Connect for Inclusion - Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps – What’s in it for young people with disabilities? (Partnership Building Activity)

Aims & objectives

This partnership-building activity (PBA) was an opportunity to find partners for international cooperation promoting disability inclusive projects within Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps (hereinafter - ESC). More specifically, the main objectives of this activity were:
*To provide participants an opportunity to meet different foreign organisations for future international cooperation;
*To give them relevant information about funding opportunities for inclusive projects in Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps;
*To introduce the participants to examples of past quality projects;
*To encourage them to develop concrete future international project ideas with new partners;
*To provide them support from facilitators and Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps National Agency officers, who were present to answer their questions and give advice.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

In total 22 participants (including 3 personal assistants) from 13 different countries participated in this PBA. Self-representing and self-advocating organisations, as well as welfare organisations offering activities to youth with disabilities, were able to connect and create projects together.
The facilitating team consistes of 4 trainers from Slovenia, Lithuania, Finnland and myself. We worked closely with two Lithuanian NA-officers, who were present at the PBA.

Training methods used & main activities

We used a mix of different methods, e.g.
- Energizers/ activating methods to create a space where participants get to know each other
- Working groups of different size with group questions; presenting results in plenum
- World Café (with questions to discuss and creative tasks)
- expert talking sessions (starting with practical workshop, moderated interview and open discussion afterwards)
- guided individual learning reflection

The event was from the beginning planned as an inclusive and diversity-sensitive one (e.g. call with an easy-to-read version; accessible venue; safer space for participants; ask for support needs at application process). During the preparation meeting team members paid high attention to different inclusion aspects, such as e.g. accessibility. But also social, economic, cultural and religious aspects were taken into account.

Outcomes of the activity

In total 7 projects were concretized in the field of youth exchange and youth workers mobility as well as small scale strategic partnerships (Erasmus + KA1 and KA2). Three of the projects aim at solidarity projects and DiscoverEU.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was an equal member of a 4 headed facilitating trainers team. Our tasks were:
*Designing the event, its sessions and implementing them in cooperation with the organisers;
*Keeping contact with other team members till the end of the project concerning the content;
*Taking part in online preparatory meetings and the whole preparatory process;
*Especially taking into consideration the needs of participants (in an inclusive/ diversity-orientated manner);
* Developing the daily programme and finalizing the call for the participants;
* Providing the detailed outline of the event in a written format to the organisers;
* Facilitating the activity;
* Working on the evaluation;
* Creating the final report of the project

I worked on this training for 5 days as a full time trainer.