31/12/2025
Ultimate Throwback: European Self-Advocates Project ✨
As we reach the last day of the year, we’re taking an ultimate throwback to the past two years of the European Self-Advocates Project 📸💫
Two years ago, we started this project with a clear conviction: people with Down syndrome should not just be included in projects about them — they should help shape them, teach them, and speak for themselves 💬💪
Looking back now, we are incredibly proud of what was achieved together ❤️
Across 10 countries, self-advocates, youth and social workers, educators and organisations worked side by side to co-create an accessible self-advocacy training programme 🌍🤝 From the very beginning, self-advocates were involved in brainstorming, lesson design and teaching, as well as in sharing their experiences at local and European events.
Together, we:
- developed a full self-advocacy curriculum and trainer’s handbook 📘
- piloted the training in multiple countries 🏫
- created an online learning platform to support reuse 💻
- organised local multiplier events across Europe 📢
- brought self-advocates’ voices to European-level spaces, including World Down Syndrome Day in Brussels 🇪🇺🎤
But beyond outputs and activities, the real impact was human 🌱 We saw confidence grow, voices become stronger, and new initiatives emerge ⭐ Partners rethought what is possible when self-advocates are trusted as leaders and teachers.
The project may be finished, but the work continues 🚀 The training is already being reused, new translations are underway, and the European self-advocacy network keeps growing.
Thank you to all self-advocates, partners, trainers and supporters who made these past two years so meaningful 🙏💙
This project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union 🇪🇺
