Together for Inclusion: First Transnational Meeting in Brussels

Brussels, June 2025 – Partners of the Together for Inclusion: Fostering Self-Advocacy Across Europe project met in person for the first time in Brussels for the project’s first transnational meeting.

Following the online project kick-off in March, this in-person gathering marked a decisive step forward. Over several days, partners worked intensively together to reflect on past experiences, strengthen cooperation, and collectively shape the next phase of self-advocacy work within the project.

Turning Experience into Action

The Brussels meeting focused on a shared question: how can we transform years of practical experience in self-advocacy into a training approach that brings self-advocates closer to real impact—especially at policy level?

Building on insights and lessons learned from previous European self-advocacy initiatives, including the European Self-Advocacy Project, partners reflected on how existing approaches could be further strengthened, refined, and scaled through transnational cooperation.

While the European Self-Advocacy Project laid an essential foundation for peer-led self-advocacy training, the discussions in Brussels focused on how this new phase of work can go further—deepening knowledge, broadening perspectives, and bringing self-advocates closer to understanding European institutions and policies. This progression was seen as key to supporting self-advocates not only in speaking up, but in actively engaging with the policy processes that shape their rights and opportunities.

Partners exchanged experiences from national and European contexts, identifying both strengths and gaps in current self-advocacy practices. Discussions explored how trainings can better support self-advocates in expressing their views, understanding decision-making processes, engaging with institutions, and influencing policies that affect their everyday lives—while also preparing them to connect with one another through the emerging European Self-Advocacy Network.

A key outcome of the meeting was a shared commitment to move beyond isolated activities and toward a more structured, peer-led, and European approach to self-advocacy.

Human Dignity at the Centre

Throughout the meeting, discussions were grounded in a common understanding: we all have human dignity, no one can take it away, and it is the origin of our human rights.

This principle guided reflections on training design, accessibility, and participation. Partners emphasized the importance of ensuring that self-advocates are not passive recipients of support, but active contributors, co-creators, and leaders within the project.

Strengthening European Cooperation

The Brussels meeting also played a crucial role in strengthening collaboration among partners, aligning expectations, and clarifying roles for the months ahead.

The project is coordinated by EU for Trisomy 21 (Belgium) and brings together partner organizations from across Europe:

• Bundesverband Down-Syndrom e.V. (Germany)

• Rejtett Kincsek Down Egyesület (Hungary)

• Team Down (Italy)

• Down Syndrome Association Malta (Malta)

• T’Cap 21 (France)

• Fundacja L’Arche (Poland)

• Asociatia Fantasticii Down Galati (Romania)

• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain)

• Rytmus – od klienta k občanovi, o.p.s. (Czech Republic)

• Inclution gUG (haftungsbeschränkt) (Germany)

Together, these organizations contribute complementary expertise in self-advocacy training, education, research, community engagement, and policy work.

Looking Ahead

The first transnational meeting in Brussels laid the foundations for the development of the project’s self-advocacy trainings, the strengthening of European cooperation, and future exchanges with decision-makers at European level.

Most importantly, it reaffirmed a shared ambition: to support self-advocates in taking meaningful steps toward shaping policies, influencing public debate, and making inclusion a lived reality across Europe.