On Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April, the Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities of Seville hosted the fifth and last international meeting of the European project ‘Rural Independent Life’, whose purpose is to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities in rural areas in Europe.
During the development of this technical coordination meeting of the European event, the presentation of the project in general was made to different political representatives involved in the rural area of the province of Seville. In addition, leaders of 18 municipalities from Seville attended the meeting.
CONTEXT:
As a context, it is important to mention that independent living requires the ability of the person with a disability to know how to self-manage their daily life and, in turn, to count on the State to provide a series of resources and services to make it possible to improve their quality of life, including access to personal assistance.
It is worth noting that 87 of the 106 municipalities in the province of Seville are rural. This figure is particularly relevant given that there are great limitations and deprivations to which the disabled inhabitants of rural areas are subjected, and within these, those who are seriously affected.
To this end, the work of the project has focused on the search for the achievement of this objective through the improvement of the skills and knowledge of professionals and technicians working with people with disabilities in different areas: employment guidance, social care, among others.
The European project ‘Rural Independent Life’ began with a field research phase in which multiple specialists were invited, through interviews and Focus Groups, to express which were the areas in which they most needed to improve in order to provide a more complete and quality service.
RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH:
A total of 77 interviews, 7 Focus Groups in 5 countries, with 69 participants, are remarkable data in this process carried out by COCEMFE Seville and the European entities partners of the project.
Another important result of this project is that the participating professionals need to know more information about the resources and services available to promote independent living and inclusion of people with disabilities, to know more about concepts such as diversity, personal assistance, communication and psycho-emotional skills to deal with users.
RESULTS:
Following this research, tailor-made content has been created, which has shaped a consolidated curriculum, which is free to access and awards a certificate of achievement.
If you wish to access, we share the link to the project’s web portal: https://www.ruralinlife.eu/es/inicio/
Among other contents, we are also working on a plan for independent living and municipal plans for the transition to independent living for people with disabilities, which are fundamental documents to ensure that our group or the residents of the municipality in general, have access to a life project where they can fully develop as people.
You will also find information on the subject of personal assistance and the figure of the personal assistant, a section dedicated to the services and resources aimed at achieving independent living in Andalusia.
Among other aspects of the website, the platform has a forum that serves as a network for professionals working in social intervention with people with disabilities.
Parallel to this, a mobile application called ‘App4independent life’ is being developed that will house all this information in a more portable format on digital devices.
CONCLUSIONS:
After the presentation of the project to the different political agents and other stakeholders present in the sessions, the last coordination meeting was held where we have worked on the following points:
- Review of the status of the project; work planning and deadlines.
- Final presentation of the guide for independent living.
- Presentation of the interface of the ‘Rural In Life’ platform, as well as the initial phase of the training course that will later be accessible in MOOC format.
- Group discussion on how to carry out the piloting, strategies to involve technicians and people with disabilities in rural areas in the process.
On the other hand, there were a series of cultural events where, as a culmination, a visit to the History and Architecture in the Parador de Carmona was made.
COCEMFE Seville continues to work in coordination with Europe to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in Seville and its province and, in particular, to have a positive impact on the lives of people with disabilities living in rural areas of Seville.
