"I see! I can! I will!"

Background Visual disability is one of the most severe forms of disability. About 85% of information a human perceives visually. For those who are visually impaired everyday routines and self-evident things are hindered: moving, obtaining information, communicating with others, making new contacts. These restrictions are particularly painful for the young people, who thus have difficulty integrating into the society. Young people who have not been in contact with visually impaired and blind people lack the knowledge and skills to interact with people with visual impairments, as their experience of communication is formed through visual action. For these reasons, we decided to apply for a project competition. Implementing the project gives an opportunity for the young people of our association take part in the process of organization and management of the project thus contributing to the development of their self-esteem. An additional stimulus was participation in a similar project in Poland when we involved the partners from the association Kopalnia Inicjatyw in Poland in the project. Objectives The main goal of the project was to enable visually impaired and blind young people get aware of their ability to organize and run events. A valuable benefit was the practical experience of working together with sighted young people. Additionally, we wanted sighted young people to practise working together with young people with visual impairments to break prejudices and stereotypes and understand their needs. All this was facilitated by joint activities during the implementation of the project. Cooperation with young people from other EU countries created a positive communication experience, strengthened knowledge of foreign languages, and expanded knowledge of Polish and Latvian culture. It encouraged them to broaden their horizons, dare and look for new challenges. Practically: • Recommendations for a blind assistant were compiled and developed • Informative meetings were held with pupils, students, teachers and lecturers in Bulduri and Ogre. • A safe route for tandem cycling in Riga and Krakow was developed and tested. • At the end of the project, young people without visual impairments learned about the responsibilities of assisting blind and partially sighted people and using the experience gained, they will have the opportunity to inform other young people who want to become assistants for blind and partially sighted people. Implementation .During the project: 1. LOGO competition was organized, and LOGO created. 2. Tandem bicycle routes in Riga and Krakow have been created. 3. meeting was held in Latvia, Riga, guest house Dubultmuiža International from August 2 to August 5 which included: Ice-breaking activities; Exchange of experiences with good practice stories about working with assistants; Interactive discussions about the project and the necessary work required; Discussion on the importance of the topic in each country; Meeting with representatives of the service dog association Teodora. A trip by tandem bikes along the previously developed route in Mežaparks with tasks (to find the indicated object and take a photo at it); Polish and national evening Meeting at LU P. Stradiņš Medical College in Bulduri. Adapted sports activities for visually impaired people in the stadium. Tandem bike ride to Biķernieki sports track and competition. Latvian national evening. From 14 to 17 September International meeting in Austreyok, Poland with: Ice-breaking activities; Development of recommendations for visually impaired and blind people, typhoid technique; Tandem ride in Krakow; Excursion around Krakow, getting acquainted with the accessibility of the environment in the Old Town. Meeting Special School and Educational Center for Blind and Visually Impaired Children , Rabka-Zdrój. National evening. Self-organized networking. Achievements 1. Methodological material with recomendations for blind and visually impaired people’s assistants was developed. 2. Safe routes for tandem cycling in Latvia and Poland were developed and tested. 3. A set of sport activities adjusted for the needs of visually impaired people was developed. 4. Participants’ foreign language skills were brushed up. 5. Communication skills of the participants were improved 6. The level of participants’ self-esteem has raised. 7. New contacts for possible future projects were obtained.