Project idea
The project focuses on developing a “Training Apartment” program for adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities. This program includes building essential social competencies, correcting and enhancing the ability to meet basic life needs independently, adapting to living on their own, and creating pathways for employment and sustained labor engagement.
Specialists involved in the project have received training in programs such as “Training Apartment,” “Accompanied Residence,” “Summer with Meaning,” and “Assisted Employment” and have extensive experience conducting these programs. The organization is well-equipped with the necessary resources to create a comprehensive program specifically designed to help people with intellectual disabilities achieve independent living and secure employment.
Within the project framework, three training apartment programs will be implemented for 16 adolescents and young adults, along with three career guidance programs called “Important Step” for 20 individuals with disabilities. The participants will be involved in work activities within the organization, the “Needful Things” workshop, and partner enterprises. There will also be a program preparing these individuals for assisted employment, which includes organizing interviews with potential employers and securing job placements under the supervision of the organization’s specialist.
The target beneficiaries of this project are children and young adults aged 14-30 with intellectual disabilities. All project activities are aimed at fostering conditions that support the successful integration of these individuals into society, as well as further development of the “Training Apartment” program, equipping adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities with vital life skills, social competencies, and the ability to adapt to an independent living environment.
Relevance
The issue of living arrangements for people with disabilities is highly pertinent, especially for those with intellectual disabilities. Accompanied residence allows these individuals to live in a home-like setting, participate in employment, and integrate with society.
In the Sverdlovsk region alone, approximately 4,000 teenagers and young adults with disabilities require the development of independent living skills. Currently, the region lacks living options for adults with mental disabilities outside of institutional neuropsychiatric facilities.
An effective solution to this gap is creating a system of accompanied residence, which includes training apartments, housing for the training run of accompanied residence, and accompanied employment programs. These initiatives help individuals with disabilities to continue living independently as they transition into adulthood without the need for institutional care.
The “Training Apartment” program, in particular, is designed to prepare participants for independent living by teaching them critical household and social skills. In recent years, two such training apartments have been established in Yekaterinburg and Beryozovsky, helping teenagers and young adults with intellectual disabilities acquire these essential skills.
The project’s goal is to establish a support system for families raising children and young adults with intellectual disabilities in the Sverdlovsk Region. Upon implementation, at least 30 participants will receive the necessary support, giving them access to social programs designed to improve their quality of life.
Social effect
Expanding opportunities for developing independent living skills for adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities in the Sverdlovsk Region.
KPI
KPI
Project Results
The level of independent living skills among adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities who completed the training course in the training apartment has significantly increased. Participants improved in areas such as independently washing clothes in the washing machine, hanging and ironing laundry, folding clothes, planning meals, shopping for necessary items, performing household tasks such as cleaning rooms and washing sanitary equipment, and more. Although each participant developed at their own pace, every one of them showed noticeable improvement in their skill levels.
Specialists involved in the training apartment program acquired the necessary knowledge and practical experience to implement projects focused on accompanied residence for individuals with disabilities, including those with autism spectrum disorders. We made an effort to create a team of specialists that included both experienced staff and newcomers, ensuring a diverse and effective working environment.
Parents, through meetings and discussions, received valuable knowledge and practical tools, which will help maintain and further develop the skills their children acquired during the training, along with the ongoing support of the specialists.
Conducting community clean-up days fostered good neighborly relations with the residents of the buildings where the training apartments are located. We became active participants in local house chats, got to know our neighbors, and took part in joint clean-up efforts.
Programs aimed at employment preparation and job placement allowed the participants to prepare for joining the workforce, choose a profession, develop soft skills needed for team collaboration, and gain real work experience in workshops and the open labor market.
Project progress after CSS funding
In the future, the program will be expanded to include: a program for educational supported living, a follow-up program supporting graduates at their place of residence (in their own, rented, or social housing), a program for educational and accompanied residence in rented housing. The supported employment program will become its own separate project. Currently, the staff is undergoing training under the program “Everything Will Work Out!” (St. Petersburg, Rabota-i Center). The organization has also received an offer to become the regional representative of the employment project for people with disabilities in the Sverdlovsk Region.
Funding Sources: Assets of ANO for Helping Disabled People “Happinow” and other non-profit organizations interested in the project, project partners. Grants and subsidies. Donations. Parents’ funds.
