Start Date: 01-07-2017 | Duration: 20 months | End Date: 28 -02-2019

Partners

1. National Association of Resource Teachers - Bulgaria
2. Center for Youth Activism CYA KRIK - North Macedonia
3. CET Platform - Bulgaria
4. OFENSIVA TINERILOR ASOCIATIA - Romania
5. YOUNET - Italy
6. CELJSKI MLADINSKI CENTER, JAVNI ZAVOD FOR MLADINSKO KULTURO, IZOBRAZEVANJE, INFORMIRANJE IN SPORT - Slovenia

Context/background of project

Our project combines the efforts of 5 youth NGOs and 1 umbrella organisation from 5 countries (BG, IT, MK, RO and SI) on crosssectoral level (youth and school education) in developing the first online platform (OPEN platform) for validating good practices in youth work that can be applied to 5 groups of youth learners with special needs: Autism, Visual and Hearing Impairments, Dyslexia, Physical Difficulties. These are the most common types of learning difficulties, acknowledged on national and European level. More and more youth work needs to address these challenges young people face. However, youth workers across EU do not have always the necessary instruments and know-how. Our project will explore a possible solution to this challenge by linking special needs education specialists and youth workers in our partner countries and across Europe through the innovative OPEN platform.

Our cross-country review of current situation in partner countries (BG, RO, SI, MK and IT) confirmed that to a large extent young people in the age group of 13-18, suffering from any of the above forms of learning difficulties study with the support of education professionals (e.g., resource teachers), usually stationed either within mainstream school education institutions and/or separate special needs centres. Along with majority of public supported education services, some youth prefer to use the services of private training providers.

Objectives of our project

Our main aim is to increase youth worker’s effectiveness in facilitating training and other activities, involving youth with learning difficulties.

The main objectives to reach this goal are:

• To develop an online platform (OPEN platform) in 6 languages (BG, RO, SI, MK, IT and EN) for exchange of good practices in the field of youth work with young people, facing learning difficulties and conducting 2 thematic webinars;
• To develop an evaluation methodology for validating the good practices as applicable in one or more of the 5 areas of learning difficulties (Autism, Visual and Hearing Impairments, Dyslexia, Physical Difficulties);
• To conduct piloting of the platform, involving validation of 10 good practices and implementation of 2 thematic seminars;
• To provide ongoing dissemination of project’s results among youth workers communities in partner countries and across Europe.
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Number and profile of participants

Our target group are youth workers, working with young people in the age group 13-18 in school and other settings.

We distinguish two subgroups of workers:

1. Facing currently learners with learning difficulties in their daily practice.
2. Facing prospects to work with such learners in light of further intensification of the process of integrating inclusive education concept on all levels of the lifelong learning systems in partner countries and across Europe. Initially we plan to involve at least 24 youth workers and special needs education professionals to take part in the joint staff trainings in Sofia and Skopje. We also expect to have at least 40 registered participants in the 2 thematic webinars to be implemented. In addition, we will attract at least 1050 participants in the process of the dissemination, exploitation and lobbying of the project results.

Description of activities and results

On project completion, we will have a fully functional OPEN platform in all partner languages (BG, RO, SI, NMK, IT ) and English for wider visibility. Following fine-tuning after the pilot phase, involving piloting evaluation and publishing of good practices and conducting 2 webinars, we plan to officially launch the platform 4 months prior project conclusion. We expect to have minimum 20 new practices submitted by youth organizations from our countries and Europe as a whole, which will evaluate and validate. At the end of project lifecycle we will have minimum 12 practices published, including the ones from the piloting phase.