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Description
The project focuses on the lives of people with disabilities (PwD) in residential social services and their ability to promote and exercise their rights in everyday practice. The project responds to the current situation where large institutions are still an environment where human rights are violated and clients do not have much opportunity to point out their violations. The aim of the project is to improve the understanding of the rights of PwD living in social services, in direct care workers, social services management and officials. That is, for people who make decisions about the lives of PwD, about their involvement in everyday life.
The project is based on the principle that the essence of the problem can be best understood if it is communicated directly by the person concerned or a colleague from the field who has relevant experience. This approach is projected throughout the project from its settings through activities to outputs. The project involves 8 providers of residential social services from 2 regions. Each of the partners is in a different phase of DI, some has not started yet. Within the activities - workshops, supervision meetings, round tables, the employees of partner organizations are involved together and can thus use the joint sharing of experience. A significant innovation is the involvement of representatives from the ranks of clients in project activities, whose testimonies and experience help to reveal patterns and possibilities that a person who does not have experience as a client may not be aware of at all.
As part of conferences and promo activities (including eBook), the activity conclusions and the entire issue of the rights of PwD are communicated to service providers not involved in the project. Together with the partner employees, they will then form a common platform supporting the sharing of practices aimed at improving the rights and position of PwD.
Summary of project results
The project was built on sharing, transferring and drawing on experiences and perspectives from the
field of social services. The aim was to connect services, introduce them to good practice from
processes in Czechia, raise awareness and highlight what has already been done. Two regions were
involved, the South Moravian Region and the Pardubice Region, each of which was at a different
starting line in the transformation process. Another unique feature is the involvement of clients.
1
A reflection was carried out for each project partner. The purpose of this activity was to get to know
each service and to set an appropriate path for the services to follow.
2
One key theme was central to each workshop.
3
The supervision meetings brought the perspectives of other people in the same position, dealing
with similar situations but in different settings and under different conditions, to the change
process.
CLIENT MENTORING
The purpose of this activity was to transfer experiences in an understandable way between clients,
who were then able to get an idea of life in the community service more easily.
ROUND TABLES
The purpose of the roundtables was to reflect together on the themes and conclusions of the
previous activities and to discuss current needs/topics.
CONFERENCE
The aim was to transfer experiences towards other facilities not involved in the project.
PUBLICITY
Several complementary tools were used to promote and communicate the theme
The project shared experiences with different forms of assistance and sought answers to questions.
What does life in a large institution entail? What are other support options? How to involve clients
in planning and co-decision making? Many organisations, regions, clients wanted to participate in
change and share their experiences were involved in the round tables and in the conferences. The
project involved 228 staff members. More than 290 people participated in the roundtables and
conferences.