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QOLIVET

“Enhancing the Quality of Life Impact of inclusive Vocational Education and Training and Community Care”

The project

QOLIVET was an Erasmus + funded project aimed at enhancing the impact of Community Care (CC) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) services across Europe on the quality of life (QoL) of the persons with disabilities they serve and providing participants and staff with a way to contribute to the continuous improvement of interventions and supports.

Background

VET and Community Care services involve thousands of people with disabilities in Europe. The impact that VET have on the QOL of People with Disabilities is crucial and has to be taken into consideration as a key element when addressing this issue.

However, this analysis does not find space in the activities of the VET and Community Care providers, thus reducing their positive impact on QOL with Disabilities. This main problem is generated by 3 main factors:

  1. The concept of QOL and the indicators to measure it change fast and measurement tools get outdated soon.
  2. Professional skills and tools of VET and Community Care providers’ workers on the topic of QOL are often incomplete and often don’t take into consideration the input of PWD themselves.
  3. The impact of VET and CC provision on QOL with Disabilities is difficult to measure.

Objectives and results

Through the co-production of tools and methods to support the implementation of inclusive learning strategies and the evaluation of the impact of VET and CC on the QoL of participants to:

  • Create quality services aimed at enhancing the QoL of persons with disabilities;
  • Provide a dynamic web-based resource which can support organisations to update their services in line with good practice and developments in the field;
  • Support frontline staff and managers to acquire the professional skills and attitudes required to deliver more effective interventions and supports to persons with disabilities;
  • Ensure that participants can make a substantive contribution to service improvements by providing formal feedback on how services are impacting on their QoL;
  • Offer quality improvement tools that can measure the impact of VET and CC on the QoL of persons with disabilities, identify strengths and areas for improvement and monitor trends over time.

Our target group

Persons with disabilities who can benefit from CC services or specialised & mainstream VET programmes, regardless of their ability, gender, age, or cultural background.

Activities

  • Research into developments in the field of QoL at EU, national and international levels as a basis for the development of resources;
  • Production of a set of Good Practices Guidelines for organisations and systems of delivery in the CC and VET sectors designed to enhance the QoL of participants;
  • Development of an Online Training Course to build the capacity of frontline staff and managers in CC and VET organisations to deliver more inclusive and enabling services aimed at enhancing QoL outcomes;
  • Creation of an Online QOL Portal to host tools and resources to assist in the continuous improvement of CC and VET services;
  • Design and construction of a QoL Impact Assessment Tool to be used by participants and staff in CC and VET organisations to rate the extent to which interventions and supports impact on the QoL of participants.

Impacts and long-term benefits

The QOLIVET project achieved sustainable outcomes in terms of:

    • Enhanced professional skills and attitudes for frontline staff in the participating organisations and more broadly across the EU;
    • More inclusive and responsive service experiences for participants;
    • Improved quality and effectiveness of CC and VET interventions at the EU level;
    • A continuum of joined-up and coordinated interventions and supports for persons with disabilities on the pathway to inclusion;
    • CC and VET services that specifically aim to enhance individual empowerment, social participation, active inclusion and wellbeing for participants with disabilities;
    • A genuine role for persons with disabilities and their families to contribute to the quality improvement of CC services, VET programmes and the ethos of the wider community within their localities;
    • Enhanced participation by persons with disabilities in society, in a more inclusive labour market and access to a wider range of opportunities for economic self-sufficiency;
    • Decreased discrimination and reduced social exclusion on the grounds of disability, particularly for those who are more vulnerable, those at risk of dropping out and those who are not in employment, education or training (NEET);
    • Increased mutual understanding between people in the community and persons with disabilities about how to foster more positive attitudes towards all those challenged in achieving full social participation, including persons with disabilities themselves:
    • At a policy level, increased knowledge of decision makers and policy informers in order to support them in the introduction of better policies and practices in the field of QoL for persons with disabilities.

European Dissemination Event – 11 October 2022

The first dissemination event of QOLIVET project, organized by EPR in partnership with the EESC, took in Brussels on the 11th October 2022. The event had these main objectives:

  • Promote the Good Practices guidelines
  • Promote the Online Training Course
  • Raise awareness on the concept of Quality of Life of People with disabilities
  • Raise awareness on the importance of quality provision in VET and CC services
  • Encourage networking among stakeholders   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More info in the event page here.

 

Unlocking New Horizons: Enhancing Quality of Life Through Vocational Education, Training, and Community Care

The final event of QOLIVET: “Unlocking New Horizons: Enhancing Quality of Life Through Vocational Education, Training, and Community Care” marked the culmination of an ambitious journey aimed at enhancing the quality of life for individuals with disabilities through Community Care (CC) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) services.

This event, organised in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee took place on 18 October from 2.30 to 5.30 PM. 

The programme is still available here

 

Partners

The project partnership, made up of 7 organizations from 6 Countries, is led by the European Platform for Rehabilitation (EPR).

Project materials

 

Follow us!

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/QolivetProject

LinkedIN:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/qolivet-enhancing-the-quality-of-life-impact-of-inclusive-vet-and-community-care/

 

Contacts

Roberto Zanon, Senior Project & Policy officer at EPR: rzanon@epr.eu

Benedetta Pesce, Junior Project and Events Officer: bpesce@epr.eu