Newsletter Suvot Nº 5 (english version)

Fundaci贸n INTRAS

Newsletter

O

SUVOT SUVOT

Number. 5 september 2012

Spicing Up Vocational

Training

w w w. i n t r a s. e s

Ozara w w w. o z a r a . o r g

This is a very special issue of our SUVOT newsletter; finally the SUVOT course has started! Pilot experiences are been carried out in Spain, Slovenia and Germany, we invite you to read the following pages in order to get informed about them and know about our participants.

Te a t r G r o d z k i w w w. t e a t r g r o d z k i . p l

Moreover, we are including a very interesting article about tools to develop some work-related skills.

We are sure you will enjoy the reading!

CJD Frechen

Suvot TEAM

w w w. c j d - b b w - f r e c h e n . d e

1

SUVOT

Spicing Up Vocational Training

1. Starting of the pilot experience in Spain, Slovenia and Germany

SUVOT COURSE IN SPAIN SUVOT course started in June 2012 in Spain and it is taken place three times per week (lasting 3 hours each session) in our Residence for people with severe and prolonged mental illness in Toro (province of Zamora). This is an intermediate step between the hospital and the normalized live once patients are recovered and re-integrated into society. Within the residence, they are trained to improve social and cognitive abilities that they have lost due to their illness. SUVOT is a useful tool not only to achieve that, but also to give them vocational training and thus make easier for them to find a job in the future. We have engaged 12 participants and they are really enthusiastic about SUVOT. Most of them attend regularly to the sessions, something very difficult to achieve with other workshops and activities that we perform in the residence. Trainers are surprised about this positive reaction of the participants. The key factor is that they think that SUVOT is really useful for they daily life and also for their labour future. Moreover they enjoy very much the sessions and the time they spend with their classmates; the simulation methodology exercises are helping to create a group feeling where self-esteem and confidence in the others are increasing day by day.

For the participants is very motivated that other residents eat what they cook during the training, is one of the most rewarding part. They are very proud of their work and feel that they are making something useful not only for them but also for the rest of people they live with.

But this is only the beginning; we have high expectations about SUVOT and we will keep on telling you more about our experience.

2

SUVOT

Spicing Up Vocational Training

SUVOT COURSE IN SLOVENIA In Slovenia the SUVOT pilot workshops are run in two locations, in Maribor and in Ptuj. In both pilot groups a total of 14 participants are involved. Both groups are being looked after by two trainers.

Both groups have two or three cooking lessons and at least one simulation methodology lesson per week. All the participants are very enthusiastic about the course since they are learning many new things and skills.

Samo Kramberger, trainer: “The SUVOT project in Slovenia is running very smoothly. We are all ready past a quarter of the exercises and the success is very promising. Our participants are satisfied with the work and enjoy the cooking as well as the simulation methodology exercises. As the project progresses we are trying to increase the level of difficulty and challenge the participants, so they can learn something new with every workshop”.

Anja Rozman, trainer: “The SUVOT pilot training participants in Ozara’s Day Care Centres in Ptuj and Maribor are very enthusiastic about the SUVOT project. They like to cook and they enjoy the teamwork. They also enjoy participating in the simulation methodology lessons. In these lessons we work on the participants’ self esteem, communication skills, team work and cope with feelings through a set of different techniques and exercises. We do the same techniques / exercises more often in order to find new possibilities and solutions that can be transferred into everyday life”.

SUVOT COURSE IN GERMANY After a 1,5 years period of preparation and planning, discussing and finding solutions for various challenges, the first draft of the SUVOT training course is ready! In June 2012 the German pilot group started with the training, and the first results are visible now.

In the first session the group got to know each other better by playing games. Although the participants already knew each other before, they learned a lot of new things about each other: “I didn´t dare to think that you have such a big family!” or “You would like to do bungee jumping... really???”These were some of the amazed expressions during this session. The team building process started…

3

SUVOT

Spicing Up Vocational Training

Talking about shopping, hygiene in the kitchen and calculating measures was more exhausting in the next session. Mathematics is hard for people with learning disability, but the group knows: If we want to access the labor market, we have to deal with this issue as well.

The training became livelier when it came to the SUVOT PowerPoint presentations about Poland, Spain and Germany.

The participants already knew a lot about Poland, but who would have guessed that there is such a wide range of landscape in Poland? It´s all there: mountains, woods and the sea! Spain was an unknown field to most of the participants. Some things like bullfights and tapas were familiar to some people in the group, but most of the participants got a fresh impression. The participants also took much joy in sharing experiences and impressions of Germany. There were big discussions about the question how to deal with the German history and which debt Germany still owes to Jewish families or single persons who lost one or more family member in the 2nd world war.

The cooking parts were full of joy and laughter. Eating raw leek in combination with egg – people were quite skeptic about it.

But trying and tasting brought a very positive feedback and the group enjoyed eating together very much.

The group also started with the group dynamic training, playing games and getting to know each other more and more. We are very excited about the further way of the pilot training team!

The main aim of SUVOT is to establish an innovative vocational training in cooking for people with mental illness, learning disabilities or/and behavioral disorders by offering additional support to them during the course. This support will be offered by simulation methodology – a set of psychodrama and sociodrama exercises for developing work-related skills. During last year, we have been planning such a course and working on teaching books which are now being tested during one year pilot workshops in Spain, Slovenia and Germany. A teaching manual has been prepared which contains a cooking course with instructions for the trainers and simulation methodology – a set of drama exercises and games which focusing on workrelated skills.

2. DEVELOP WORK-RELATED SKILLS AND COOK!

How can one develop such skills by theatrical games? Grodzki Theatre Association from Poland has been using theatre for the last 12 years to re-integrate different disadvantaged groups into society. “Drama exercises allow one to learn rules of working in

4

SUVOT

Spicing Up Vocational Training

a group and motivate participants to become more engaged” – explains Maria Schejbal from Grodzki Theatre, author of SUVOT’s simulation methodology – a fundamental part of the training course. “Such exercises integrate the group, teach participants to concentrate, pay attention and be precise, and at the same time they provide relaxation, calm one’s nerves and give a feeling of joy.”

We can reveal here that SUVOT’s drama exercises, an integral part of the course, will focus on the following skills: co-operation with colleagues at work, communication, personal motivation, concentration, discipline, self-esteem, self-belief and dealing with difficult (negative) feelings.

The main part of the teaching manual is, of course, devoted to the vocational training in cooking. The curriculum has been developed by CJD organization from Germany, which runs a variety of cooking courses for people with disabilities in their centers all over Germany. The rudiments of cooking are taught – both the theory (like the knowledge on different products, healthy eating, hygiene, etc) and practice. The course developed

by CJD focuses very much on gaining practical skills to cook many different dishes. An interesting aspect of the cooking part of the book is learning national dishes from the four countries participating in the SUVOT project. It is also worth pointing out that in this section of the book we can also find many warmup games to combat stress of course participants and give them courage to cook, for example, Polish soups, German meat dishes, Spanish omelettes and Slovenian deserts…

FREE BOOKS NEXT YEAR The teaching manual and student books from the SUVOT course will be printed next year in 4 languages and each partner organization will distribute both books for free to 100 institutions in each country. We can already see that course participants in Spain, Slovenia and Germany (people with mental illness or disabilities) are enjoying this vocational training, which offers additional support to them, and we look forward to promoting our course!

“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission (Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo Da Vinci sub-programme) of the European Union“. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

CONTACT

You will find updated information about SUVOT project in: http://suvot.intras.es and also in our facebook page http://es-es.facebook.com/pages/SuvotProject/166486543372824

5