Prodeste Foundation, Opole, Poland
Lwoweckie County, Lwówek Śląski, Poland
According to a 2019 report on conditions in the county of Lubań, the County Disability Classification Team issued as many as 159 disability rulings in 2019 for people under sixteen, while only a few percent of them make use of long-term support such as occupational therapy workshops. The increase in number of disability rulings is not matched by increase in funds The main shortfall is in initiatives in which parents can learn to help each other instead of waiting for support from overwhelmed institutions, which is still insufficient.
The project addresses problems of families of people with disabilities: insufficient institutional support, parents’ lack of sense of self-fulfilment, unfriendly environment.
We will create a network of families of people with disabilities which will operate on a self-help and self-organization basis: twenty meetings will be held by parents following orientation meetings held by an activation coach, to share skills and knowledge, including on self-advocacy, and six specialized lectures. We will select the twelve most active parents, who will be trained to act on a self-advocacy basis. We will provide them with supervisory care.
We will initiate youth peer voluntary work (5 clubs in lower-secondary schools) and provide equipment for workshops that use IT and multimedia technology in work with young people and young people with disabilities. We will organize three integration picnics and two conferences to promulgate the measures. 80 parents of people with disabilities from Dolny Śląsk will participate.
The envisaged effects will be improved knowledge and self-confidence, and a sense of self-fulfilment of parents, involvement of twelve of them in self-advocacy, and creation of five young volunteer clubs.
The Prodeste Foundation will conduct training and supervision for self-advocates, the Mocni Association will create a peer volunteer club, and the sponsor, the local council in the county, will help with reaching schools and institutions.
