The project "Together we are strong" was created by SOSW No. 4 in Kraków, in cooperation with partner schools from Europe. Social inclusion is the most important priority. Additional project issues are: the social and educational value of European cultural heritage and supporting people in acquiring and improving basic skills and key competences. In the project, we will pay attention to the special needs of people with disabilities, innovative curricula and different methods of therapy, with the use of ICT as well. Project participants are students and teachers from five partner schools: Poland (Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy Nr4 in Kraków), Croatia (Josip Matos Primary School in Vukovar), Romania ("Horizon" School Center of Inclusive Education, Oradea) and two from Turkey (Alanya Sakine Nesibe Zamanoğlu Özel Eğitim Uygulama okulu; Arpacbahsis ozel egitim uygulama merkezi 2. kademe). These are all special schools focused on working with children and young people with deeper intellectual disability, autism and developmental disorders. International student exchanges are planned as a main part of the project: each school will be a guest four times and it will be a host once. Moreover, a preparatory and a summary visit for coordinators will be organised. 2 to 4 students from each school will take part in a certain LTT (up to 20 students in total) as well as parents and teachers – the caretakers. For most of the participants it will be the first trip abroad, which, preceded by numerous educational activities, will become a kind of an independence and self-reliance exam. Many of our students are unable to travel alone because of their disability. Probably they will never live on their own. Participation in our LTTs is probably the only chance for them to visit different countries and we are convinced that this experience will change their lives. It is a chance for them to experience everyday life in a different reality, to derive from the richness of cultural heritage – as disabled but fully-fledged citizens of Europe. They will learn a lot, it will be a pleasure combined with learning and therapy. Trips will have a very positive impact on meeting the special needs of our students: these will broaden their horizons, enable them to acquire new key competences, especially independence. They will contribute to raising self-esteem, increasing their importance as equal members of the society. A social campaign that will be a result of the project will help to accustom the issue of intellectual disability to the society. During each mobility we will get acquainted with tradition, culture, monuments, cuisine, dance and music - with the entire cultural heritage of a host country. We will participate in everyday school life, expanding social competences. We will get to know the educational and therapeutic methods used at that school, the ways of spending free time and ICT tools which are used. We will learn non-verbal communication and thanks to the music, dance, art, culinary workshops, sport and sightseeing trips - we will break the barriers, establish friendships and create a common field for intercultural integration. The project will lead to openness to other cultures and tolerance of different customs and norms. The exchange of experience will increase the level of knowledge and competences of teachers. We plan to share our experiences in a wider group: at the school meetings and on online platforms. Participation in the project will take the school to a higher level, expanding its educational offer. What is more, we are a training facility for Kraków universities, therefore our development will become the development of the next generation of special education teachers. We want to promote the results of our activities among the local community, as well as present them to a wider group, mainly online by using the ICT tools and social media. The main effect of our activities will be the social campaign "Together we are strong" (eTwinning, School Education Gateway, FB, YouTube, Instagram), in which we plan to shoot an international music video, release a calendar for 2023 with photos of participants and conduct a social survey in a form of video interviews. These activities will help us to achieve the main goal of the project which is social inclusion and raising awareness about the needs and ways of functioning of people with intellectual disability. We will create multimedia presentations, films, dictionaries and AAC cookbooks, which will be the final effects of our project. Being professional is crucial when working with people with disabilities. Therefore, we plan to use high-class equipment to carry out the above activities. We would like to become a partner and a participant in the exchange in a wider European context. Our cooperation will continue to develop even after the end of the project - "Together we are strong".
The project "Together we are strong" was created on the basis of the European Development Plan SOSW No. 4 in Krakow, in cooperation with partner schools from Europe. The most important priority was the social inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities. Additional issues of the project were: the social and educational value of European cultural heritage and supporting people in acquiring and improving basic skills and key competences. In the project, we paid attention to the special needs of people with disabilities, innovative teaching programs and methods of therapy with the use of ICT. The project participants were five partner schools: from Poland (Special School and Education Center No. 4 in Krakow), Croatia (Josip Matos Primary School in Vukovar), Romania ("Horizon" School Center of Inclusive Education, Oradea) and two from Turkey (Alanya Sakine Nesibe Zamanoğlu Özel Eğitim Uygulama okulu; Arpacbahsis ozel egitim uygulama merkezi 2. kademe). All of them are special schools, focusing on working with children and youth with deeper intellectual disabilities, autism and pervasive development disorders. As part of the project, we carried out international student exchanges: each school once hosted the exchange. There was also an online preparatory visit conducted by Polish women and a summary visit for coordinators in Erdemli. Each of the five mobility activities involved 2 to 4 pupils per country and teachers - caregivers. For most of the participants, it was the first trip abroad, which, preceded by numerous educational activities, became a kind of an examination of independence. Many of our students are not able to travel alone due to disabilities, they will never live or live independently. Participation in the mobility was probably the only chance for them to visit other countries and we believe that this experience changed their lives. They experienced everyday life in a different reality, they drew from the richness of cultural heritage as disabled but rightful citizens of Europe. They learned a lot, it was a pleasure combined with learning and therapy. The trips had a very positive impact on the realization of the special needs of our students, broadened their horizons, and enabled them to acquire new key competences, especially independence. They also contributed to an increase in self-esteem and self-esteem, and increased their importance as equal members of society. The social campaign, which is one of the results of the project, has a positive effect on familiarizing the problem of disability in many countries. During each mobility, we learned about tradition, culture, monuments, cuisine, dance and music - with the entire cultural heritage of a given country. We participated in the daily life of each of the schools, expanding our social competences. We got acquainted with the applied educational and therapeutic methods, ways of spending free time and ICT tools. We learned non-verbal communication, and thanks to music, dance, art, culinary, sports, and sightseeing tours, we broke down barriers, established friendships and created a common field for intercultural integration. Thanks to the exchange of experiences, the level of teachers' knowledge and competences has increased. We share our newly acquired experience with a wider group: with the Pedagogical Council, on online platforms. This will help raise the school to a higher level, expand the educational offer, and as we are a training facility for Krakow universities, our development will become the development of another staff of special educators. We disseminate the results of our activities among the local community and show them to a wider group of people, including using ICT tools and social media. The main effect of our activities is the social campaign "Together we are strong" (FB, YouTube, Instagram, eTwinning, School Education Gateway), as part of which we shot an international music video. We also published a calendar for 2023 with photos of participants and we conduct social surveys in the form of a video interview. These activities ensured the implementation of the main goal of the project, which is social inclusion and raising public awareness of the needs and functioning of people with intellectual disabilities. Thanks to the project, our specialist equipment was enriched and the base of teaching aids was expanded. We bought a computer, a specialized alternative communication program, Boardmaker, a JBL loudspeaker. We have created multimedia presentations, films, AAC dictionaries and cookbooks, presentations, a calendar. All this is the final result of our project activities. In our project, we were not only a partner, but also a participant in the exchange in a wider European context - "Together we are strong". We believe that our cooperation is just the beginning of an international adventure, and our friendships will remain for a long time.