When it comes to mentoring, there are many areas and situations in which we can apply it . We can talk about peer mentoring, mentoring at companies or educational institutions. However, what about sport and mentoring when it comes to empowering young people with disabilities? We tried to find answers of these questions during a study visit to Florence as part of the VM - PRO - Validation of Youth Mentoring project, which also strives to enable young people with disabilities to identify their competencies and interests to their direct their personal development and complete their education.
Study visit to Florence brought together participants from Serbia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Turkey and Italy in period of 5th to 8th of November. Participants had the opportunity to get in touch with several relevant organizations and institutions working with young people with disabilities, and to hear how their mentor(s) enable them to improve their competencies and potentials. Also, participants visited sports center Calenzano in Prato which organizes sports training for the regular swimming team and swimming team in which they are a youth with Dawn Syndrome. Some of the youth in that team are also members of the Paralympic team of Italy. During the visit to the Florence Sports Center, the participants had the opportunity to attend rhythmic gymnastics training where train girls with some disability and girls from the general population. The coaches of these specials teams shared their experiences as well as personal opinions on how mentoring can contribute to social inclusion of youth. The last day of the visit was reserved for the Florence Social Service where partners presented the support system for youth and adults with disabilities.
The final event of the study visit was the conference "Novel mentoring validation system that supports the prevention of educational and labor market dropout of youth with disabilities". The conference was opened by the project coordinator Matteo Perchiazzi from the Italian School Mentoring, who presented the basic ideas of the VM PRO project and spoke about the importance of sustainability of this project as well as similar initiatives, to promote inclusion and also mentoring. Marina Lukic from Belgrade Open School shared inspirational stories of young people with disabilities from Serbia from a mentee perspective.
The project is being implemented by SIM - SCUOLA ITALIANA DI MENTORING (Italy), in partnership with ASSOCIAZIONE MOSAICO (Italy), MARIE CURIE ASSOCIATION - MCA (Bulgaria), PHOENIXKM BVBA (Belgium), International Association for Vocational Education and Training (Turkey) and Belgrade Open School.
