Together! project

Active Citizenship for people
with Intellectual Disabilities

 

Active citizenship is important for all of us. It is very important for people with intellectual disabilities, as well. Very important, but also: very difficult. It is very important, because people with intellectual disabilities can, and must be involved in the decisions that affect their lives.

It is very difficult, because many people with intellectual disabilities don't know how to be active citizens. Many of them never learned to make decisions for themselves: small decisions or large decisions. Small decisions - what to eat, what music to listen to, what clothes to wear. Large decisions: where to live, who to share your life with, what your rights and responsibilities are as an individual and as a member of the community.
In many cases, others make these decisions for them, because in the short term this seems safer, easier, quicker, and more efficient. But in the long term, this makes people with intellectual disabilities more dependent. By 'helping' them, we take away their opportunities to learn to make decisions for themselves, to participate actively in their lives, to be active citizens in their community.

In the Together! project, a curriculum and learning materials will be developed to teach people with intellectual disabilities - and their parents, relatives, guardians, assistants etc. - about decision making and about active citizenship.

The Together! project is a 3 year project that started in October 2005. On this website, you will find information about the project, about the partners and about the support groups that have been set up to assist the partners. On this website, we will also publish samples of the curriculum.

The Together! project is partially funded by the EU under the Socrates Grundtvig 1 programme.

You can use the buttons on the left
to go to the information in
German, Dutch, Spanish, Romanian and Swedish.