Duration of the program: September 2019 till August 2021
People of the program:
Coordinator of the program: Nikolas Nikolaou, president of ACPELIA
Trainers of the program: Stella Komodromou (Treasurer of ACPELIA) and Katerina Daniil (General Secretary of ACPELIA)
TRAINING METHOD “Peraltravia -ANOTHERWAY”
Aims of the project: "Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty, I saw it up close, I touched it, so to speak" (Stendhal). It is not all-encompassing as for Stendhal, but for us, too, Art is an experience that modifies us inwardly. The project aims to carry out maxi experimentation of a "didactic" method designed to support the visually impaired to enjoy cultural or landscape itineraries. A method that is realized in accompanying educators, youth workers to acquire the tools needed to make a service specialized to the visually impaired. The "Another Way" project aims to restore equal dignity to the other senses and experiment with an innovative methodology of social inclusion that allows young blind people to enjoy the cultural beauty and landscape of the area. The methodology foresees the structuring of a sensorial path that uses all the senses, except the sight. Through touch, taste and hearing, the territory is told through the use of metaphors and similarities to make people perceive reality and enjoy a unique experience.
The project creates a transversal partnership in the social and tourism sectors, involving bodies with complementary skills in the training, social, youth education and tourism sectors. A mix between public and private sector able to realize, at transnational level, innovation and shared strategies to support visually impaired people in the fruition of the territory. As a corollary of the activities, there will also be a short-term training action dedicated to the target under-30 educators and youth workers.
The project activities are developed along two channels:
1. Training of 40 youth workers/educators:
Distance e-learning training with trainer support in each country;
Transnational Learning;
2. Design of the pathways and experimentation of the method (in the training pathways 32 young people with visual disabilities and 28 young people without disabilities are involved).
3. sharing of the method, drafting of the Handbook and validation.
4. The project intends to involve a plurality of targets.
Young people with disabilities (youth workers and educators) in a training course aimed at implementing their skills, but also at making them more sensitive and open to issues related to visual impairment.
Young visually impaired people in experimenting with the method within the individual partner states with the aim of achieving a first moment of application of the method in other contexts and to simultaneously achieve a moment of integration and social inclusion.
Families, organizations and stakeholders in a path of cultural and social growth with the aim of making them more aware of the critical issues and the need to interact to overcome obstacles to social inclusion by promoting integration processes.
Partner organisations are involved in a qualified network with the aim of sharing methods, approaches, opinions and solutions to make European society inclusive, developed and innovative.
Training for youth Workers: Alezio, Italy from 30 of August till 2 of September. In the training we need another 3 participants to take part and work with the others youthworkers in the design of the touristic path before and after the training. If you ant to join our team and take part to the training please complete the following link: https://forms.gle/fMXrPNNjRWoy7MRH8
The impact on the local - social level develops along various lines:
Improvement of skills (with the appropriate development of a short training course TL).
Improvement of services for visually impaired people.
Improvement of social integration.
Improvement of the quality of life of the disabled and empowerment.
Improving the usability of the territory.
The impact on the European level develops along the following lines
Improvement of international relations between actors operating in the sectors covered by the project: tourism, social, disability.
Sharing of new processes and methods of social inclusion.
Amplification of the value and results of the project.
Realization of an experimentation able to produce multiplier effects
Participants of the program from ACPELIA
Marinos Eleftheriou, is a Youth Worker and he is working in the Army as a trainer of young soldiers when they are joining the army forces. She has experience in youth people, and he knew how to work with blind people. He wanted too much to be in the group of participants of Cyprus and to work with non-formal education methods with Another Way. Also, member of the board of ACPELIA.
Nikolaos Daniil is working with agriculture and since he likes environment he knows all environment attractions from Cyprus so we can ay that even if he is working with environment he works with friends as a tourist guide in environment roots and he knows better than anyone any environment path and I believe that he is one of the best tourist guides in environmental paths.
Giorgoulla Stylianou is a lawyer and she is training young lawyers about their profession, the actual mark of selecting her in the team was her willing to be part of this team and the fact that in her team (a colleague of her) there is a blind lawyer which at the same time I chat with him and he promised to work in roots that we will design so to be able to make changes at the end about the roots. She has good knowledge of English language and her answers in the test were very clever and elegant. She has a lot of willing and she put targets in what she wants to succeed.
Georgios Rotsides gave probably the best answers in the test due to the fact that he has also some abilities in arts and he is willing to drawn and design places in small miniatures so to explain in a decent way the culture monument each time with a miniature and explain the history from art site in any root that we want to design for our project.
Marilena Solomontos although she is not a tourist guide, she has always enjoyed traveling and getting to know historic and archaeological sites. Therefore, she is always volunteer to give tours to friends who visit from abroad or even locals and to emerge them in the beauty of different cultures and nature trails. She was the best candidate of all the candidates that we had in the program – she was fluently in English speaking and also she had a lot of fantasy of how to represent some cultural aspects of the test with a lot of imagination in food and other thinking things of testing – she know that we have to use all the sensations and we have to be certain in some descriptions. She wanted very much to be in the group, and she tried hard in the interview and in the test. Her love for languages as a gateway to a new culture has lead her to gain proficiency in English and Spanish and she is currently learning Italian and Arabic, she speaks 5 languages and she is going to give added value in our group in our program.
Antrea Rayia has a very strong personality and she is always in her target. She works in sales for a telephone company and she is very oriented to the program, she is good learner and she studied information technology something that we believe will give us the opportunity to create a very good team with her organization skills and her hard work. She was the candidate which she inform a lot of candidates to make an application and also she was so enthusiastic with his application which made me to take the decision of being in the group of the participants beyond also the fact that she has a friend who has problems with vision and that she is going to be helped also from her friend and also she wants to be in the team for the whole of the 2 years helping in any way the program.
Revekka Ioannou is an easy and quick learner, positive character and she wants to improve her communication skills and help other people. She is responsible of the students radio station in Technical University of Cyprus and she is going to provide the program and the actions that are being done in our program to the radio station with program that will be done on February in radio station. Our group of participants through her involvement will have a place in media to disseminate the results of the program Another Way in media.
Maria Agapiou is a successful in Bsc speech-language pathology and she has her friend with a blind dad. She had experience with the blinds due to her friend’s dad and she is going to tell him to be in our team when we will need to walk the paths. She patient, helpofull to other people and a successful character. Her weakness s that she is sensitive character but in our case this weakness is also her strong point of character when we will need to be in the place of blind people so to understand better another way.
Polyxeni Georgiou wants to develop her skills and she is focus in the university where she is doing her master degree to have high scores. She is very good in English language and her master degree is in educational leadership. She was so happy and enthusiastic about the project and she wants to inspire people with her knowledge and what she is doing. She likes supporting people and she is sensitive as a character something that we can use it in the program when we want to get in their place and design touristic paths with Another Way. She is pleasant and happy character.She is also member of board of ACPELIA.
Maria Markou is an IT teachers and engineer and she took part in various Charity events every year. She had worked in many big projects and she has experience in the Research and in the Teamwork. She liked the project because as she said it’s different from other projects and it has to do with disability (she has special issues with disabilities, and she is on wheelchair). Maria is the character that she is easily going and team workers, with its nice character and her pleasant work will give a happy note in the team of Cyprus. She had very good knowledge of our history and a lot of ideas about of how she can explain thee monuments in blind peoples. Among her friends and colleagues there is also one with vision problems (80% loss of the vision) and teacher in a university which is going to help us being a part of our group when we are going to design the roots for the program.
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