The project Online Platform for Exchange of Special Needs Youth Work Methods (OPEN) brings together the commitment of five non-governmental youth organizations (working together within a single umbrella organization) from five countries: Bulgaria, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, and Slovenia. The cooperation takes place at an intersectoral level (youth work and school education) with the aim of developing the first online platform (the OPEN platform) designed to validate and facilitate access to good practices in youth work applicable to five groups of students with special needs: autism, visual and hearing impairments, dyslexia, and physical disabilities.
These groups refer to conditions that are recognized at both national and European levels as among the most widespread learning difficulties.
Youth workers in Europe, and more broadly professionals working in the socio-educational sector, are increasingly required to address the challenges faced by these young people, often without having the necessary practical tools or prior knowledge to do so.
Our project will explore a possible solution to this challenge by connecting professionals specialized in the education of young people with disabilities with youth workers in the partner countries and across Europe through the innovative OPEN platform.
Our analysis of the current situation in the partner countries (BG, RO, SI, MK, and IT) has confirmed that, to a large extent, young people aged between 13 and 18 who are affected by one or more of the above-mentioned learning difficulties study with the support of professionals (e.g. teachers), usually within traditional school institutions and/or specialized centers. The majority rely on public educational services, although in some cases support provided by private educators is preferred.
The main objective of the project is to increase the effectiveness of youth work in facilitating training and other activities by enabling and improving the level of involvement of young people with learning difficulties. The objectives deriving from this overarching aim are to:
Develop an online platform (the OPEN platform) in six languages (BG, RO, SI, MK, IT, and EN) for the exchange of good practices in youth work with young people with learning difficulties, and to carry out two thematic webinars;
Develop an evaluation methodology to validate good practices applicable to one or more of the five areas of learning difficulties (autism, visual and hearing impairments, dyslexia, and physical disabilities);
Run the platform activities, validate 10 good practices, and implement two thematic seminars;
Ensure continuous dissemination of the project results among youth worker communities in the partner countries and throughout Europe.