My Rights – My Voice: Staff training by persons with disabilities on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities
Project duration: October 2011-September 2014
Six organisations from across Europe, among which EASPD, joined together to create the My Rights-My Voice project. The project addresses two issues that have primal impact on the quality of life for persons with disabilities, namely awareness of their rights according to the UN Convention on the rights for persons with disabilities (UNCRPD) and quality of specialised services.
The expertise and professionalism of staff working in the service providing sector is determinative for the level of quality these services offer. In this sense there is a direct link between the quality of staff training and quality of life of disabled persons. Though education and training systems in this field differ from country to country there is one common issue everywhere: persons with disabilities are hardly ever involved in staff training. In the My Rights-My Voice project, we aim at filling in this serious gap in the educational system for service providers’ staff. Persons with learning difficulties will be trained to become coaches of professionals working in the field of service provision. The content of the training is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
The impact envisaged is to implement this “train-the-trainer” approach into the curriculum of educational institutions providing training and education for staff of service providers in the disability sector. This will have a positive effect on the quality of services people with disabilities receive and will improve their life according to the UNCRPD.
Expected outcomes:
- Training program for persons with disabilities to become coaches on UNCRPD for service providers’ staff
- Recruitment and training of 48 coaches with disabilities and 12 co-trainers without disabilities from 4 different countries
- Piloting and evaluation of training delivery to service providers’ staff in 5 different countries
- Website with all project results and training guide DVD
- International final conference
For more information on this project please contact Sonia Staskowiak: sonia.staskowiak@easpd.eu or visit the website www.innovia.at
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.