Work for Inclusion

The pandemic has affected everyone's lives, but it risks erasing the strides made, in recent years, to promote the social inclusion of people with disabilities. The system of services dedicated to them has not always been able to meet their needs for sociality, rehabilitation and inclusion. Rather than adapting to the needs of the health emergency, many facilities have reduced, or even suspended, outreach services. This reality touches young people with Down syndrome closely in every country represented in the Work for Inclusion partnership. The cornerstone of the project is the consideration of the person with Down syndrome as a worker: therefore, the partnership has focused on the skills, interests and talents of the target group. The welfarist vision is abandoned and the foundations are laid for a possibility that links employment and training with the intention of placing young people at the center of their life project so that they can make the most of their abilities.

The overall goal is to increase the number of young people with Down syndrome employed throughout Europe and to promote their active citizenship, along with the development of key competencies for lifelong learning. They will be, , the central players in 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. 2) LTTA: youth with Down syndrome were the protagonists of four learning mobilities, during which, through non-formal learning and work-based learning, they improved their skills in the area of finding their own employment. 3) Outcomes (ex IOs): the partnership involves the creation of two innovative products: an Independence Scrapbook, ue a documentary, which analyzed the path taken by participants during the mobilities, recorded expectations and desires.

During the duration of the project and upon its completion, the following outcomes have occurred either: 1) Intangible outcomes of learning within the partnership and direct participants: the project activities will contribute to the development capacity of partner organizations and will be a valuable contribution to the development of the skills and knowledge of staff members, young participants and also employers (as they are expected to participation as guests during mobilities and in dissemination activities). The LTTAs and dissemination activities, for example, were organized in such a way as to maximize the learning impact of direct participants, to strengthen the partnership and relationship between partner organizations and young participants, which we consider crucial for the successful creation and implementation of tangible project outcomes.

1) Intangible learning outcomes within the partnership and direct participants: 2) LTTAs and dissemination activities, for example, were organized to maximize the learning impact of direct participants, 3) Tangible outcomes: to facilitate the achievement of project objectives, Scrapbook, which will stimulate the creativity of young people with Down syndrome and help them "design" a path to independent living, and a documentary, which will be instrumental in showing, the needs and capacities of the target group-and how partner countries respond to the target group's social and employment inclusion needs, highlighting good practices at the local level.