Search for European Projects

Personal autonomy and social competences for special needs students
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The Special Needs School Niño Jesús del Remedio, part of Carmen Pardo-Valcarce Foundation, has 26 years working and training young people with intellectual disability in multiple job profiles. Today, reviewing how the employment and social integration of these young people happens, we noticed that on many occasions, when they leave school and join as adults in society and in the workplace, it is difficult for them to lead a fully integrated life. These young people have more difficulty than other people to suit different contexts. Sometimes they react socially incorrectly to what is expected of them. So, sometimes they have difficulty maintaining hygiene habits to adjust their dress to the situation, managing to take their money, to vary their routes when traveling, changing a routine, etc… All these situations are due to the difficulty for them to generalize learning, to abstract, to take the place of others and also to decontextualize learning. In collaboration with New College Lanarkshire (Scottish education center with extensive experience in the field of disability) we intend to work teaching/learning/training situations with our students in the field of personal autonomy and social competences and skills during two years. Between the two centers, and contrasting our experiences, we aim to facilitate this learning to our students and create multiple products that are useful to us and also to other institutions, organizations and companies working with people with intellectual disabilities. Main products are: • The "Book of Situations", a guide of skills and competencies for young people with intellectual disabilities. Here there will be collected different situations and skills, how to carry them out, and possible solutions (successful or not) that have happened. We will engage college students between 16 and 20 years, mostly, and also their families, teachers from both schools, companies where our students make employment training, employment offices and “Campus” from Carmen Pardo-Valcarce Foundation. • Transnational mobilities of students and teachers between both centers (the second year of the project), where they will put into practice the worked skills. It will also work as evaluation. • Guide with tips for companies that receive students with intellectual disabilities for training. Other activities and products to be developed with the help of the grant are: • Advertising campaign: "Don´t make us useless", to sensitize students, families and society in general. • Linguistic activities. • Videos of the travels and the learning/teaching activities. The short-term results will be soon effective, as teachers develop materials to work with students. We hope that he acquisition of social skills and personal autonomy will improve the integration of young people with intellectual disabilities we work with, and that is in their work and personal welfare. Students, their families and businesses will also evaluate us, so we will have a second year to improve with their suggestions. The development and dissemination of products will also serve other groups that work with people with intellectual disabilities. The objectives, methodology and products developed will form part of the Curriculum Project in the future and are subject to annual review and budget, with the intention of improving it. It will be sent to education authorities with a request to be included in the official curriculum. Among the events multipliers, we have provided the following: • Advertising Spots, to be presented to students, families, other schools, companies, institutions and media. • Short Story Competition for young people with intellectual disabilities with the title: "My future work experience." • Sports Day for Europe on May 7 2015. • Event to present and disseminate our products: the guide for companies and the "Book of situations." All this is disseminated primarily through quarterly and annual reports to families. We will invite to the biggest events (presentation of guidelines, contest, campaigns and sports day) other special needs schools, educational federations and groups working for the integration of people with intellectual disabilities, as well as local and regional, and educational authorities; also through social networks of Carmen Pardo-Valcarce Foundation and New Lanarkshire, and e-twinning platform. We will make a free distribution on paper and on-line of processed products, campaigns and videos used during the project, using the free license Creative Commons (non-commercial use, cite authors).
Up2Europe Ads

Details

1 Partners Participants