Building Skills Through Inclusion - The Traing

Building Skills Through Inclusion is an Erasmus+ youth project financed by the European Union. There are 5 countries participating: Albania, Kosovo, Portugal, Romania and Serbia.

The aim of the project is to promote and foster social inclusion of young people with disabilities and fewer opportunities by being focused on mobility, independent living and employability. 

To achieve its aim, the project will have three main activities: a partnership building seminar, a training course and a youth exchange.

The second main activity is a training course (TC) in Durres, Albania, starting on October 28 (arrival day) and ending on November 4, 2018 (departure day).

OBJECTIVES:

- Increase capacities of youth workers with and without disabilities how to contribute  on independent living  and inclusion of people with disabilities and fewer opportunities, focus on some soft skills young people with disabilities should practice to improve their independent living, employability, accessibility  and inclusion;

- Make a relevant  assessment what are the main needs of people with disabilities and fewer opportunities though a more inclusive environment and independent living – mixing disabled and non-disabled  can bring a more clear picture what we can do more on this category, from where to start and how to keep sustainable action;

- Plan the next activity – the youth exchange;

- Increase the understanding of inclusion, non-formal learning, disability, EU values and principles;

- Continue to develop a manual / code of good practices, started on the partnership building seminar in August, in Cluj-Napoca.

PARTICIPANTS:

The TC brings together 25 youth workers, age 18+, 5 from each partner, which are actively involved in their organizations. 10 of them with disabilities and 15 without disabilities. Among the disabled participants:  

- 5 youth workers fully disabled such as blind or in wheelchairs. Those 5 will need accompanying person to enable them participate equally in the TC, as well as supporting them during travel and free time and personal care;

- 5 more with lighter disabilities from the same target group but they can participate independently with some addition support by the team, but they do not need personal assistant;

- There will be also 5 accompanying persons, one from each partner country, to support the disabled youth workers.

The selection of all participants will be based on common application forms, motivation of youth workers and young people. Each partner organization is responsible to identify and select participants by a set of common criteria. Identification will be through local contacts, team members and local partners.

Youth workers selection criteria:

- Citizens or legal residents of Albania, Kosovo, Portugal, Romania or Serbia;

- Age 18+;

- Active in the sending organization;

- Working with youth, preferable 6 months experience with youth with disabilities and with fewer opportunities, some of them with and others without experience in working with disabled youngsters;

- Open to the needs and desires of youth;, with and without disabilities;

- Ready to share their personal and  professional experience;

- Able to use English as a working language, since this is the official language of the project;

- Ready to attend all the activities of the training course;

- Willing to disseminate the results among their co-workers, on their own/institution’s webpage, on their Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, Instagram, etc.;

- Ready to organize and participate to two local workshops, after the seminar;

- One of the youth workers will be selected to participate also to the third main activity of the project, a youth exchange, as youth leader, and put in practice the knolege and skills developed during the training course.

Participants will have the opportunity to contribute at any session they prefer too.

During the intercultural evening, participants will be asked to bring and present pieces of their culture (music, food, dance, data, pictures, collages, etc.) in an inclusive way.

All project activities are based on non-formal education methods and tools (working groups, debriefings, free discussions, role plays, worships, teambuilding exercises, games, energizers, reflections, study visits, presentations etc.), which encourage active participation of each participant in the sessions. The whole learning methodology will be adapted to the needs of all the participants and will be inclusive with regard of the disabled ones. Facilitators will choose those methods and tools, which involve equally and actively each participant.