Our project is to give people with disabilities the opportunity to travel around Europe, to get to know people from other cultures and to make contacts. All participating pupils have intellectual disabilities and are not able to travel abroad from home. However, they are very interested in Europe. At their schools, everyone is committed to environmental protection in different ways, so this can be found as a connecting element in the joint activities. The pupils see that we live in different countries and can still pursue the same goals. They work directly together to protect the environment in all countries. There are 4 schools from Belgium, Germany, Poland and Hungary. Each school sends 6 pupils and 3 accompanying persons, all of whom are trained in the care of people with disabilities (special needs teachers, pedagogical specialists or therapists). The mobility process is deliberately structured in all countries according to the same scheme: 1 day: a cultural event 1 day: an experience in nature 1 day: a joint work for the environment on site 1 day: workshops for the production of products that help to protect the environment 1 day: a festival of all guests and hosts together in the host school with the presentation of the results Each country offers a different experience of nature: in Hungary they discover and research life on the countryside, determine trees and plants, in Poland they explore and analyze the rivers, in Belgium they taste food from their own garden and deal with bees while getting to know and protecting moors and waters in Germany. In every country they make a contribution to environmental protection. The planned activities are aimed specifically at our students. The topics are always dealt with in a highly action-oriented manner (manufacture of products that promote environmental protection, such as cover sheets made from oilcloth, bee hotels, vegetable nets, and by visiting natural sites / paths). Our students learn from practical experiences and vivid materials. They work a lot in partner work or small groups. The accompanying persons support the pupils with testing, production and presentation. Depending on the needs, the support consists of manual guidance during the manufacture of a product, repeated, step-by-step explanations of the procedure in the 1: 1 situation, implementation of trial treatments to clarify the procedure as a model. The pupils are closely monitored in all activities. We are aware that everything is a great challenge for them, starting with the courage to leave home and get on a train or plane. This is also the reason for the high assistant key (2: 1). The pupils are prepared in advance in workshops for the trips. We expect to expand key competencies in the pupils e.g. carry out trips, get to know people with similar problems and let the encounter enrich them, overcome language barriers, get to know other cultures and build tolerance for new and different things through positive meetings. Through the common activities for environmental protection, we want to awaken civil society engagement in the students and deepen awareness of climate protection, which is already existing in everyone through the various environmental protection activities at schools. With the products they get practical ideas to protect the environment and they can experience self-efficacy by passing them on to others as experts. Last but not least, the pupils should experience Europe actively and experience themselves as an inclusive part of it. By traveling, they learn to measure distances and find that the landscapes are different everywhere. The pupils of the respective host country experience the production of the products in the workshops in the preparatory working groups and are then helping others as experts during the mobilities. They create building instructions beforehand, which they make available to all students via eTwinning. They offer these to all visitors at the final festival and community festivals and present their results to the community together. These are also documented on the Twinspace and the website. A digital dictionary with speech output in all languages involved will be created, which will always be expanded over time. This way, even non-reading pupils can learn something from the languages of the host countries and communicate better with each other. Exhibitions take place in various public institutions. The topics worked out at the training courses benefit the teachers as multipliers and thus the entire colleges, as the participants expand their knowledge of special education, test new media and develop concepts for the certificate "eco-school" together.
Our project enabled people with disabilities to travel around Europe,to get to know people from other cultures and make contacts. All participating students have an intellectual disability and don’t have the chance to travel abroad with their families. However, their interest in Europe was and is great. At their schools, everyone is committed to environmental protection in different ways, so that this can be found as a unifying element in the joint activities. The students saw that we can live in different countries and still pursue the same goals. They worked directly together to protect the environment in all countries. Four schools took part: from Belgium, Germany, Poland and Hungary. Each school sent six students and three accompanying persons, all of whom were trained in teaching people with disabilities (special school teachers and educational specialists). The mobilities were deliberately structured according to the same pattern in all countries: 1 day: a cultural experience 1 day: an experience in nature 1 day: working together for the local environment 1 day: Workshops on the production of sustainable products. 1 day: a final celebration with all participants in the host school with the presentation of the results In each country, the focus was on experiencing nature: in Hungary they discovered and explored life in the countryside, specific trees and plants, in Poland they explored and analysed the rivers, in Belgium they tasted food from their own garden and studied bees, while in Germany they got to know moors, seas and ponds and learned to protect them. In each country they made a common contribution to environmental protection. The planned activities were specifically aimed at our students conditions. The topics were always dealt with in a very action-oriented manner (manufacturing products that promote environmental protection such as vegetable nets, homemade cleaning products, upcycling products, bottle gardens, preparing vegetarian dishes together and visiting natural places/trails). Our students learned through concrete, clear materials. They worked a lot in pairs or small groups. The accompanying persons supported the students in testing, production and presentation. We have found that travelling in particular is a challenge for our students for various reasons. The students were previously prepared extensively for the trips in working groups. They were able to actively expand important key skills by going on trips, getting to know people with similar problems and being enriched by the encounter, overcoming language barriers, getting to know other cultures and building up tolerance for new things and being different through the positive encounters. During the course of the project it became clear that the students have grown a lot from their personal experiences, both in terms of their personal development and independence as well as in expanding their horizons of experience and knowledge, as should be initiated in the project planning. Through the joint actions on environmental protection, we have awakened civil society commitment among the students and deepened an awareness of climate protection, which was already present among everyone to some extent, through the various environmental protection activities in the schools. The products gave the students concrete ideas for protecting the environment and they were able to experience self-efficacy by passing them on to others as experts. Last but not least, the students actively experienced Europe and saw themselves as an inclusive part of it. Through traveling they learned to measure distances and discovered that landscapes are different everywhere. The students from the respective host country tried out the production of various products in the preparatory working groups and were available as experts during the guests' visit. They prepared instructions beforehand and made them available to all students. At the final party, everyone presented their results to the public. These were documented afterwards, also on the websites. Various exhibitions took place within the school and were made available to the public through the local press and the schools' websites. The topics developed in the training courses benefited the teachers as multipliers and thus the entire teaching staff, as the participants were able to expand their knowledge on the topics of inclusion, integration and special education, test new media and jointly develop concepts for the environmental school certificate.