Project Activities

The overall goal is to increase the number of employed young people with Down syndrome in employment across Europe and to promote their active citizenship, along with the development of key competencies for lifelong learning. To do this, young men and women with Down syndrome will be involved in every stage of the project, from the production of the results (providing feedback and ideas on the development of the scrapbook) to dissemination activities.

They will, of course, be the central protagonists of the LTTAs and will form focus groups to provide general feedback when needed.

1.Focus groups: this type of activity is planned to receive feedback on the results produced, in order to improve and update them. The number of young people with Down syndrome involved will be 5 per partner organization (except Rusaalka) – in addition to those who will participate in the mobilities. This is a way to involve young people who do not live near the partner organizations but still have an interest in the project’s themes, or whose families are wary of the possibility of letting them travel.

2.LTTA: young people with Down Syndrome will be the protagonists of four learning mobilities, during which, through non-formal learning and work-based learning, they will improve their skills in the field of job search. Visiting inclusive workplaces in other European countries will also benefit the project staff who will be able to propose new models and techniques of supported employment and/or good practices for inclusive workplaces in their own country, thanks also to the extensive national network of participating organizations.

3.Results (ex IOs): the partnership foresees the creation of two innovative products: an Independence Scrapbook, tailored to the learning needs and interests of the target group, which will help young people with Down syndrome outline their life and work path, while stimulating their creativity; and a documentary, which will record the expectations and desires of mobility participants, and will draw attention to good national practices of partner countries, in areas that are often characterized by stigma and negative prejudices (Andalusia in Spain, Calabria in Italy, Bulgaria, the Macedonian region in Greece), but that, precisely for this reason, have over time rolled up their sleeves to make up for lacks and “empty” interventions (both from the public and private sector) in a creative and effective way.