Open up training for professionals: supporting children and teenagers with sensory disorders in mainstream schools and youth organisations.

Call for participants

The Open up project description

The Open up project is supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union for 24 months (2020-2022). It aims at engaging formal and non-formal education professionals in the inclusion of young people with sensory disorders. It focuses on developing the capacity of professionals working in mainstream schools and youth organisations to ensure quality inclusive education for children and teenagers with visual and hearing impairments. To achieve this, the Open up project partners are co-developing, testing and evaluating 4 innovative tools tailored to our target group:

• An accesibility guide including practical information to better host young people with sensory disorders in your premises and engage them in educational activities
• A 3-days face-to-face training programme to become a ‘resouce(s) person’ who has gained practical knowledge and interpersonal skills that can be applied and shared in any educational work environment
• An e-learning platform about inclusive education and sensory disorders
• A joint statement aiming at formulating recommandations for policy makers in the field of education to improve the quality of inclusive education in Europe

This call for participants is intended to engage 16 persons working in mainstream schools and youth organisations (the ‘trainees’) + 2 trainers to participate in the 3-days training programme (the ‘training activiy’) described above.

This training activity will be co-organized, facilitated and evaluated by the 6 Open project partner organizations, that is :

• La Vie Active, France (Coord.]
• Ouvrir Les Yeux, France
• Hrvatski savez gluhih i nagluhih (HSGN), Croatia
• Innovade LI LTD., Cyprus
• Innovation Training Center (ITC), Spain
• Asociación de Personas con Discapacidad Verdiblanca, Spain

This training activity will be hosted by Hrvatski savez gluhih i nagluhih (HSGN) or the Croatian association of the deaf and heard of hearing so it will take place in Zagreb, Croatia, from Tuesday 22 until Thursday 24 of February 2022 (3 full days), meaning that the participants will have to travel to the training venue the day before and the day after this training activity.

The training programme

The Open up training for professionals: supporting children and teenagers with sensory disorders in mainstream schools and youth organisations aims at developing the ‘resource(s) person’ profile who supports young people with sensory disorders, both in formal and non-formal education settings. This hybrid role is easily accessible to any teacher or youth worker who wants to contribute to improve access to education for children and teenagers with sensory disorders. The resource(s) person for sensory disorders is a professional that volunteers to play a key-role within his/her school or youth organization to:

• make the premises more accessible (adapting their environment)
• adapt their behaviour and educational contents (adapting their communication)
• promote positive change amongst their community for improving the inclusion of this minority of youngsters in the ‘mainstream institution’.

This 3-days training course will cover the 6 training modules designed by the Open up partners:

• Module 1 – Introduction to inclusive education
• Module 2 – Identification and evaluation of educational needs
• Module 3 – Educational and social interventions
• Module 4 – Communication and data transmitting
• Module 5 – Supporting structures
• Module 6 – Inclusive education awareness and engagement

A detailed agenda of this brand-new training programme is attached to this document. As it is the very first time that this training will be tested in real-life condition, all the participants will be asked to answer to an online satisfaction questionnaire at the end of these 3 days. In this way, each participant will contribute to improve this training for further implementations throughout Europe.

Download the agenda

COVID-19 safety policy

The participant’s profile

The primary selection criteria is that the participant shall understand the aim and objectives of the Open up project and shall be willing to foster its completion. Additionally, the participants shall:

• Be a formal or non-formal education professional (i.e. either working in a mainstream school or a youth organization)
• Be interested in becoming a ‘resource(s) person for sensory disorders’ as described above
• Have a formal link with an Open up partner organisation (e.g. an employee with a contract of employment or a volunteer with a membership card or any official document proving that he/she is a member of this organisation)
• Be available from 21 (departure day) and 25 (return day) of February 2022 and commit to participate in the entire training programme (3 full days on site)
• Be at least on an intermediate level of English and commits to only use English for now on (incl. during the application process)
• Have agreed to the attached COVID-19 policy which includes having his/her EU Digital COVID certificate
• Have agreed to the attached terms of Participation to this training activity
• be willing to promote the Open up project’s outputs once he/she returns to their country

Candidates who do not fulfil the above requirements will not be considered.

A limited number of places per partner organisations

As already mentioned, a total of 16 trainees plus 2 trainers can participate in this training activity and the number of places per nationality or partner organisation is limited as following.

Therefore, once you receive this call for participant, it is strongly advised to book your agenda quickly and fill out the attached online registration form as soon as possible.

Travel budget

The EU contribution for the travel expenses (incl. international, regional and local transportation) per participant is as follows:

*The travel contribution was calculated using the distance calculator of the European Commission from the location of each sending organization to the training venue in Zagreb, Croatia.

275 € (or 320 € in case a participant can justify that he/she uses the ‘Green travel’ option defined on p.318 of the Erasmus+ programme Guide 2021) will be the maximum grant that one participant will be reimbursed for his/her travel expenses. In fact, it will be up to this amount and no more than his/her real costs.

Individual support

The EU contribution referred as ‘individual support’ incl. accommodation and food costs per participant with a fixed rate follows:

In sum, the total EU contribution per participant will be a maximum 593 € for this 3-days training activity including travel budget + individual support (see the Erasmus+ programme Guide 2021 downloadable here). Please note that the local participants selected by HSGN who are ‘playing at home’ are not eligible for these EU contributions.

Reimbursement of travel expenses

For those who are eligible, 2 cases may occur:

• The participant’s ‘sending organization’ or the Open up partner who has selected this participant agrees to cover the participant’s costs exceeding the EU contribution (depending on their internal policy)
• The participant agrees with his/her sending organization’ that he/she will cover his/her costs exceeding the EU contribution from his/her ‘own pocket’

In both cases, it is the participant’s responsibility to keep all the originals of travel documentation and invoices and send them by post to their ‘sending organisation’ or the Open up partners organization who has selected him/her.

COVID-19 – entry requirements in Croatia

On the date of this document, holders of EU Digital COVID certificate can enter Croatia without being subject to further restrictions (testing or quarantine). Nevertheless, and as already mentioned and with the agreement of our host organisation HSGN, the the Open up partners have set a specific COVID-19 policy that will be applied at the activity venue to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infections.

Personal and travel insurances

Participants or their employer (if they are sent by their employer to this training activity) are responsible for their own insurance(s) covering them for the whole duration of this training activity. It is strongly advised that the insurance(s) cover the participants’ costs for an eventual COVID-19 treatment and similar expenses.

Application and selection procedure

Candidates should submit application form on the following link:

https://lavieactive.humaneprojet.fr/Qualite/Enquetes/Ajax/Enquete_Repondre.aspx?Id=e54e2194-56a0-4a58-af2b-54d41460faea

The application deadline is 26 January 2022 at 12 p.m. Confirmation of the participant selection will be announced by the organizers on 2 February 2022 the latest. Then, the national contact points working in the sending organisations will purchase the travel tickets to Zagreb, Croatia and send them to their participants.

National contact points

Should you have any questions regarding this call for participants, please contact Pierre Vasseur, the project Coordinator, La Vie Active, by email at Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. and cc: your national contact point or ‘sending organization’:

Download the agenda

COVID-19 safety policy