The EU promotes the active inclusion and full participation of people with disabilities in society, in line with the EU's approach to human rights for disability, this means that disability is a problem of rights and not an issue of discretion. This approach is also the core of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which the Through cultural life and the arts, people and their communities express their specific identity and the meaning they give to their existence and configure a vision of the world that represents their encounter with the external forces that affect their lives.The right to participate fully in cultural life has three dimensions interrelated with the priority actions mentioned above, and that also reinforce each other:- Access, by which people are given the opportunity to experience cultural and artistic life and to acquire knowledge about a broad spectrum of different forms of expression;- Participation, which requires that concrete, individual or collective opportunities be offered, to express oneself freely, communicate, act and participate in creative activities, with a view to achieving the full development of the personality;- The contribution to cultural life, which includes the right to contribute to the spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional expressions of culture and the arts, thus promoting the development and transformation of the society to which it belongs.To achieve the participation of people with disabilities as generators and consumers of culture it is required the development of a focused approach on them, to encourage their creations and expose them, and to make them participate also in the structure and programs offered.With the Artability+ project, this is precisely what is intended: to offer training opportunities that allow adults with disabilities to improve their participation/social inclusion through the generation/creation of artistic expressions and/or the consumption of culture in standardized environments.To this end, in addition to offering them a training opportunity focused on the artistic field, cross-curricular learning of a transversal nature is contemplated in their curriculum, focused on improving their autonomy, so that each participant will have specific objectives agreed with him/her in this sense.Specific objectives to achieve:- Design and develop a training curriculum focused on the teaching/learning of artistic techniques and that includes the introduction of transversal contents focused on the promotion of the autonomy of people with disabilities.- Start up the training experience of the curriculum designed with an average of 12 participants per country, and that these pass from being students to trainers of their own experience.- Achieve the transit of participation by people with disabilities from specific environments to standardized environments.The main tangible result of this project is the design and implementation of an intellectual product based on the development of training, innovative and transferable contents both to other entities working in the disability sector as to other entities that work with people in situations or risk of exclusion. Indicate that part of these contents will be designed by the persons with disabilities themselves who will participate throughout the project as experimental students and will guide the process itself to a better adjust to their real needs. Among the training contents will be developed content related to artistic techniques, how to produce low-cost support products to ensure accessibility, how to set up an exhibition and how to guide it, and a methodological guide that includes how to work on aspects related to the empowerment of people with disabilities, how to boost their autonomous development, main lines of action with the environment and everything related to the evaluation of the training process.In addition, as tangible result is intended to create a virtual exhibition, in an app format.Other tangible results of the project will be those related to dissemination, a collection of good practices in the environment, the establishment of collaborations with environmental entities and/or the web and/or blog and/or social networks of the project.Finally, it should be noted that once the project has been finalized, the results will remain over time (those of the target group themselves and the tangible results), which will allow both the replicability of the experience as the partner organizations to continue working with this developed methodology.

Previously loved items deserve a second chance to inspire us again; people with mental health problems deserve a second chance to take control of their life. In today's throw-away society it seems that nothing is valuable, that we can change our clothes or even the people around us in the blink of an eye. We want people to return to valuing what is all around them; show them that creativity, lifelong learning and empathy are powerful tools than can change the world!Chic&Craft is an on-line training course specially designed for people with mental health issues which aims to re-use and recycle second-hand clothes and waste materials, creating a unique European fashion brand where hand-craft designs and original creations play a major role. Hand-craft is a therapeutic activity; through crafts, people can express themselves in a safe, non-threatening manner, which may be easier than sharing their internal feelings verbally. Inspired by this way of understanding the world, a complete set of training modules have been created including creative ideas to implement with vulnerable training groups. 63 people with mental illness have been trained in Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Greece and Lithuania during six months. Feedback from these experiences helped us to improve the quality of the teaching materials developed and, hopefully, will inspire other organizations to reproduce it in the future.The key innovative factor in this training course lies in the methodology of peer learning which complements the recycling textiles technical knowledge. The figure of the peer mentor has been created to help the trainees to realise their hidden abilities and commit with their own learning process. Peer learning is mutually beneficial and involves the sharing of knowledge, ideas and experience between the participants. Through practical experiences, trainees achieved to develop skills in organizing activities, working with others in a collaborative way, giving and receiving feedback and assessing their own learning process. A practical toolkit is available on the platform, including tips and suggestions to apply peer learning to empower people with mental illness, being applicable also to other training courses.Chic&Craft is an explosive mix of creativity, imagination, artistic expression, responsibility, recovery, communication, team building and autonomy. Their hands, their willingness to learn and work, together with some support, is all they need to change their world.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Las prendas que un día nos enamoraron merecen una segunda oportunidad para volver a inspirarnos; del mismo modo las personas con malestar psíquico merecen una segunda oportunidad para tomar de nuevo el control sobre sus vidas. En nuestra sociedad actual todo es desechable, parece que nada tenga valor, que podamos cambiar nuestra ropa e incluso las personas a nuestro alrededor en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. Queremos volver a valorar lo que nos rodea ¡demostrar que la creatividad, las ganas de aprender y la empatía son armas poderosas que pueden cambiar el mundo!Chic & Craft es un curso formativo on-line diseñado para que personas con malestar psíquico aprendan a reutilizar y reciclar prendas de segunda mano y materiales de desecho, creando una marca textil europea en la que juegan un papel relevante los diseños artesanales y las creaciones originales. La artesanía ha demostrado ser una actividad terapéutica con la que podemos expresarnos de forma segura y más fácilmente que de forma verbal. Inspirados por esta forma de entender el mundo, hemos desarrollado unos módulos formativos sobre cómo diseñar prendas creativas, teniendo en cuenta las necesidades especiales de las personas con malestar psíquico. Un total de 63 personas con enfermedad mental se han formado en España, Eslovenia, Alemania, Grecia y Lituania durante seis meses. Lo aprendido durante esta fase nos ha ayudado a mejorar la calidad de los materiales didácticos y esperamos que el ejemplo inspire a otras organizaciones para que en el futuro implementen el curso. El factor innovador radica en la metodológica basada en el aprendizaje de pares que complementa los conocimientos sobre reciclaje y transformación de textiles. Se ha creado la figura del mentor para ayudar a los alumnos durante la formación y aumentar su motivación. El aprendizaje entre iguales beneficia a ambas partes y conlleva que los participantes compartan conocimientos, ideas y experiencias. A través de ejercicios prácticos, se han entrenado distintas capacidades para comunicar, trabajar con otras personas, escuchar y evaluar su propio proceso de aprendizaje. Esta guía incluye además consejos para aplicar el apoyo de pares a la hora de capacitar personas con enfermedad mental que pueden ser aplicables a cualquier otro tipo de curso formativo.Chic & Craft es una mezcla explosiva de creatividad, imaginación, expresión artística, responsabilidad, recuperación, comunicación y autonomía.

The project ‚My career matters!’ (MCM) targets career guidance sector with the purpose to empowering people with intellectual disabilities (PwID) to become more involved in shaping their learning, training and labour market integration pathways and their careers. The primary target group is PwID who will receive accessible and available tools in order to make informed choices regarding their careers. In too many cases decision about jobs or careers are made for them instead of by them. The second target group is the guidance sector from schools, VET and employment providers who will receive increased knowledge and information about the needs of PwID, and also resources which will lead to more effective guidance strategies, as a key role to promoting social inclusion.The project aims to increase participation of PwID to lifelong learning programs and employment, by making the resources regarding labour market information and training courses in career information more accessible and available. MCM project is fully in line with and supports Erasmus+ Programme as it addresses the field of adult education priority: increasing learning demand and take-up through effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies which support the upskilling pathways by encouraging and supporting low-skilled and/or low-qualified adults, through developing guidance-as-a-service to ensure that adults have access to relevant learning throughout their life. The project objectives are:• Developing career management skills of PwID through improving their access to accessible and available resources in career development and learning opportunities;• Improving teaching methods and tools in career information for staff from educational, VET and employment systems, in order to better respond to the needs and expectations of PwID.The Guide ‚My Career Maters!’ will improve the availability of LMI to PwID and will address the challenges this group is facing in accessing LMI. The guide will be a tool for PwID to support them in the process of identification of labour market opportunities, as well as in the career guidance process. Improving access to LMI will encourage and empower PwID to look for career opportunities that align with their skills and interests. The Guide will be elaborated in an easy to read and understand format.The Training package ’Career information’ will develop career management skills of PwID, skills which should be maintained throughout life and are based on key competences, in particular ‚learning to learn’, social and civic competences - including intercultural competences - and a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. A special attention will be given to developing navigation skills during the implementation of training.The Toolkit ‚Xplore LMI’ will cover the needs of practitioners working in training and guidance sector for specific support tools in their activities with PwID. It will consist in a set of practical instruments that can be used in leading accesibility and combat discrimination - both intentional or unintentional - in their activities with PwID. MCM provides tangible tools to empower PwID to make informed choices regarding their career and in support to guidance practitioners to make the most of their growth potential and capacityin order to ensure PwID have access to the same information and opportunities on the labour market. A number of 375 PwID will develop their career management skills through participation to piloting and validating the Guide ‚My career matters!’ and the Training package ‚Career information’. A number of 600 practitioners (career educators, VET and specialists of employment services) will benefit directly from the activities in the project, as they will have resources and tools for developing skills in offering customised services to PwID, thus becaming agents of change and promoters of social inclusion, building their own and their institutions` capacity to work with diverse service users, ensure participation and promote learning and employment for PwID. MCM will include an online platform as an Open Educational Resource to share with the target group of PwID, practitioners in educational and employment sectors and the general public the Guide, the Training content, the Toolkit, the resources and the wealth of knowledge the partners have generated over the implementation of the project.

<< Background >>Evaluation of the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 shows that it contributed to promotion of the rights of people with disabilities and put disability high on the EU agenda. However, people with disabilities still face considerable barriers in access to healthcare, education, employment, recreation activities. 87 million people in the EU have some form of disability. 50.8% of them are in employment compared to 75% without disabilities. 28.4% are at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared to 17.8% of persons without disabilities. Only 29.4% of them attain a tertiary degree compared to 43.8% of those without disabilities and 52% of persons with disabilities feel discriminated against. According to our needs analysis, there is a lack of open-access resources and adult education opportunities for skills improvement in the field of provision of training and consultations to people with disabilities. The need for the project is based on the principles of independent living philosophy, which aims to promote autonomy and someone’s full and effective participation in society despite disabilities – the consortium aims to achieve this goal by educating the specialists (including those who have functional diversity) that provide consultations and trainings to people with disabilities (in the proposal referred to as ADULT EDUCATORS). Most people with disabilities attend community care centres, receive consultations in the local employment offices, are involved in the work of various associations of people with disabilities or are otherwise engaged in trainings and non-formal education activities run by employment specialists, career consultants, etc. Taking this into consideration, the goal of promotion of social inclusion of people with fewer opportunities and contribution to creating inclusive environments that foster equity and equality cannot be achieved without engaging adult educators that directly work in the aforementioned settings. By exchanging ideas, know-how, experience and good practices, project is aims to internationally develop and pilot a new non-formal innovative training system for improvement and extending the offer of high-quality learning opportunities for specialists that provide trainings and consultations to people with disabilities.Training program will correspond to 3 main themes sets out in the new strategy: EU rights, Independent living and autonomy, non-discrimination and equal opportunities. Lessons aimed at skills improvement and protection of people with disabilities from abuse and neglect correspond to the idea of protection of EU rights, also there is a separate topic for promotion of independent living and healthy lifestyle; finally by strengthening digital and social skills we will contribute to equal opportunities and inclusion. Training Course will be based on reliable data and collection of Best Practises.NEEDS ADRESSED:- Lack of relevant evidence-based open-access qualification improvement regarding social inclusion and empowerment of people with disabilities resources for the TG (specialists providing trainings and consultations to people with disabilities in the community-based settings).- Lack of E-learning opportunities for the aforementioned TG (relevant in the context of global COVID-19 pandemic);- Lack of digital resources for adult educators to use when conducting trainings for people with disabilities online; - Increased incidence of abuse and neglect of people with disabilities due to lockdown and changed psychosocial environment in many families and communities and lack of training regarding this topic (detection, prevention, coping); lack of healthy lifestyle promotion tools and trainings; lack of digital skills and media literacy improvement tools for people with disabilities;<< Objectives >>OBJECTIVES:- To improve (by provision of up-to-date training materials) the skills and knowledge of adult educators directly providing trainings and consultations to people with various disabilities in order to contribute to their social inclusion and employment. - To create a more innovative teaching method (innovative E-learning platform), that can be used both by adult educators and their trainees (during classroom activities and for individual learning).- To enable participating organisation to enhance and widen their policies and core activities as well as to generate improvements of the knowledge, skills and competences of the staff of partners institutions and of those in their network which will result to improved outcomes in their organizational culture and improvement of the quality of the provided adult education services for people with various disabilities. - To raise the awareness among partners countries and on EU level about the importance of social inclusions and independent living of people with various disabilities. - To foster creation of “centres of excellence” for adult education provision in partner countries and in EU (through cooperation of organizations on local, national and EU level).<< Implementation >>Learning materials will be developed and trainings for adult educators (providers and trainings and consultations) working with people who have various disabilities will be carried out. This in turn will ensure that adult educators (including those who have functional diversity) working with people that have fewer opportunities receive up-to-date knowledge and improve their skills in order to be able to properly respond to the needs of their clients and trainees in the modern environment. Foreseen training activities include 3-day long short-term joint staff training for adult educators that will be conducted once the training material is ready. Once 12 professionals that specialize in provision of trainings to adult educators (specifically those that provide trainings and consultations to people with disabilities) are trained according to the created training materials, they will conduct pilot trainings in each partners’ country. Aforementioned local training events will be based on a blended learning principle – part of the training will be carried out in the classroom and part – online (via the newly developed online learning platform). In total at least 75 people will be trained and will thus improve their skills and competences required to provide high quality trainings and consultations to people with disabilities in their communities. Other important activities: - development of the Interactive E-learning platform containing the created training program; - organization of dissemination conferences in each partners’ country;- project management, communication, monitoring, risk and impact evaluation, quality assurance, dissemination procedures;- transnational partners meeting (3 online and 3 face-to-face)<< Results >>- Open access up-to-date training materials for the improvement of skills and knowledge of adult educators providing trainings and consultations to people with various disabilities. This in turn will strengthen social inclusion and employment of people with disabilities. - Innovative teaching method (innovative E-learning platform), that can be used both by adult educators and their trainees (during classroom activities and for individual learning/revision). Online learning opportunities are especially relevant in the context of global pandemic then it is challenging to carry out face-to-face lessons. This tool will also be beneficial for people with disabilities for whom it is challenging to attended classes outside their house due to poorly adapted environment and/or because of the need for self-isolation during the pandemic. - Widening of the policies and core activities of partner organizations, improvement of knowledge, skills and competences of the staff of partners institutions and of those in their network which will result to improved outcomes in their organizational culture and improvement of the quality of the provided adult education services for people with various disabilities. - Awareness among partners countries and on EU level about the importance of social inclusions and independent living of people with various disabilities raised.- Creation of new “centres of excellence” for adult education provision in partner countries and in EU (through cooperation of organizations that provide trainings and consultations to people with disabilities on a local, regional, national and international level).