Up, Up and Away Project: Young Educators Project

How YEP was conceived

In the course of the Up, Up and Away project and the participatory action research being conducted within the project, the coordinator undertook presentations at universities and conferences co-presenting with young people with Down Syndrome. Young people also traveled to Melbourne for the FYA GIG (a gathering of all their funded projects) and faciliated a workshop with their facilitators. In all these arenas the young people showed a natural for, and enjoyment, of presentation and gained greatly in confidence as a result. Even those young people for whom verbal communication is not easy can use PowerPoint, role play etc. to augment their abilities.

Feedback from students and delegates was also really encouraging as,d ue to decades of exclusionary practices, many students to not have the chance to meet people with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities and learn about their experiences and needs in the course of their training.

A unique opportunity was presented by one of DSNSW members to take these ideas further by making a donation for us to undertake what will be a unique pilot project.

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