My Own Life. Promoting the Inclusion and Independence of Visually Impaired 18-25 Year Old Young People

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Date of latest update: 2024-03-26

Description

Description (EN):

Visually impaired young people are invisible in the society and live a life that is secluded. Their education level is lower and unemployment rates higher. They live with their parents even at the adult age of 18-25 years and older. They are clearly isolated from the rest of the society and their peers, yet their needs and requests for services are unknown both in Estonia and Finland. The aim of this project is to find new ways for working with young people with visual impairment to improve their feeling of coping and life management. Through these changes we hope to promote independent living, studying, working and overall inclusion to the society. To develop efficient ways of reaching these goals, we need to compare the situation in both countries and find models for reaching visually impaired young people. Both in Estonia and in Finland, the situation of the visually impaired young people is highly polarized: while majority of the young people with visual impairment are struggling to some point, there is a minority that is doing exceptionally well. With the help of this minority, we aim to find out what obstacles visually impaired young people are facing that complicate studying and working and look into the factors that make moving out and independent living challenging, and try to find ways for overcoming these obstacles. One known factor are parents that can be overprotective. To reach the actual goal of this project, we will organize workshops for the target group and their parents. These workshops will consist of peer support groups and guidance by professionals and mentors, aiming to offer concrete help and solutions to the problems that cause seclusion. The experience and ideas we gain from these workshops will further help us to offer better services for the visually impaired youth in both countries.

Achievements (EN):

MOL promoted social inclusion of visually impaired young people. MOL project promoted the social inclusion of the visually impaired young people aged 18-25 in both Finland and Estonia. This project focused on increasing independence and empowerment of the target group in both countries by promoting their potential to study, work and live independently. The project developed a new model for rehabilitation and services for the target group. Basis for the new model was created through pilots which were implemented for the target groups with a strong support from peers. The project involved 14 visually impaired young people to their workshops. During the workshops peer support and encouragement from peers was one of the most valued elements of the workshops. Participation in the workshops had a positive impact on young people behaviour and self-impression. They clearly got empowered and felt more confident to take part in new tasks. The project experiences including the model for rehabilitation and services for the visually impaired young people is collected in guidebooks – “Näkövammaiset nuoret aktiivisina toimijoina” and “Minu enda elu”. The guides offer support and concrete advice for the visually impaired young people themselves, but also to those people that are part of their lives, for example parents, teachers or rehabilitation workers. Näkövammaiset nuoret aktiivisina toimijoina: https://www.nkl.fi/fi/esitteet-ja-oppaat Minu enda elu: https://pimedateliit.ee/projekt-minu-enda-elu/

Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/

Expected Results (EN): R4.1. Communities with improvements

Expected Outputs (EN):

The overall goal of this project is to promote the social inclusion of the visually impaired young people aged 18-25 in both Finland and Estonia. Firstly, we hope to provide concrete information and assistance to the young people who participate to our workshops and foster their feeling of life-management. We will measure their progress by setting individual goals in the beginning of the workshops and revising them after the workshops. For this process, we will use the GAS (Goal Attainments Scaling) -method and the IVI-28 (the Impact of Visual Impairment Questionnaire). After the workshops, with the help of our mentors and target group, we will draw together a guide for visually impaired young people who are in the risk of social exclusion. This guide will be made available for all. Towards the end of the project, we also aim to reach out to professionals who are working outside our organizations and are involved in the life of visually impaired young people, such as teachers and student counselors. Towards the end of the project there will be publications on this subject in professional magazines in both countries. The project also aims to find new ideas for services and rehabilitation that can be used all over Finland and Estonia to promote the inclusion of visually impaired youth in the long-term. Currently, there is a clear need in both countries to create new services for young people with visual impairment. We will utilize the experiences and ideas gained from this project when we develop new services for them.

Thematic information

Social inclusion and equal opportunities

Specific Objective: More people benefiting from stronger Central Baltic communities

Thematic Objective: (10) investing in education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning by developing education and training infrastructure

Investment Priority: (10 ETC) ETC specific, for cross-border cooperation: investing in education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning by developing and implementing joint education, vocational training and training schemes

Partners (2)

Lead Partner: Näkövammaisten liitto ry

Department: Kuntoutus-Iiris

Address: Marjaniementie 74, 30 Helsinki, Finland

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.nkl.fi

Total budget: EUR 155 824.50

ERDF budget: EUR 116 868.38

Eesti Pimedate Liit

Name: Eesti Pimedate Liit

Department: -

Address: Raua 1, 10124 Tallinn, Estonia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.pimedateliit.ee

Total budget: EUR 96 213.20

ERDF budget: EUR 81 781.22

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Estonian Blind Union

My Own Life. Promoting the Inclusion and Independence of Visually Impaired 18-25 Year Old Young People

Partners and Projects info

Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired

My Own Life. Promoting the Inclusion and Independence of Visually Impaired 18-25 Year Old Young People

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): My Own Life. Promoting the Inclusion and Independence of Visually Impaired 18-25 Year Old Young People

Project acronym: MOL

Project start date: 2020-09-01

Project end date: 2022-08-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 252 037.70

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 198 649.60

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 198 649.60.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-11

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

137 / 137 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

663 / 663 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://centralbaltic.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-08, 2023-01-12 and 2024-03-08.

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My Own Life. Promoting the Inclusion and Independence of Visually Impaired 18-25 Year Old Young People

Description

Thematic information

Partners (2)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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