V.A.I.P.E.D.D. – Voluntary service and augmentative interaction with parents and experts on developmental delay (V.O.I.A.G.E.R.S.)

From November 8, 2010 to February 28, 2011, a training course for volunteers of Intellectual Disability (ID) will take place for the V.A.I.P.E.D.D. project, Voluntary Service and Augmentative Interaction with Parents and Experts on Developmental Delay, sponsored by the Center for Research and Development of AMG of the Misericordia of Florence in collaboration with CESCVOT (Center for Volunteer Service in Tuscany).

This course, created from the need to develop skills for all of the volunteers who lend a hand or wish to work with people with ID, aims at introducing participants to the essential and concrete knowledge of the person with an ID and also providing directions and supportive guidelines for the interaction with and approach of the disabled.

The Florentine associationsin health care, treatment, rehabilitation, and social integration of the people with ID are based on a model aimed at optimizing the quality of life of people with ID and their families. The associations that will participate in this course are CREA, Center for Research and Development, and INCLID, Center of Clinical Integration for ID, both projects of the social enterprise AMG (Assistance of the Severely Disabled) of the Misericordia of Florence; AIABA (Italian Association for the Assistance of Autistic Children); ANFFAS Onlus (National Association of Families of People with Intellectual and/or Relational Disabilities – Non-Profit Organization of Social Utility); TRISOMA 21 Onlus; and The Children of Sipario (Association of Social Promotion).

The project involves one training session per week for a total of six training sessions (and one final evaluation) at CREA on 176 Sansovino Street, Florence.The technical-scientific contributions given by the professional experts of ID, consisting mainly of psychiatrists and psychologists of AMG and the research group of CREA, will be integrated in a dynamic way with the expression of needs identified by the Association of families. These needs required by the families have to be similar to the themes addressed in the specific lesson to make the discussion possible between the volunteers and the professionals.