The aim of the EU Projects Department within Aġenzija Sapport is to tap into various EU funding programmes made available by the European Commission (EC), for the benefit of service users and employees. This is deeper than simply a financial contribution or support through which projects may be realised.

 

Through these opportunities, Aġenzija Sapport strives to develop projects that aim at fostering the below objectives, in line with Key Action 1 and Key Action 2 Priorities:

 

  • Upskilling and providing opportunities to staff working within the Agency
  • Enhancing client autonomy & independent living
  • Delivering and ensuring a high-quality service of excellence
  • Integrity, respect, equity, empathy and co-production

 

 

Current projects

 

 

Key Action 1 Projects:

 

  1. New Horizons

An initiative that is aimed at equipping the Agency’s frontliners with further and specialised training. Aġenzija Sapport has applied for this project as a lead partner, and together with Valga County Vocational Training Centre in Estonia, it has provide three training programmes in Estonia for 30 Support Workers and professionals.

 

  1. New Mobility Project

Following the success of the previous KA1 Mobility Project, Aġenzija Sapport has applied and been awarded an accreditation in the same KA1 Project. This will enable the Agency to benefit from a stable source of funding for the whole duration of the Programme, simplified application procedures in response to Erasmus+ calls, as well as a quicker evaluation of the applications. Around 110 frontliners, including professionals, will receive the majority of opportunities, however the Agency will also identify other training opportunities to ensure the upskilling of the Agency as a whole.

 

  1. Youth Exchanges

Aġenzija Sapport is partnering up with youth organizations around Europe to offer mobility experiences to young people with disabilities. It is an opportunity for service users to travel abroad and engage with other young people around Europe as a community in different thematic workshops, cultural activities using non formal methods of learning. Participants are provided with a Youthpass for their learning outcomes. The last youth exchange in 2023 saw a Maltese group of 13 individuals travel to Switzerland to meet their counterparts where they engaged in dance, theatre and body percussion and participate in a local festival.

 

 

Key Action 2 Projects:

 

 

  1. Hybrid Learning for disadvantaged adults

This project seeks solutions of hybrid learning for disadvantaged adults including migrants, the elderly and persons with disability. The project is led by OU Vestifex, Estonia, and has also included seven European partners. In this project, Aġenzija Sapport is mainly responsible for the creation of a hybrid toolkit which will serve as an online resource for adult learners. The Agency will also host the partners for a week-long study visit and it is also responsible for the evaluation of the project.

 

  1. Beyond Disability

This project aims to bring together experience and expertise from across Europe to create a training programme aimed at professionals (namely Psychologists, Psychotherapists and Counsellors) in becoming better acquainted with the concept of disability and working with persons with different abilities. The partnership for this project consists of Aġenzija Sapport, as applicant, Relate Ability Centre in Ireland and Igor Vitale International srl in Italy.

 

  1. Inclusive Practices in Education – The emergence of the European Forum of Inclusion Practitioners

An initiative focused on inclusion practice, where schools, NGOs and other organisations can collaborate and share best practices. This project will enable professionals at Aġenzija Sapport to collaborate with inclusion experts across Europe and strengthen their international network through the European Forum of the International Forums of Inclusion Practitioners (IFIP). The project is led by the Union of Consultants Scandinavia AB in Sweden and it includes a number of European partners.

 

  1. It Starts with Me!

This project is a strategic partnership between Sweden, Spain, Malta, Italy, Slovenia and Greece. The aim is to create inclusion, solidarity and to challenge society’s preconceived notions, as well as create a creative space for active citizenship and social entrepreneurship by developing an interactive online questionnaire, for better accessibility to research and activities involving young people with functional variations, for increased visibility. The main purpose of the project is to give greater opportunity to people with functional variations to participate in the entire process. In this regard, the project will see to involve young people with disabilities (48 people, 8 per country) throughout the project process.

 

  1. Let’s talk about IT!

The experiences of Aġenzija Sapport and Women Rights Foundation are testament to this, since as organisations still meet sexual related behaviours of concern regularly, hence there is not enough education given both in the disability aspect and in the mainstream. It is also clear that locally there is no real expertise in how to deal with sexual education specific to persons with disability. The mechanics of sex and sexual exploration may be the same but the realities as to how to communicate, and the methodologies applicable are vastly different. The chosen partners in this project, on the other hand, have teams that are either professional in the field of psychology, psychiatry and sexology or have direct experience in working with persons with disability in relation to sexual education. The importation of this expertise is essential since locally such expertise is not available.

 

 

European Solidarity Corps Project

 

This is a European Volunteering Project through which Aġenzija Sapport can host two European volunteers for a period of one year to support its services. The project is led by the Agency’s Sharing Lives Service, and thus, the volunteers will be supporting the Sharing Lives team and allowing it to potentially expand it operations.