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Topside

Our work brings the voice of people with intellectual disabilities and their families where decisions about their future are made. This has always been incredibly important. It is even more so with the Covid pandemic drastic impact on their rights and lives. Being visible and vocal on issues directly affecting millions of people requires your...

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Training Opportunities for Peer Supporters with Intellectual Disabilities in Europe

About

Many adults with intellectual disabilities only have limited access to education and training. When programmes exist, the trainers are mostly people without intellectual disabilities. The TOPSIDE project addressed this issue by developing a programme which prepares adults with intellectual disabilities to provide support and training to their peers. 

 

The objective of this programme was twofold: offer new training opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to reinforce their basic skills and create employment and volunteering opportunities for trained peer supporters.  

 

The TOPSIDE+ project built upon the TOPSIDE project by 

  • increasing the number of teaching methods
  • involving people with intellectual disabilities more systematically, for example by creating an easy-to-read curriculum 
  • developing policy recommendations on the topic of peer support 

 

Read our articles on the TOPSIDE and TOPSIDE+ projects. 

Implementation

Implementation Period  2011 – 2013 & 2014 – 2016 
Financed by  European Commission – under the “LifeLong Learning“ and “Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices” Programmes  
Project Coordinator  Inclusion Europe 
Project Partners  Adapei 

Enable Scotland

Fenacerci

Lebenshilfe 

Pentru Voi 

Perspectif 

SPMP 

Tukiliitto 

Viltis 

Outcomes

Pilot courses of the TOPSIDE programme were run in Czechia, Finland, Romania, Spain, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. 

 

Project partners also produced a number of publications, namely:

 

  • Methodological Guidelines for trainers on how to plan the training programme 

 

  • a Curriculum in Easy-to-Read Language for peer supporters on how to prepare and run the training 

 

  • a database of exercises to train people with intellectual disabilities to become peer supporters 

 

  • Material for peers, which contains examples of portfolios that training participants kept to remind them what they have learned 

 

  • Guidelines for mentors of trained peer supporters
     
  • Policy recommendations 

Easy-to-read

TOPSIDE trained people with intellectual disabilities

to support other people

with intellectual disabilities.

 

We developed a training programme.

 

With the programme, people with intellectual disabilities can:

  • be students and learn new things
  • work as trainers and get work experience.

 

This project was done

between 2011 and 2013 for the first time.

 

Between 2014 and 2016 we did it again.

This time we called it TOPSIDE+,

and more people joined.

Our work brings the voice of people with intellectual disabilities and their families where decisions about their future are made.

This has always been incredibly important. It is even more so with the Covid pandemic drastic impact on their rights and lives.

Being visible and vocal on issues directly affecting millions of people requires your support. 

Become Inclusion Europe supporter and help us keep doing our work.

 

 

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