By implementing this project we proposed to support families affected by children’s disabilities, by addressing their identified needs and contributing to each area of action: - establishing a network of specialists and organisations in Timisoara and Szeged that will work together to offer a more integrated approach for handling cases of children with disabilities - learning opportunities from good practices implemented in other contexts (international, public-private services) for specialists and parents - offering personal development opportunities tailored to caregivers in order to help them open their horizons more, and avoid social isolation, and at the same time help them become better advocated of their family story - creating the basis for a support community of families and specialists that will foster mutual support on the long term - aggregate helpful information on disability in a single reference point to help guide caregivers in their search for answers - raise public awareness on the life situations of such families, in order to normalize and foster empathy and support.
The heart of the project is the need to improve the quality of life for families affected by children’s disability in Timisoara and Szeged. In order to address this we identified in our partnership and communities the subsequent needs for specialist network development together with an integrated way of working, organisational development for entities that work with children's disabilities and personal development needs for modern competencies of the caregivers themselves. More specifically, the lead partner improved their expertise in addressing the needs of families with younger children (0-3 years), while the partner improved their expertise in addressing the needs of families with children affected by autism. These areas are complementary between the 2 partners and offered the opportunity for meaningful exchanges of good practices. Identifying that families facing children's disability also face confusion regarding legislation, bureaucracy, procedures we addressed this issue by organizing information on the web platform and guide, mapping relevant entities and offering the start for a long term supporting community.