Project steps
This section of the website illustrates the steps of the INV project, which, in three years, took the team to the delivery of the final outputs. This description is aimed at disseminating the process, which is behind the handbook and the self-observation protocol, which are to be considered as the main results of the project. The main phases of the work carried out in the three European countries, as Hungary, Italy and Spain were meant to develop some products not just through deskwork but mainly coming from in- the - field observation and testing, and participated processes like focus groups.
The main steps of the INV project have been:
- National focus groups to "define the essential";
- Drafting the pedagogical model – Handbook;
- Drafting the training model – Training itinerary;
- Testing the models and the tools in three countries;
- Evaluation of the testing and final issue of the outputs;
- Dissemination and exploitation the model-system and its tools.
1. Focus groups (January – March 2013) with professionals working with people with severe intellectual disabilities were organized by all partners, in order to collect practical indications for the pedagogic model. The results of the focus groups were used as a base in order to tailor pedagogical tools to the real needs of these professionals.
Therefore, these focus groups represented a good opportunity to discuss and understand the issues related with the INV project. Professionals appreciated the opportunity to find a space of debate and exchange of experience.
2. Second main step of the project was the first draft of the pedagogical model, based on deskwork and on the results of the focus groups.
Such a model was then transferred, during one trans-national (for trainers) and tri-national (for professionals) training sessions (December 2013 – February 2014) to a group of about 70 professionals, working in partner and non-partner organisations. The model was introduced together with its main tools: the self-observation protocol and the logbook.
3. The training methodology has been worked out in parallel with the pedagogical model.
4. Then a period of testing followed (March – September 2014), when professionals tried to implement the model, through the adoption of self-observation tools, which were filled in and sent to respective national help desks. Each nation drafted three testing reports, which were merged in as many European reports.
5. Results of the testing were reported, shared and evaluated in the last coordination meeting of the project staff and then the final issues of the model, of the training itinerary to transfer it and its tools have definitively been approved and translated into all partnership languages (October - December 2014).
6. The models and tools have been disseminated and implemented by different service providers in the three countries. The project and its tools have also been disseminated in LatinAmerica, through the Catalan Foundation and to the main European national associations, through the European Down Syndrome Association (EDSA) whose presidency is held by AIPD since November 2014.
The end products of the project steps (reports, handbook, and itinerary) are shown under the individual steps. The developed tools are introduced under the "Tools"menupoint.
