Nurturing Personal Development and Empowerment of Young People with Visual Impairment through Arts Education

ongoing

The project DEAP addresses the needs of young people with visual impairment from different local communities in Europe (Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Cyprus, Sweden), and it aims: a) to strengthen personal development, creative expression and active empowerment of young people with visual impairment through arts education; b) to enhance the professional development of youth workers and educators working with/for young visually impaired people in their learning environments and community projects through arts education (ceramic, theatre, contact music). The project’s strategy is based on the following core phases: - Engage: Analysis and mapping of community-based educational and socio-economic vulnerabilities affecting young people with visual impairment in the target local communities and regions. - Connect: Co-development, testing and implementation of a transnational capacity building programme, including n.3 transnational training courses and non-formal training opportunities arts education will be held in Italy, Czech Republic & Poland, targeting youth workers working with young people with visual impairment. - Empower: Following the transnational training courses, the equipped youth workers will conduct n.15 local workshops in each target local community targeting young people with visual impairment. A final transnational seminar will be held in Italy engaging both youth workers and young people with visual impairment to share learning experiences and co-develop joint recommendations on arts education and empowerment of young people with visual impairment. - Spread: Finally, freely and digitally accessible open educational resources targeting youth workers working with/for young people with visual impairment (an e-learning platform and e-learning modules) will be produced to promote replication and transferability of the project outcomes and outputs to a wider audience of youth workers, educators and interested users in Europe.