The primary purpose of the project was the international experience of our students, young people with intellectual disabilities, which would be the first international mobility, experience and challenge for many. We wanted to expose them to a new environment that would bring them personal, communication and social skills, greater independence and self-confidence. With the project, we also wanted to strengthen the professional and personal competences of our employees, teachers and professional staff. The purpose of this part was primarily to compare work methods, get to know and share experiences in the field of inclusive education, as well as increase cooperation, get to know each other and strengthen the school team. The project thus pursued several goals and was directly related to two important priorities in this field, namely inclusion, non-discrimination and promotion of equality, as well as new approaches, methods and techniques of teaching and learning.
The Janez Levec Center Ljubljana (CJL) is the largest specialized educational institution in Slovenia, which educates, trains and upbrings students with intellectual disabilities, autism and related disorders. According to the last enrollment year, CJL takes care of 20% of such population in Slovenia. Aiming that our students (like their regular school peers) have an added value in their education, we wanted to enable them with this project an international experience also in the Erasmus+ program, in which our school has already participated, but not in mobility projects. We strongly believe that every international experience brings an exceptional experience for all young people, even more so for our population, who are neglected and underprivileged in many aspects and consequently have fewer opportunities than their peers in the majority population. In addition to the experience for young people, with the project we also wanted to enable the professional training of our staff, since education and the exchange of knowledge, experience and practices is one of the important goals of our institution.