"""Inclusive experiences for disabled young people"""

"<< Background >>The central need adressed was for disabled youth to discover job positions and labor environment, since there are barriers in their accessing training and the labor market afterwards (and having higher unemployment rate). This need is closely related to the need of the training centres and teachers/trainers to implement measures and training adapted to their dissabilities.So, through the workshops organized, the partners created the proper safe environment and the adapted training for them to have a glimpse at the following jobs: cook, baker, gardener, art-crafting, in order for the youth with dissabilities to decide whether they want to get more training in those areas and choose those positions afterwards. So, since the target group needs are related to receiving a specific training adapted to their disabilities and ""taste"" the work environment without risks and adapted to their specificities, the project provided useful tools: Manual of Best Practices in order to highlight the positive impact of the activities done so that others may implement them, and video testimonies related to the activities done, which will help other associations/schools/VET centers/teachers/trainers to apply them in any sector of activity.<< Objectives >>Organizing job shadowing/ apprenticeship in a restaurant or company would be more difficult and may present various risks for youth with disabilities, but through this project’s workshops we simulated a work-place environment adapted to the needs of disabled youth.Thus, we have facilitated the discovery of working environments for youth with disabilities, and by creating inclusive working experiences through the workshops, we have given our target group a pre-taste of some of the labor market jobs for them to foresee the benefits and also to see if they would like to profess such a job in the future.The achievements were also related to the providers of training (teachers/trainers, training centre, associations), who implemented the workshops adapted to youth with disabilities, by providing a safe environment and training adapted to their disabilities, since the measures taken and the training also supposed a challenge for all the actors involved.The summary of the achievements is listed in the Best Practices Manual where we highlight the benefits of the workshops for each actor involved: youth with disabilities who got a pre-taste of a ""job"", parents who discovered their children’s skills, trainers who learned how to adapt..<< Implementation >>In order to organize well the main activities (workshops), the partners met online and also had 3 TPM in Spain, Bulgaria and Italy, and one LTTA in Lithuania.The main activities were the 5 workshops organized in each country of the project, totalling 25 workshops centred on: cooking (Spain and Greece), gardening (Italy), Bakery and pastry (Bulgaria) and arts and crafts (Lithuania).These main activities were aimed to give an insight in those job environments and training to the youth with disabilities. And in the same, time meant a challenge for teachers to adapt the training and prepare safe environment adapted to the disabilities of the participants. In addittion to specific skills in the areas mentioned, the other skills targeted involved transversal competencies which they could learn to develop while cooking or gardening, such as: negotiation, attitude of respect towards other youth and teachers, learning how to express one's own opinion in the best way possible, how to organize and plan the tasks, the time management, teamwork, assumption of different roles for achieving a common goal. These transversal skills are very important in every job, so by llearning them, the youth will be able to face any work environment.<< Results >>The main concrete output was the ""Best Practices Manual"" which we have already uploaded on Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, apart from it being on the project's platform in English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Italian and Greek: https://gastroalianza.es/includus/practices.It contains the account of the situation of youth with disabilities in the partner countries, the description of the workshops and their methodology, with photos. But the most important are the results presented by each partner in terms of lessons learned, the impact findings and the tips for teachers who will want to implement the same activities in their own centres/countries.The tips for teachers go from practical advice for example: ""since disabled youth experience difficulty in following rules and exact schedules, there is a constant need for frequent reminding, encouragement and support from leaders/teachers"", to general advice on how to deal with the parents' overprotectionOther concrete output is the webpage: https://gastroalianza.es/includus/ where not only the project is described, but also the inclusive experiences with photos and the video interviews with actors involved, by country: https://gastroalianza.es/includus/inclusive_experiences"