Colourful and creative explosion of skills

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Association Co-Efficient

Organisation:

Association Co-Efficient

Country:

Hungary

About organisation:

Együttható was founded in 2010 to promote non-formal learning, innovative community services and a new way of thinking in youth and social work. We firmly believe, that society develops through autonomous, supportive communities following a bottom-up approach. We believe in that a healthy community should be more inclusive.Our vision is a society where communities provide equal opportunities for all young people, so they can efficiently develop their skills to become responsible and competent adults. Együttható (always?usually?) offers regular events and activities, which serves as an access point to the EURODESK network as well.The youth information office was opened in 2014, it is a complementing for the activities of local schools, social services and NGOs. The youth information office serves as a point of information for local young people with daily opening hours.Starting from May, 2014, Együttható opened an after school (Hatáspont Tanoda) which located in Gyöngyös.

Title of the project

Colourful and creative explosion of skills

Start date:

1/2/2021

End date:

31/7/2022

Objectives:

The 'Here We Are' informal group of young people live with barriers in their everyday life (living with disability). We are an informal group, and our members face many obstacles: mainly impaired in movement, impaired in speech, and impaired in hearing, and three of our group members’ speech is also affected. The members of the group set them as an aim of being able to write, express themselves with visual tools, and in addition, we are ready to show this to the world as well. We want to inspire other peers living with barriers to self-express themselves with different creative techniques, in order to see their abilities instead of obstacles. Our group organised 25 with learning dimensions and document, communicated the results via online channels for those who follow us, and also we wanted to involve new interested persons in our activity. We hoped that these activities show the broader society that diversity is valuable. In diversity –for us - value means uniqueness and unique collaborations that can offer ready-made solutions to the current problems of our society. These problems are social oppression, rejection, exclusion, inequality, intolerance which are global problems in the World. We want to be there where we can express our needs for diversity, because we are aware of that: diversity is a value. We want to show this in order to raise people’s awareness of becoming diverse is a good thing and inclusive.

Why the project was: empowering young people, adapting to changing realities, or thinking out of the box:

During the follow-up of the young people participating in the project, we found that they have developed higher competences in the digital space and self-expression in writing is less foreign to them. They are therefore able to participate much more actively and efficiently in everyday life, and in addition, they regularly and actively convey their needs to mainstream society. One of the tangible results of the project is that two team members joined the work of the Association, one of them deals with social media and graphic elements, and the other leads a project. A third member is writing his own youth project. Two of them also participated in a mobility project during the project, one of them plans to participate in new mobility projects after overcoming his mobility-related difficulties. One of them got a very good job, where he can develop. Another team member is currently striving for higher positions and wants to continue studying social policy, his ten-year association with the association and his insight into the situation of people with disabilities brought him closer to these ideas. One member is currently participating in a Scientific Student Conference, which is a high-level event in our country. Since then, we have had several appearances in the online space and on the radio. And a person related to a project wants to write a project in the future. This is how we made the possibilities visible.

How the project was inclusive:

One of the most important objectives of Here We Are is to make these opportunities visible to fellow travellers. Previously, the Here We Are team won the Eurodesk Solidarity Award in 2019 for making these opportunities visible, at which time we organised several events. During the „Colourful and creative explosion of skills” project, we informed the participants joining the project about these opportunities. Two of the team also travelled to a Spanish project, during which they participated in a Fine Art project, where they learned about inclusive art and returned home with useful experiences. We also implemented communication about this trip. What we would also like to emphasise is that our team seizes every opportunity when it is possible to make this opportunity visible, that it is possible to travel abroad even in the case of severe and cumulative disabilities, which is why videos are made about the trips. The other group that perhaps dares to travel less is the group of the hearing impaired, because they are very afraid of the English language difficulties. During the project, we participated in the events of our organisation. But since then, the Here We Are team has been regularly invited as speakers in our country, so in 2022, on the occasion of the World Day of People Living with Disabilities, "How do we represent our interests at the domestic and international levels?" we participated in a conference as a speaker, with which we made the Eurodesk network more visible.

Green aspect:

We implemented the entire project with completely environmentally friendly digital solutions. With the exception of some visibility tools (monolino, youthpass certificates, administration papers). An online publication was created in digital form, which contains the writings of our members participating in the project. During the process, we developed digital skills so that they can cooperate more effectively in the online space and protect the environment from unnecessary waste by using digital tools. During the project, we tried to develop skills that allow greater visibility, so they can reach many people through everyday social media and online magazines. We helped our members get their writings and thoughts across to as many people as possible through these tools. We travelled little. We only ate as much food as we ate.

How the project has given a European dimension to your event and ensured the visibility and promotion of Eurodesk?

One of the most important objectives of Here We Are is to make these opportunities visible to fellow travellers. Previously, the Here We Are team won the Eurodesk Solidarity Award in 2019 for making these opportunities visible, at which time we organised several events. During the „Colourful and creative explosion of skills” project, we informed the participants joining the project about these opportunities. Two of the team also travelled to a Spanish project, during which they participated in a Fine Art project, where they learned about inclusive art and returned home with useful experiences. We also implemented communication about this trip. What we would also like to emphasise is that our team seizes every opportunity when it is possible to make this opportunity visible, that it is possible to travel abroad even in the case of severe and cumulative disabilities, which is why videos are made about the trips. The other group that perhaps dares to travel less is the group of the hearing impaired, because they are very afraid of the English language difficulties. During the project, we participated in the events of our organisation. But since then, the Here We Are team has been regularly invited as speakers in our country, so in 2022, on the occasion of the World Day of People Living with Disabilities, "How do we represent our interests at the domestic and international levels?" we participated in a conference as a speaker, with which we made the Eurodesk network more visible.

Impact:

One of our results is that more and more people start following our social media page because they can find informal content on it. More and more people are interested in our programs compared to the general starting state, that at the beginning of Here We Are, 5-7 people participated in the events, now we can count on double that number, and since our events are open, we attract new participants more and more often and more successfully and make Erasmus+ available and Eurodesk information for young people with disabilities. At our events, young people with various disabilities, mixed with young people without disabilities, think together about social issues such as how self-expression in writing could be made more barrier-free. We look at all aspects of this and try to make it accessible to them. Another important thing is that we also get to know each other, thus creating relationships and friendships that help us stay together even in difficult times. The „Colourful and creative explosion of skills” project showed all of this during the epidemic, that we were able to work together in the digital space and involve people who otherwise would not have been able to come to the in-person events. It gives us great pleasure that our community has survived and that, returning to their personal lives, people struggling with serious illnesses and disabilities are increasingly attending our programs. We always receive more inquiries and our number is growing.