilities can be more recognized and made visible for a better involvement of people in the citizen life. In order to benefit from additional contributions, AEHM has chosen to work on the issue of participation and social skills in an international context in conjunction with other management associations and a research laboratory.
In France, the need to transform the offer, which has been dictated by the government since the law of February 11, 2005 and the conclusions of the PIVETEAU report of 2014, has led AEHM to rethink its offer of services and its functioning in order to allow effective participation of people with disabilities in social life. In order to rethink an entire model to make it much more participatory and inclusive, AEHM considered it essential to experiment with new ways of doing things through new projects so that the observations and innovative activities can serve the association in driving change.