Lifelong education of people with Down syndrome or other intellectual disabilities: Innovation and inclusion in rural areas Erasmus Project

Project Title

Lifelong education of people with Down syndrome or other intellectual disabilities: Innovation and inclusion in rural areas

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

This project is located in the field of education for adults with Down syndrome or other intellectual disabilities (SD / DI) in inclusive settings and in rural areas. The purpose of the project is to promote, innovate and investigate training actions in rural areas that allow adults with SD / ID the possibility of acquiring, updating, or expanding their skills for their personal, social and professional development in inclusive contexts of teaching and learning. A priority training context is the Adult Education Centers, with which the Associations participating in this project and the Town Halls of the respective localities will collaborate, to develop workshops and training courses and projection and dissemination actions of the results and products obtained in said workshops.
The fundamental target group for this project is people with Down syndrome or other intellectual disabilities. But there are also other groups to which some of the actions proposed in the project are directed: educators (teachers from adult education centers and professionals from associations) and family members; inclusive learning contexts, fundamentally, adult education centers in rural areas, educational administrations, society in general. Many of the projection actions (recitals, exhibitions, talks, …) are aimed at the entire society, in order to collaborate and contribute to a greater awareness of society towards diversity.

The main actions of this project, which are divided into four phases (preparation, execution, supervision and evaluation, and dissemination), are the following:

• Consolidation of the Strategic Association to support innovation in adult education for people with SD / ID in rural areas.
• Actions of design, planning and preparation of course and / or training workshops for adults with SD / DI and other actions with educational agents.
• Development of the courses and / or workshops that are proposed in adult education centers, or in other inclusive education centers.
• Dissemination / projection actions of experiences and products produced in training courses and / or workshops.
• Actions to develop a cooperative support network.
• Training actions with teachers from adult education centers in other educational centers.
• Research and innovation actions.
• Actions to prepare didactic material.
• Strategies for the transfer of training experience in adult education centers to other places and to other institutions.

This project has a marked innovative character in the field of adult education with SD / ID, which is manifested in the definition of strategies that link adult education, through service-learning methodologies, with the actions of projection in the community , so that what is done in schools is known and valued, people with DS / ID are given prominence and the link between educational inclusion and social inclusion is strengthened, in a climate of strengthening inclusive culture (accessibility universal, design for all, value of difference, societies based on rights and values, sensitivity towards vulnerable groups, etc.), that allows progress towards more inclusive societies.
The innovative nature is also manifested in the definition, design and development of courses, training workshops, programs, etc., linked to the ongoing training of SD / ID adults, focused on new concepts and visions on intellectual disability and approaches methodological methodologies of great pedagogical power, that respond to their current training needs: cooperative learning, project-based learning, support model, mediational didactic approach and service learning.

Among the expected results with the implementation of the project, we can point out the development and experimentation of innovative approaches to serve the target groups, in our case adults with DS / ID, facing attention to diversity in scenarios of inclusive adult education in rural areas, and the definition of more attractive educational programs and workshops that respond to their individual needs and expectations and to the requirements of the new normative and conceptual frameworks on disability. As a consequence of these innovations, we expect an improvement in cognitive and linguistic skills, interpersonal relationships, social and cultural knowledge, social participation and some job skills in people with DS / ID. With this project we also want to advance in inclusive culture and practice in Adult Education Centers.

Project Website

https://www.downhuesca.com/__trashed-2/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 43752 Eur

Project Coordinator

Asociación Down Huesca & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Asociación Las Cañas
• “Primavera” Società Cooperativa Sociale
• ADAPEI des Hautes-Pyrénées
• ASSOCIATION TRISOMIE 21 PYRENEES ATLANTIQUES