Türkiye-İstanbul, 5-9 Mayıs 2018

Participants from youth sector will gather in İstanbul for the transnational forum “Include, Transform, Realise”, to discuss how to increase active participation and inclusion of young people with disabilities in Erasmus + YiA Programme.

The Erasmus+ Programme provides multiple opportunities for all, however young people with disabilities still have a limited access to these opportunities due to several physical and attitudinal barriers. With the consecutive national and transnational activities planned, it has been aimed to reach out both disabled and non-disabled youth workers, youth leaders, trainers or facilitators in order to improve their capacities of working with young people with disabilities in local/national/international level in terms of Erasmus+ YiA Programme and encourage them to organize inclusive mixed ability group projects.

Specific objectives of the Forum:
-To promote equality, social inclusion and mixed ability youth work in Erasmus + YiA Programme.

-To develop a better understanding of disability within youth work and create a disability-friendly concept of youth work.

-To focus on abilities rather than disabilities to improve the interaction between young people with and without disabilities.

-To identify and discuss common challenges and propose concrete actions, which would help to address those challenges

-To increase the number and the quality of the youth workers, leaders, trainers and facilitators in youth sector who have high awareness of disability and eager to involve young people with disabilities into youth projects by applying inclusive methodologies.

-To provide an opportunity for the NGOs to deepen the dialogue and advance cooperation and develop sustainable partnerships for the future mixed ability group projects within Erasmus + YiA Programme.

Forum will consist of panels, workshops, best practices and partnership building activities, and inclusive and accessible non-formal education methodologies will be used.

Target group:
“Active”participants with no age limit (youth workers, youth leaders, youth NGO representatives, youth trainers or facilitators) who can contribute to the thematic focus of the Forum and who have experience or high motivation to work with young people with disabilities. Participants with disabilities are highly encouraged to apply.

The call is open for participants from Erasmus+ Programme countries who;
• can communicate in English (the activities will be held in English as the working language);
• can commit to actively take part in the Forum as well as in the preparation phase, for instance by sharing information on their activities in online spaces, contributing to the Forum design and getting acquainted with relevant background documents;
• can commit to share the experiences and learning gained during the Forum with other interested young people and/or stakeholders
Methodology: Inclusive non-formal education methods will be used based on learning by doing and exchanging of the previous experiences and best practices. Participants are expected to actively take part and contribute to the programme.