27 February 2015 – 11:00-12:15
PARALLEL BREAKOUT SESSION 5
International Peer Support Models:
Empowering Persons with Disabilities (H3)
RATIONALE:
Persons with disabilities can face a number of important challenges in life. They often rely for
example on different kinds of support for their daily lives. Moreover, they often are surrounded only
by family members and support workers, but might have rarely the opportunity to exchange
information and opinions with their peers. Peer support has been and still is one of the most
important tools to empower persons with disabilities. Peers can guide others with a disability in how
to best organize their lives and in how to overcome a series existing barriers and/or conflicts with
family members, service providers, public authorities, etc. The availability of peer support also
recognizes a fundamental concept of the disability rights movement: “Nothing about us without
us!”, as it considers persons with disabilities as experts in what is best for them and their peers.
OVERALL AIM:
The overall objective is to present and highlight Innovative Practices and Policies 2015 so to
incentivize participants to transfer them to other countries. To be inspired by the practice or policy,
the participants will need to know:
*which problem does the practice or policy address;
*which way the solution overcomes the problem;
*why this is innovative.
To transfer, or to support the transfer, of the practice or policy, participants would need also to
know:
*which stakeholders are needed to set it up;
*which key policy / practice features one needs to have;
*which resources are needed;
*which challenges arise in developing the practice or policy;
*which challenges are there when implementing it.
FORMAT:
After welcoming participants to this session, the moderator lets everyone present for 8 minutes
about the policy or practice, and allows for questions and comments (max 3 min per person) from
the floor at the end of all five presentations.
MODERATOR:
Errol COCKS, Curtin University, Australia
PANELLISTS:
Ian LOYNES, Chief Executive, SPECTRUM - Centre for Independent Living CIL (Innovative Practice
2015, Supporting new user-led organisations): As the Chief Executive of SPECTRUM CIL, Ian can cast
an interesting light on the specificities of the practice and how they support the development of new
User-Led Organisations by sharing experiences, information and lessons learnt. Furthermore, he can
provide the audience with his personal vision on how newly user-led organisations can be developed
and how to inspire others.
Silvio SAGRAMOLA, Info-Handicap - National Disability Information and Meeting Center and
often European Disability Forum representative (Innovative Policy 2015, Funding a national
disability information centre in Luxembourg): As a member of Info-Handicap, the national disability
information centre in Luxembourg, Silvio can provide the audience with a detailed explanation how
this policy came to existence, its purposes and how it became a driver of inclusive policies as well as
the main contact on any disability-related question.
Julia KISCH, Empowerment-Center of the Independent Living Movement Upper Austria
(SLI OÖ) (Innovative Policy 2015, Peer counseling as an approved profession in Upper Austria): „Julia
Kisch works for the Empowerment Center of the “Selbstbestimmt Leben-Initiative Oberösterreich”
as peer-counsellor and organizes courses for people with and without disabilities.
Michael PAUL and Banane NAFEH, Disability Rights UK (Innovative Practice 2015, Disability Rights
UK: Helpline and platform on personalised care): By providing advice and sharing information on
how to get direct payments, individual budgets and all sorts of funding as well as general advice on
employing personal assistants, this practice tries to empower persons with disabilities by giving the
much needed information. These two speakers will clarify the specific process through which the
information is acquired and distributed in order to make sure that persons with disabilities have
access to the information regarding their particular situations.
John MCLACHLAN, Scope (Innovative Practice 2015, Activities Unlimited - a “Brokerage” for short
family vacations): Activities Unlimited (AU) has collaborated with Scope to create this unique service
delivering short-break activities for disabled children and young people (DCYP) aged 0 to 25 in
Suffolk, UK. Built on the ‘pick and choose’ model of a travel agency, it is aimed at tackling barriers
faced by parents/career people who are seeking activities for their disabled children that are safe,
fun, and appropriate, while simultaneously giving parents and other caregivers regular breaks from
their caring roles.
DETAILED AGENDA:
11h00 Welcome by moderator
11h10 Panel:
- Ian Loynes, Chief Executive, SPECTRUM Centre for Independent Living CIL (Innovative
Practice 2015, Supporting new user-led organisations)
- Silvio Sagramola, Info-Handicap - National Disability Information and Meeting Center and
often European Disability Forum representative (Innovative Policy 2015, Funding a national
disability information centre in Luxembourg)
- Julia Kisch, Empowerment-Center of the Independent Living Movement Upper Austria (SLI
OÖ) (Innovative Policy 2015, Peer counselling in Upper Austria)
- Michael Paul and Banane Nafeh, Disability Rights UK (Innovative Practice 2015, Disability
Rights UK)
- John McLachlan, Scope (Innovative Practice 2015, Activities Unlimited - a “Brokerage” for
short family vacations)
11h50 Q&A round
12h10 Moderator wraps up
12h15 End