You can be a volunteer! – Good practices of the organization of freetime activities for people with disabilities Erasmus Project

Project Title

You can be a volunteer! – Good practices of the organization of freetime activities for people with disabilities

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; Health and wellbeing; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Not only in Hungary but also in all Europe is it very common that people with disabilities have limited possibilites for freetime activities. There only a few programs where the organizers pay attention on any way to their special needs, making the location accessible or ensure the presence of helpers, professionals. However, there is a great need for applicable and useful freetime activities for young people with disabilities where they can get out of their families, meet new contacts and friendships and develope their social competences which can help them to be succesful on the open label market or any other areas of life. The impacts of our freetime activities (such as cultural and social life) play a very important role in the developement of our personality which many times fails for the people with disability. This deficit can occur many problems (because of missing social, communicational and other competencies) and pulls back tehir to the society.
Partners of our project are all organizations who are working with people with disabilities for a long time to help them to spend their freetime on an active and useful way. Altough they are working on different areas, they all experience the importance of the valuable freetime activites in the life of youth and how bad is the situation for youth with disability. They really try to fight to change the situation and organize activities for their people where they can get lifelong experiences and learn many different competencies which can help them to live a life they want.
Aim of the project is that the partnering organizations can share tehir good practicies whit each other and use the gained knowledge in their work and develope their services with the new methods. In the frame of the project there will be 3 trainings implemented for the youth workers of the partnering organizations. There will be one 3-day activity in each country where they can share their experiences, knowledge and good practices and later use the new methods in their work so that they can be more effective for the youngsters they are working with. The new practicies can help to widen their services and help the developement, inclusion and mental health of their clients with disabilities. It can also help the youth wrokers in their personal developement and prevent their burn-out. There will be 5 collagues from each partner attending to the tranings, so it means 12 people in total.
Besides that we would like to involve the young people with disabilities to volunteering because we think it can be a very effective way of learning new competences, gaining experience and a sense of success. It can help to gain social, communicational and organizational competences and also to get in touch with new people and becoming a part of the community. Based on the experiences of the participating organizations volunteering is one of the best ways how young persons can spend their freetime, but there are almost no organizations who are prepared to accept volunteers with disability or who would promote their participation in volunteering. No one sees them as potential helpers. The aim of the project is to break the walls and start to involve youth with disabilities in volunteering. There will be 10 volunteers in each country involved to the work and will volunteer for min. 120 hours at the local partner. They will learn the activities and methods the organization is using and also help in the implementation of the new experiences the youth workers have gained on the trainings. The project wants to help the youngsters to gain new competences and becoming an active member of their community and the society.
After the volunteering period all the volunteers will attend to a meeting (blended mobility) where they will be able to share their experiences and share all the new things they learnt during their volunteering. The meeting will be 5 days long and youth will be motivated to volunteering further and get in touch with new people and organizations and also help others to follow their example and start to act. Volunteers will start their communication already before the meeting on an online forum, where they will be able to share their experiences with each other. The aim of the forum is to help young people with disabilities to connect each other and also organizations who are open to accept volunteers with disability. They are both the target of the forum which provides a space to share good practices and help newcomers in volunteering or get volunteers. The meeting will include some workshops where the participants can share tehir ideas about the developement of the forum. These sessions are supposed to motivate the people to use it and share it with others after the meeting. Partner organizations will share it with their people and partners to support an international network between countries on the field and connecting the youth and the organizations also in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 90538 Eur

Project Coordinator

Nem Adom Fel Alapítvány & Country: HU

Project Partners

• LUNEnuove Cooperativa Sociale
• Club de Buceo Escafandra