European Self-Advocates Project Completes National Piloting Phase

February 2025

The European Self-Advocates project has reached an important milestone with the completion of its national piloting phase. The final piloting activities concluded in Germany in February 2025, marking the end of a period of local implementation across the partner and associated partner countries.

Between autumn 2024 and February 2025, the self-advocacy training programme developed within the project was implemented nationally in France, Spain, Germany, Malta, Greece, Romania, Hungary, as well as by associated partners in Italy and the Czech Republic. In each country, young people with Down syndrome took part in the training, delivered through a co-teaching model bringing together a self-advocate and an assistant teacher.

The piloting phase allowed the curriculum to be tested in a wide range of organisational, cultural and educational contexts. Trainers and participants provided structured feedback on the content, methodology and accessibility of the four lessons, contributing valuable insights into what works well in practice and where adjustments may be needed.

With the piloting phase now complete, partners will move into a period of online collaboration and reflection. Over the coming weeks, the project consortium will meet online to share experiences, discuss lessons learned and analyse feedback from all participating countries. This collective reflection will inform final adjustments to the curriculum and supporting materials.

The next in-person meeting of the project will take place in Brussels in May 2025, where partners and self-advocates will come together to review the outcomes of the piloting phase and reflect on the overall learning of the project. This meeting will also provide an opportunity to look ahead to dissemination and the longer-term use of the training programme.

While piloting has now concluded in most partner countries, the implementation in Belgium is planned for later in 2025, following the finalisation of the curriculum. This will allow the Belgian training to benefit from the full set of lessons learned during the piloting phase.

The European Self-Advocates project continues to demonstrate the value of co-created, inclusive training approaches in strengthening self-advocacy and participation among young people with Down syndrome across Europe.