Through research, we found that disability affected 15-20% of the world's population. This amounted to approximately 650 million people. The United Kingdom had the second highest prevalence of disability with 27.2% of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability.We found considerable evidence that students with disabilities were bullied and harassed by their peers. Students with learning disabilities made up a large percentage of the statistics. Examples of the bullying and harassment came in the form of teasing, physical aggression, spreading rumours, social exclusion, taking belongings, imitating and making fun of students.Bullying is a problem of international significance for all students. Its impact can cause a decrease in academic performance or lead to absenteeism, anxiety, depression, poor esteem, impaired concentration, self-harm and early school leaving.The Change Starts With Us project was made up of 6 partners with the goal of becoming organisations that promote and foster positive attitudes towards people with disabilities. We believed that many small steps could be taken to help include people with disabilities in our communities. The concept was that over time, many small actions undertaken by lots of people would lead to a more welcoming and inclusive community for people with disabilities. We are pleased to see that our project ''The Change Starts with us’’ helped to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to take personal and collective action, helping enhance the inclusion of people with disabilities.The project helped participants better understand what it meant and how it felt to be a young person with a disability and gave students the opportunity to learn more about their daily lives, how they have to adapt to their environment, go to school or live independently.In total, there were 116 participants who took part in the Learning, Teaching and Training Activities, with a total number of 46 representatives attending Transnational Project Meetings. The participants who took part in the project LTTAs were made up of young people from a variety of backgrounds, both with and without disabilities. The main project objectives achieved include:- Children were encourage to accept their peers with disabilities as people first and find ways to include everyone in school and after-school activities.- Increased the awareness and understanding of young people with disabilities living within their local communities- Encouraged schools to embrace disability awareness and inclusion as part of their core curriculum.- Helped to bridge the gap between children with and without disabilities to decrease the number of early school leavers amongst pupils/students with disabilities- Improved language and ICT skills of participants - Challenged discrimination, segregation, racism, bullying and violence - Enhanced participation and learning performance of disadvantaged learners, helping to reduce disparities in learning outcomes- Strengthened the international cooperation through sharing good teaching and learning practices - Prepared and deployed the education and training of professionals for equity, diversity and inclusion challenges in the learning environment - Encouraged active citizenship and entrepreneurship- Facilitated the recognition and validation of knowledge, skills and competencies acquired through formal, non-formal and informal learningThe project also highlighted the role of NGOs, local organisations and schools as a catalysts for change by offering the students and their communities the opportunity to engage in a positive and favourable experience in learning. The focus was on developing effective tools used to fight against the potentially negative influences of the media on schools and beyond by increasing the awareness of all participants. Some of the resources created included:- Project Logo- Project website- Disability and Equality in Education Handbook- Anti-Discrimination Handbook- Disability Awareness Questionnaire 1st & 2nd- Teachers Guide- Disability History Museum- “The Change” E-book- e-Twinning page- Disabled people who have made a difference- Raising Awareness Blog- You Are Not Alone Brochure- Disability & The Environment BrochureThe activities helped both learners and staff to explore, understand, describe and compare lifestyles across Europe.The project also enhanced European cooperation as partners exchanged knowledge and discussed common issues. This helped to improve open-mindedness through cooperation, transfer of good practices and a sense of personal well-being.

"Today, the young generation is under the influence of the media. Over the last decade, there has been a drastic increase in the amount of time children and young people spend on-line. This has positive aspects, but it can also be a serious problem. For this reason, young people should be aware and critical media user. Partners from Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland, Turkey, Romania and the Czech Republic (5 schools and 1 art association) recognized that one important way to achieve this is to train children and teens in media literacy, build communication skills, exchange ideas in the extent of media literacy and the development of intercultural dialogue. The aim of the project was also to promote in-depth cooperation, provide tools to develop ICT competences, take responsibility for completing tasks and find creative solutions. The project has divided tasks and created working groups composed of people of different nationalities. All countries have fulfilled their assigned tasks. During the entire duration of the project there were also local activities for its participants in each partner country (questionnaires on media addiction, media threats presentations, meetings and interviews with famous journalists, lectures on contemporary media, workshops on the use of ICT, classes preparing for LTTA ). There were also collected materials for the brochure ""Hands on Media Literacy"" (gathering from the partners information on ""Media education at school"" and creating a new informer about ""Media education in Europe"" - included in the brochure ""HOML"").All partners have prepared min. 2 lesson plans / lesson plans on media education on the topic of the selected and project meeting, which were included in the Porfolio.The Polish partner as a coordinator was also responsible for the administrative and financial side of the project(partnership agreements, annexes, procedures / monitoring of good implementation of project activities). All activities were monitored on an ongoing basis, and the results of the work were presented and consulted during 4 project meetings.The project also included 2 activities related to learning / teaching / training. I)Turkey-photographic-ICT workshops and how to debate, exhibitions, create e-newspapers, theatrical performance, an international media evening (well-known journalists). II )Bulgaria - workshops on how to create films, attempts to create short films, blogs, vlogs. All project activities were documented on the FB profile https://www.facebook.com/HANDS-on-MEDIA-Literacy-Projekt-Erasmus-223433158084942/and on the project website www.handsonmedialiteracy.co, the eTweening, blog and project platform was created vlog (https://handsonmedialiteracy.blogspot.bg/ http: / Vlog https://handsonmedialiteracyvlog.blogspot.bg/Etwinning ""Hands on Media Literacy""Soft results:- raising the awareness of young people about such concepts as European citizenship and democracy based on the development of critical thinking;- intensification of cooperation;- reduced Internet addictions of the youth / parents' awareness of the effects of addiction.-technology (ICT, ability to debate, photographing, reading and writing, communication skills,)- introduction of innovative solutions for people involved in the project;- sharing and improving teaching practices and methods Hard results:- Brochure with national and international strategies against media addiction among students: ""Hands on Media Literacy"". This brochure describes legal regulations and strategies used in the countries involved in the project. The results of the media addiction survey among students in partner institutions and essays written by pupils from each country were also presented.- A portfolio of media education lesson plans: this output product is one of the main innovations of the project that combines the goal of disseminating project results with the need to guarantee follow-up, further stimulation of students and the creativity and knowledge of teachers even after the project activities have been completed.Lesson plans can be included in the program of media education lessons, they can be used in English lessons or educational lessons.- student presentations; мini-exhibitions, partner site; electronic newspaper, films, PowerPoint presentations; presentations showing the development of the project; short stories, a recorded course on how to debate, take pictures and use ICT in media literacy, a brochure with interviews with media experts.All project results are free of license and placed on the project website and on the Erasmus + PlatformOur project developed, tested, adapted and implemented innovative practices through new forms of learning and training."