Description
Unsustainable consumption and waste are poorly addressed topics in Slovenia. Old childrens' toys have potentials of being upcycled. At the same time, disabled people are facing high unemployment rates and discrimination, together with poor public infrastructure. The project combines the idea of recycling waste toys with training and employment of disabled persons. It manufactures unique toys with messages – PERSONal friends – that communicate ecology as well as discrimination. The project will improve the accessibility of the environment and design of public spaces as well as increase public awareness on subjects of recycling and people with disabilities. Old toys and will be upcycled into innovative learning tools- PERSONal friends-aimed for children up to 14 years. Workshops and exhibitions will further communicate on the subjects cowered in the project. Individuals with disabilities will benefit through employment, through higher awareness and by fisical changes in their environment.
Summary of project results
The Special Needs Friends project combined the idea of recycling old toys with training and employment of persons with disabilities. The creation of unique toys with a special message – the Special Needs Friends – was used to raise public awareness, it was a crossover project wherein a new approach was used to try and resolve two seemingly unrelated issues. 45 persons with disabilities, their mentors and therapists were trained to work with waste materials. Beneficiary managed to provide employment for two persons with disabilities collected 7000 old plush toys and re-made 660 of them into Special Needs Friends. There were 3 Carrot mob actions executed and thus improved accessibility of one privately owned public location and one public children’s playground. Beneficiary implemented 1 innovation for the blind – marking of clothes with embossed colouring using screen printing, provided Braille signs in an urban public setting to improve integration of the blind and created a teaching aid for special needs children. There were 27 workshops and 6 exhibitions executed in kindergartens and schools, a booklet published that touches on all topics of the project, 3 round table discussions and 3 press conferences were organized. Beside that a broad coalition of organizations dealing with environmental and social issues was established. Greater awareness of the public regarding the needs and integration of people with special needs was achieved, beside that a group of children, teachers and parents was educated and the content that allows the project’s mission to continue and provide support to teachers was created. Beneficiary established examples of good practice in the accessibility of public spaces, empowered their target audience of special needs persons by training them in the use of waste materials, especially toys, and established a system of training tailored to this target audience. The benefits of the programme are in the knowledge and skills pertaining to the production of intermediate and final products out of waste materials that were acquired by clients of occupational therapy and training programmes. The added value of the programme lies in the fact that the knowledge and skills were also passed on to therapists who will be able to continue with the programme and transfer the knowledge to new clients after the conclusion of the project.
Summary of bilateral results
Main achievements of the bilateral cooperation are transmission and sharing of knowledge regarding integration of vulnerable groups. Beneficiary gained new skills for the maintenance of the basic focus and mission of the project and thus improved understanding of social dynamics that may influence the success of the project and understanding of the importance of evaluation methods. All that are valuable experience in international, academic and practical collaboration. The bilateral funds contribute to strengthened bilateral relations at the project level. The beneficiary is planning further project-based collaborations, including non-formal ones. Collaboration with HIL and Anne Bregnbale was valuable because it offered a critical outside look that helped the beneficiary keep the project focused. Another extremely important contribution was the knowledge the beneficiary acquired regarding the dynamics and different methods of integration of vulnerable social groups / target audiences. Beneficiary believes this contributed to the success of the project at all levels.