THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN FUNDED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. THIS PORTAL REFLECTS THE VIEWS ONLY OF THE AUTHOR, AND THE COMMISSION CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USE WHICH MAY BE MADE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN.

Project Summary

Unlike their peers, the mobility impaired young people live at high risk of social exclusion due to impossibility to reach places for leisure and social contacts. In this way, these young people are deprived of equal participation in socio-economic processes in the country. Often such young people are abused due to not understanding of their rights and forced to an unpleasant life.

Taking into account this challenge, partners conducted a survey resulting in an analysis as a separate project document with the following identified needs:

  • No adequate training content for disabled youth on accessibility issues allowing them to exploit existing opportunities for social contacts.

  • No training content on the rights of physically disabled youth both for them and for youth workers on autonomy of movement adapted to the local situation.

  • No supporting means at local level promoting the accessible places for leisure and free time.

Project Objectives

The general objective is to equip physically disabled young people and youth workers with a tool to enhance the awareness and understanding of the rights of people with disabilities on the autonomy of movement, accessibility regulation and standards, and to stimulate the social inclusion through provision of online mapping of accessible places for free-time and leisure activities with regards to empower mobility impaired youth to protect and benefit from its rights, to seek and use existing and newly established accessible places by provision of opportunities to be in touch with their peers and to prevent them from social isolation.

The specific objectives are:

  • To survey areas of disparities, level of alienation and obstacles in integration processes on local level due to barriers to free-time and leisure places to physically impaired youth.

  • To create training content adapted to disabled youth and supporting youth workers to ameliorate their understanding on disability and accessibility issues.

  • To provide constantly upgraded information about accessible places for free-time and leisure activities via platform for share of useful examples, knowledge, advices and feedback on the rights of disabled youth.

Involvement

Within the project the following participants across Serbia, Italy and Bulgaria will be involved:

  • Mobility impaired young people with varying types of physical disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral paralysis, etc.

  • Members of families having physically disabled young people.

  • Youth organisation workers oriented to accessibility issues.

  • Local social services staff.

Intelectual Outputs

The project will include the following activities:

  • Development, piloting and optimization of intellectual outputs:

    • IO1 Training course for disabled youth on the rights of people with disabilities for autonomous movement and its protection (with curriculum and learning units in respective modules to young people and youth workers)
    • IO2 Online mapping platform on accessible places for disabled youth (with shared editorial team and exchange sections)

  • Project management, dissemination, quality monitoring and exploitation.

Project Methodology

In order to produce the planned outputs and to achieve the results, the project team has adopted a methodology consisting of a set of the following approaches:

  • Selection of efficient methods for project management.

  • Use of contemporary technological tools.

  • Structuring of proper hierarchy framework of involved actors.

  • Maintaining flexible and viable document and reporting system preventing from misunderstanding due to different language levels.

  • Mobilizing of associated partners and organisations outside the consortium.

Project Results

On its completion the project will achieve the following results:

  • Identification of areas of disparities and obstacles in integration processes due to barriers to free-time and leisure places to physically impaired youth.

  • Enhancement of the attractiveness of the organized youth activities and presenting the advantages of multiplying of the social contacts and raising the understanding of complex relations among people with different abilities.

  • Offering of an assistive tool for disabled youth and supporting youth workers to ameliorate their understanding of the needs for including discussions on disability and accessibility issues.

  • Establishing multilingual online platform for share of useful examples, knowledge, advices and feedback on the rights of disabled youth.

Long Term Benefits

The potential project longer term benefits will be expressed by:

  • Increasing the number of young people acknowledged with the accessibility policy.

  • Improving perspectives of ensuring accessible environment for the disabled young people by giving them real understanding of their rights and providing of practical tools to making better their mobility capabilities.

  • Raising understanding of the role of properly offered assistance and the ways of its desired acceptance.

  • Improved capabilities to deal with topics such as assessing of accessibility of the environment.