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Inclusion For Empowerment

2020-1-CZ01-KA105-0776722020Youth mobilityfinalizedGood practice
Countries: CZ|IT|AZ|GE|LV · Grant: €63,467
Inclusion - equityDisabilities - special needsAccess for disadvantaged

Objectives

The international training course “Inclusion for Empowerment” was organized and planned in order to improve miscellaneous competencies and raise awareness of different issues connected to the inclusion of people with visual impairments and challenges they still face in European society, self-development and responsible future planning, emotion management, stereotypes prejudices and xenophobia, and soft skills development, all in order to promote further interest on emotional resilience and self-control, active application of inclusion in future life. The project aimed at creating a more active, empathic, and truly inclusive society by using methods of personal development, outdoor education, and inclusive learning. We aimed to assist youth with visual impairments to gain the necessary self-trust to become more independent, expressive, and active members of society and to take on leadership roles also in mixed-ability group environments. Our aim was to equip the youth workers with no or limited previous experience in inclusive youth work with the necessary skills and awareness to become a better support system for youth with visual impairments in their local communities. The project was designed to accentuate the positive role of an active and self-observing approach to emotions and their expressions in order to improve and maintain high-quality work and personal relationships. Participants were supported to structure their own short-term and long-term goals and priorities by different activities or public or private discussions with mentors and other participants so at the end of the project, the objective of providing views on how to approach a better life would be fulfilled. On the self-development level the project aimed to stimulate the self-development process of the participants, help participants become aware of their leadership potential in implementing youth work activities in mixed-ability group settings, and foster a sense of initiative. Another objective was to improve the participants’ communication skills, helping them to feel heard, understood, and supported, get intercultural experience by meeting with the representatives of different countries, cultures, and backgrounds, practice tolerance, and break stereotypes and prejudices. As participants were youth workers, the project had the objectives to promote non-formal and informal educational methods, let participants experience a few of them, and also provide space to discuss the activities at the end of the day (or during the sharing moments in the morning) in order to address their youth community better and in general to facilitate the learning process. The main motive of the project, inclusion, accompanied all the activities so the youth workers understood the necessity of complete engagement of the group without leaving some participants behind. The project aimed to provide the youth workers with the experience of implementing concrete outdoor education activities that can be later implemented locally, as well as, to promote the Erasmus+ program as a tool to work with youth with fewer opportunities and people with disabilities - visual impairments and actively reach out to disadvantaged groups. The project focused on involving youth workers with special needs - visual impairments, especially the newcomers to youth work, and help the participants with fewer opportunities to develop new competencies, open new horizons, receive new knowledge, live in an international context and integrate. Based on the evaluation and feedback from the participants - this project fulfilled all those areas. For instance, Anastázie from the Czech Republic is preparing summer camps for people with visual impairments and she shared with us that she is using the energizers for the youngsters there. And thanks to this project - she found out that the Erasmus+ program also supports people with disabilities. She shared this among the community in the Czech Republic and she is even now working on finding the ESC opportunity with support from Linda. More specific examples are described in the following sections. We are also more than happy to share more experience if needed. Another project goal was to network the workers among themselves and with hosting organizations both on national as well as international level. Such contact will ameliorate later cooperation, build new relationships, allow organizations to inspire one another with topics and methods, and therefore enlarge the impact of their activities. That goal was met 100%, for instance during the 1st and 2nd stage, both on local as well as international level. The project consisted training courses. The first stage of the project took place in the Czech Republic, focused on personal development and the practical aspects of inclusion. The second stage took place in Georgia. The second stage also consisted of personal development aspects together with handicraft workshops with creative materials.

Project partners (5)