Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

Summary

The partnership on the topic of adult education accessible to all people consisted of 10 different institutions from nine EU countries. The main project idea was to gather adult education accessible to all people. We decided to focus on workshops for people with intellectual disabilities, exclusively in an artistic context. We offered art workshops on painting, drawing, sculpture, music and handcraft. Art causes a spontaneous natural integration and from the perspective of people with intellectual disabilities, these activities have nothing but positive results.

Having an intellectual disability does not influence a person’s various abilities and interests. Such people often have the same artistic potential as anyone else and can become artists.

As part of the project, the participants had the opportunity to exchange valuable experiences, learn about other EU countries and their approaches to people with intellectual disabilities, participate in discussions and did a lot of practical work. Important goal of our project was to publish the anthology – it could be also called a handbook, because it should serve as an encouragement for providers of adult education in general. In the anthology we gathered some good practice examples from our workshops, held in Slovenia, Austria, France, Italy, Cyprus and Germany, there are also reports, ideas and guidelines how to organize a workshops for people with intellectual disabilities.

Implementing the segregation programs from experienced partners (who have professional experiences in working with intellectually disabled people) into organization previously not dealing with handicapped was one of the main benefits of this partnership. The main idea of networking between organizations with and without experiences with disabled people was to complement educational institutions from wider EU region with examples of good praxis of implementing educational programs for special target groups. The results were achieved with various different methods, from discussions within the project group, forums, practical activities in workshops and exchange of views and ideas about how to lift the level of accessibility of education for people with intellectual disabilities.

Project object:

• • Exchange of experiences and good practice between cooperating organizations
• • Organizing several workshops for people with intellectual disabilities
• • Handbook
• • Cultural event with a concert held by people with intellectual disabilities (exhibition of art works and dance performance)
• • Learning about target group
• • Inclusion and increase of social skills
• • Increased intercultural competences for everybody involved in the project
• • Concept of a multilateral project and discussions about further projects
• • Partnership network
• • Webpage
• • Dissemination – handbook may be used by organizations or individuals that want to work with intellectually disabled people

Methodology

Memorandum for Lifelong Learning concerns people with intellectual disabilities too – and their inclusion into educational activities is one of the main aspects of EU social projection. FEPID partnership increased even more the awareness about importance of social inclusion for all of the involved partners. The exchange of experiences between different institutions provided needed terms for evaluation of outcomes – we agree that the level of gathered information and importance of educational offers for intellectually disabled is one of the main goals for the next perspective because of lack of useful programs especially created for this target group.

Target

People with intellectual disabilities, people who work with people with intellectual disabilities and adult educators.

Good practice achievements

The objectives mentioned before were achieved. It should be said that the partners from France, Slovenia and Austria already started with implementation of art workshops for people with intellectual disabilities.

Project partners and other stakeholders

Bildungshaus Schloss Retzhof / Austria (Coordinator)

Jugend am Werk Steiermark/ Austria (assosiated partner)

Zavod Hrastovec – Trate / Slovenia

Ljudska Univerza Ptuj / Slovenia

Education centre and Support for People with Disabilities Kekykamea N.Ilias / Greece

Gesellschaft Erwachsenenbildung und Behinderung, Deutschland e.V. / Germany

Arte Musica e Caffe Societa Cooperativa Sociale / Italy

St. Loucas – parents association for adults with learning disabilities / Cyprus

GIF FCIP Limoges / France

Foundation for the Rogers Person Centred Education / Hungary

Fenacerci / Portugal

Good practice testimonial

Olivia, Austria: „It was a beautiful conclusion for me. I always wanted to do something like this.”

Olivia: „This project is a dream – I have been looking forward to it for weeks.”

Olivia: „Great anticipation (Picnic, sleeping in a hotel, nice people from other countries)!”

Susanne, Austria: „I feel well in the deepest sense.”

Lisa, Austria: „Jolly! A lot of fun!”

Gerlinde, Austria: „I drew a lot today, it was fun!”

Helmut Sch., Austria: „Nice!”

Helmut P., Austria: „Great!”

Marco, Italy: “I really enjoyed myself because I had the opportunity to meet new people and see new and wonderful places.”

Enrico, Italy: “The hotel was comfortable and even the food was good. I liked the activities developed in the building we visited.”

Antonio, Italy: “I liked trying new food and painting.”

Luigi, Italy: “I am enjoying it.”

Evaluation

Reports about meetings showed that the partnership is working as planned or even better.

Questionnaires for participants in the project were evaluated after each organized workshop. The study showed us that participants in workshops are very satisfied with themes and methods selected, that social aspect (working in group of people, communicating and feeling of achievement) is amongst more important when selecting workshop themes. With questionnaires for learners participating in workshops we wanted to show that participants benefit from many different aspects: from communication within the group, feeling of importance and self esteem, social gatherings , barrier-free education, relaxation through creativity, abilities for self expression and more.

We held many interviews with professionals and experts dealing with target group. This together with oral evaluation at discussions and the observations of participants in workshops was the preparation for handbook contents. Handbook, finally, was also evaluated right before printing.