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YE kick off for an amazing journey from insecurity to self esteem
Start date: Jan 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Our project did bring together 8 organizations that work with people with mental disabilities and/or Down syndrome, in Bant, the Netherlands. We chose this topic because there are very few Erasmus+ projects in this field and youth workers need more knowledge about the opportunities they have and to share experience on the subject from different countries. The main focus of the activities during the project was the sharing and learning about the different situations in different countries and learning about opportunities and active European citizenship. The expected result was to create network of organizations for people with mental disabilities and to bring ideas for projects they can organize themselves, at a local or European level. there were 8 countries involved: the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Portugal, Bulgaria, Poland and Italy. each partner will send four people with mental disabilitiites and two personal assistants/helpers/group leaders, this is 48, on top of that we had one main group leader and one facilitator from the netherlands because this was a special project, so we needed a special approach. We selected all participants that are comparable in their level of education and thinking and emotional level, because for them it is very important to feel comfortable in the whole group and don't feel different, if they are "smarter" or "less smart" then the others, both of the situations would have a negative effect on theirselves and the others. the idea of "fitting in" the group is even more important in this case then in other projects. Participants did talk about their situations, family, community, which are the opportunities they have (work, hobbies), and also the limits and the problems they encounter, their hopes, wishes and expectations. After this, they could learn more about each other and compare their situations with the similar ones (as far as in their powers was ofcourse and guided by the helpers), from other countries and see what can be done more or changed. We did organize funny activities, energizers, team-buildings, role plays for the participants, so that they get to know each other better, learn about new cultures and make new friends over the boarders. After learning more in a non-formal way about the problems and opportunities they have, they can think about the projects and activities they can organize themselves.We realized we are working with disabled people so we needed more time for explaining, translating, understanding and relaxing after the activities, because it needed more pressure and effort from the participants, and we adapted our program for this.
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