Cooperate with us - Partnership building activity for organisations working with youth with Intellectual Disabilities

Aims & objectives

The aim of this Partnership Building Activity PBA was to increase quality mobility projects for young people with intellectual disabilities. Its target group was youth workers and their organisations who are looking for new partners to develop international cooperation and who are capable of supporting the active participation of the young people with intellectual disabilities in international projects. The main idea for this activity was based on the researched needs of the stakeholders; therefore this PBA was designed to give them tools and know-hows to implement projects in different environments around Europe.

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

TRAINERS:

The trainers' team consisted of two trainers:
Laura Alčiauskaitė (Lithuania)
Kalle Ristikartano (Finland)

PARTICIPANTS:
In total we had 25 participants. The group included participants from Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. One of the selected participants had an intellectual disability.

Training methods used & main activities

- Name games
- Teambuilding activities
- Group discussions
- Peer learning
- Working in small groups
- "World cafe" method
- Reflection
- Non-formal presentations

Outcomes of the activity

Total 6 project cooperations were started during the PBA, five of them aiming for youth exchanges and one for mobility of youth workers. All of the project activities were aimed to be inclusive for youngsters with intellectual disabilities. The feedback coming from the participants was very positive: they were very satisfied with the implemented methods, schedule (longer breaks and shorter sessions were appreciated), team-work, venue, facilitating process and active involvement of the NA officers. Although this activity was not initially planned for youth with intellectual disabilities to participate, the participant with intellectual disability was truly included into the group and was happy with his possibilities to participate in the programme activities.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was one of the four trainers, involved in all steps of the trainings, including:
- Preparation for the activity
- Working in the international team of trainers
- Collaborating with NAs
- Picking the non-formal education methods and writing the session outlines
- Running the sessions during the activity
- Ensuring accessibility and inclusion measures during the activity
- Implementing the evaluation
- Writing the report

I worked on this training for 3 days as a full time trainer.

Testimonial of the reference person

Laura is an excellent trainer with wide knowhow from the field and socially warm way of engaging with participants.