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Description
The project is needed due to the difficulties of parents of children with special needs to support their children in their development, socialization and transition to inclusive education from earliest childhood. Fear, lack of skills and intolerance toward the children discourage parents from supporting early inclusion and involvement in the mainstream education system. The project aims to transfer knowledge and practices to create methods and guidelines for early support of children with special needs that will be tested in practice. The expected results are to boost the capacity of civil society organizations for application of the methods for early support and socialization of children with special needs as well as for advocacy for change of practices and policies. The developed resources, i.e. guidelines, an analysis, recommendations, training and materials and their introduction will contribute to improving the knowledge and skills of parents, teachers and other stakeholders regarding early support of children, inter-sectoral cooperation and successful advocacy during inclusive education. The project will raise the awareness of the stakeholders about the topic through organization of events, a website with resources, an online training module and promotion. The direct beneficiaries of the project are children with special needs aged 1-6 from the city of Varna and the region who will take part in activities to improve their adaptation skills and independence to help their successful integration in crèche and kindergarten. The main target groups are parents of children with special needs, organizations of parents, pedagogues and other practitioners from Varna and the country who will benefit from the training sessions, developed guidelines/methods and other resources, as well as the service piloted in the city of Varna.
Summary of project results
The main objective, which was set when the project was first written down, was achieved, namely the creation of methods and guidelines and their testing in practice. As a result of the experience exchange visits with the Icelandic partner, the project team was introduced to effective, workable and sustainable practices towards inclusive education. Some of them are implemented in practice in Bulgaria, but not in their entirety. However, others are not implemented at all.
The project enabled the necessary additional therapy to be carried out for the children. Additional individual sessions and group activities focused on literacy, academic knowledge building and social-emotional preparation for school. Daily living skills were also worked on, such as activities in the kitchen, in the sensory garden of Karin Dom, to maintain traditions and the children''s relationship with nature, and celebrating holidays.
The main target groups are parents of children with special needs, parent organizations, educators and other professionals from Varna and the country who will benefit from the trainings, the guidelines/ methods and other resources, as well as from the service piloted in Varna. Involvement in the activities encouraged parents to advocate for early inclusion and inclusion in the mainstream education system. The developed resources - guidelines, analysis, recommendations, trainings and materials and their introduction contributed to improving the knowledge and skills of parents and professionals on early childhood support, intersectoral interaction and successful advocacy in the inclusive education process. The most important thing that the children received through the project activities were skills and conditions to prepare them for transition into the education system. More than 30 children successfully transitioned from one educational institution to another, and throughout the transition they were supported by Karin Dom specialists, who also worked diligently towards inter-sectoral cooperation by holding a number of coordination meetings. Through the project activities, quality services were provided to prevent the abandonment of children in institutions and for their successful social integration.
Summary of bilateral results
The partnership enabled an exchange of experience in the field of support for children with special needs and their families with the State Diagnostic and Counselling Centre (Greiningar- og ráðgjafarstöð ríkisins), which plays a key role in inclusive education in Iceland. The partner has well-established good practices in cross-sectoral cooperation, training for parents and teachers and early support for families of children with special needs. Its contribution has been professional collaboration and sharing of expertise to introduce new methods and improve existing ones to support children with special needs in their transition and successful adaptation to nursery and kindergarten, and to empower their families. This was done through the development/transfer of practices that were piloted and adapted through all activities and classes. Resources were created that were fully accessible to all stakeholders. The partnership with the Icelandic organisation and the use of their expertise in the field has improved bilateral cooperation and the capacity of Karin Dom and other civil society and parent organisations to promote advocacy and active citizenship. The similarity in profile of the two partner organisations and the long experience in services for children with special needs and their families helped to target practices that could be transferred to Bulgaria.One of the most significant things that happened in this project, was the establishment of a reliable and trusted partnership with an organization from an economically and socially developed country - Iceland, with which valuable experience was exchanged in the field of working practices, policies, and approaches in inclusive education. Among the most sustainable outcomes of the project were the recommendations for changing policies and practices in inclusive education in Bulgaria, which were officially submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Bulgaria.