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Contact persons: Anne Yeadon |
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AWARE Europe Newsletter, Spring 2001 Welcome friends and colleagues - to the first issue of the AWARE Europe Foundation Update, 2001 . To those of you who are unfamiliar with our work we'd like to introduce ourselves.
The AWARE Europe Foundation is a non-government organization (NGO), based in Warsaw, Poland. The Foundation was founded by Antonina Adamowicz-Hummel and Anne Yeadon in 1997 and stemmed from experiences gained during an initial 4-year project designed to address the dramatic shortage of university educated personnel in the field of vision rehabilitation in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The Foundation aims to: Promote and implement rehabilitation strategies designed to maximize equal opportunities, personal independence, and full community integration of persons with disabilities living in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Specific objectives include:
The Foundation recognizes that, along with partner-organizations, we have a unique opportunity in the 'new' Poland to contribute to building a network of diversified and flexible rehabilitation service systems for persons with disabilities. Systems that are capable of identifying, reaching and serving the maximum numbers of people, rather than current minimal numbers, as evident in traditional service outreach strategies utilized in much of the world today. Although the potentials exist for "mainstreaming" blind and visually impaired individuals, there is and is likely to be for the foreseeable future, a serious shortage of appropriately educated personnel to provide this population with the necessary social, independent living and pre-vocational skills that would assist them in becoming fully integrated, independent and contributing members of their family, home and local communities. Our commitment therefore began with a
recognition of the need to develop professional vision rehabilitation
personnel - which resulted in the the first post-graduate program
in the region to prepare dual-qualified rehabilitation teachers
and orientation and mobility instructors to serve adults with
visual disabilities in the areas of independent travel, pre-vocational
and daily living skills. Funding for this unique project was awarded in 1994 by the Open Society Institute (OSI) of the Soros Foundations in both New York, USA and Budapest, Hungary to Dr. Antonina Adamowicz-Hummel, Assistant Professor of the College of Special Education in Warsaw, Poland, and Anne Yeadon, President of AWARE (Associates for World Action in Rehabilitation and Education), a not-for-profit organization based in the USA. The project had the full endorsement of the Polish Association of the Blind. The project's main goal was: To strengthen and expand social, independent living and pre-vocational service opportunities to adults with visual disabilities in Poland and the surrounding region through the introduction of new and improved College-Certified Teacher Education Programs in the areas of Rehabilitation Teaching and Orientation and Mobility. The resultant postgraduate program was the first of its kind in the region. Post-Graduate Education at the College of Special Education, Warsaw, Poland Three post-graduate programs, different in scope and duration, have been implemented between 1995 and 2000. Classes were conducted in both English and Polish. External faculty, primarily from the United States, were heavily involved in the teaching of most courses initially. Gradually, however, Polish-based instructors took over the majority of the teaching. The first syllabus reflected a synthesis of a wide range of curricula from related schools of education in Europe and the United States. The syllabus, based on regular student/faculty evaluations, has undergone continuous refinement. Each academic program has been designed to respond to the unique needs of the students. For example, the last program, conducted on a part-time basis and over a 3-year period, reflected the demands of employed students who invested long weekends in study which allowed them to keep their current positions while at the same time obtaining a professional degree. This unique approach enabled students to immediately apply and test their newly acquired knowledge and skills in their places of employment. To date thirty-three students, the majority with dual-qualifications in rehabilitation teaching and orientation and mobility, have graduated - 26 from Poland, 4 from Hungary, 1 from the Czech Republic, 1 from Lithuania and 1 from Solvakia. As a result of their practicum experiences alone, an estimated 400 adults have since received vision rehabilitation services.
Program graduates are now well positioned to contribute to the implementation, expansion and refinement of vision rehabilitation services in the region. In addition to teaching adaptive skills to persons with visual disabilities, these graduates also have opportunities to help further sustain current and future college/ university-level personnel-training programs, and conduct innovative community education programs.
We are committed to providing opportunities of continuing education for our graduates. "Reunions" have also been implemented that address graduates expressed needs for further study, new areas of exploration, and ongoing peer- networking. To date, special workshops have been conducted on How to Write and Submit Proposals for Funding; Advanced Issues in Low Vision; Medical UpDates; and Team-Work and Management Approaches. The next graduate reunion is planned for March 22-25, 2001 in Warsaw.
A synergistic element of the OSI project was recognition of the need to increase the awareness of other workers, such as social workers, who are ideally positioned to improve the quality of lives and independence of persons with visual disabilities. At the request of the Polish government, 2-3 day workshops were custom-designed for an estimated 140 Polish workers. This resulted in more than 100 such students, from Poland's 15 schools of social work, being sensitized to needs and issues surrounding persons with visual disabilities. Numerous workshops have also been conducted for school teachers, community workers, administrators, nursing home personnel and day care workers. In addition to these Poland-based workshops, Foundation staff, in partnership with other national and international organizations, have conducted and/or participated in numerous other workshops in the surrounding countries.
In an effort to further strengthen professional recognition and sustainability, the Foundation supported the founding of the first professional Polish NGO association of workers in the field of visual disability. The Professional Association for the Rehabilitation of Persons with Low Vision and Blindness was awarded registration status in March 1998, and its prime mission is to help guide the professional growth and development of workers in the field of blindness and low vision. Membership from Poland and other CEE countries is encouraged. For more information on the Association's plans and activities, contact: Jolanta Grabowska, tel.: (+48 22 8233853), e-mail: amcaware@it.com.pl.
In recognition of the high unemployment rate of persons with visual disabilities in this region, the Foundation highlighted special projects related to assisting the unemployed obtain employment. The Foundation's first publication in this area was released in May, 2000. A thousand copies of "A Guidebook for Employers of Persons with Visual Impairment were distributed free of charge to facilities and/or individuals positioned to contribute to the improvement of placing persons with visual disabilities in the work force. Funding for this project was provided by the US Embassy in Warsaw with supportive costs from OSI. Ongoing legislative updates will be provided to those recipients who request them. The publication is available in both English and Polish versions via the Foundation`s website. In 1999 Canadian Embassy in Poland awarded Foundation a grant to purchase special adaptive low vision devices and electronic equipment relevant to improving the independence of persons with low vision.
This publication, which stemmed from findings and experiences gained during four workshops conducted in 1999 for 78 unemployed women with visual disabilities, is entering its final stages of development and publication is planned for April 2001. Funding was provided by the British Know How Fund in Warsaw, with additional support from OSI and the US Embassy in Warsaw..
Two Polish non-government organizations, "Szansa" in Krosno (south Poland) and the Foundation for the Promotion of Women, Warsaw joined the AWARE Europe Foundation in 2000 to conduct two training workshops for a total of 25 unemployed blind and visually impaired youth (age 18-24) seeking employment. The workshops were partially sponsored by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and funds were awarded the Foundation by the popular Polish magazine "Polityka". The overall aim was to help prepare unemployed youths for employment. The experiences of these workshops are being used to further refine a training model for assisting other unemployed youth with disabilities to prepare for employment.
Foundation publications will be accessible in both Polish and English; and information will be provided on AWARE Europe's current and future services and plans. Funding to develop the website was provided by the US Embassy in Warsaw.
Poland and other countries in the CEE region continue to need improved, expanded and cost-effective service delivery systems for individuals of all ages with severe visual impairments. Specifically, new and updated teacher training programs must continue to be implemented that will address the independent living and pre-vocational needs of individuals, of all ages, with visual disabilities. In addition, more flexible and innovative community outreach opportunities need to be explored that will better identify and serve the majority of Poland's blind and visually impaired population - currently estimated at 400,000, including the rapidly growing segment of those over the age of 65. For the above reasons, the Foundation's immediate priorities will include:
The above three areas, represents the Foundation`s immediate major funding and resource challenge. It should be noted that the whole concept of innovative local `grassroots` outreach initiatives in Poland, and indeed across the region, is a vital component of the Foundation's multi-service network for individuals with visual impairments. Today, hundreds of thousands of people with visual disabilities in the region remain with extremely limited or no means of access to vision rehabilitation services. We believe it is important that in addition to the continued education of professional orientation and mobility and rehabilitation instructors, alternative low cost self-help interventions be developed, promoted and implemented. Such interventions include access to an informative website on vision-related issues, and self-help publications for consumers, family members, and generic community workers. For further and new information, please contact Dr. Antonina Adamowicz-Hummel at the e-mail address: hummel@it.com.pl , or Anne Yeadon at awareusa@aol.com or access the Foundation's website. In this our first Newsletter we'd like to give our sincere thanks to those who have worked and studied with us during these past few years:
AWARE Europe does not provide welfare assistance Bank Pekao S.A., XV Oddział
Warszawa,
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