A Transnational Approach
to Address Disability
Circle of Support (CoS)
is a model for helping out person who for
one reason or another is unable to achieve
his or her aspirations independently. The
model was developed in Canada and spread
quickly to North America and the United
Kingdom in 1980s. In practice, CoS is a
group of people who meet together regularly
to help an individual (the ‘focus
person’) accomplish his /her personal
goals in life. The circle, here, acts as
a community around that. Any one including
family, friends, relatives, community members
and other social gatekeepers can be member
of the CoS Network and are usually not paid
for their involvement. |
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The
principal target groups are the members of higher educational
institutions, social service organisations, vulnerable
individuals and their support networks in local communities. |
Based
on this concept, NYSASDRI has started a
programme, ‘Circle of Support’
from January 2004 in order to address issues
around people with disabilities and autism.
The programme, which is being implemented
in the UK, Germany and India, simultaneously,
aims at developing professional skills in
human service professions through Transnational
Learning process in order to promote informal
social network, Circle of Support, around
people with disability and autism and there
by contributing to social inclusions and
cohesion. |
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The
basic activities of the project consists
the development and testing of training
approaches for different regions, the implementation
and evaluation of practical approaches and
the case-based analyses of social support
system as well as enhancing partners’
intercultural competencies and Transnational
collaboration. Fieldwork on disabled and
autistic persons would be carried out by
the organisation in Gondia block in Dhenkanal.
Based on their knowledge, the varsity would
formulate curricula for graduate and post-graduate
social science students and training modules
for professionals. These curricula and training
modules will be tested for its effectiveness
at the grass root level.
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Afterwards,
the curricula and training modules will be revised,
if necessary, according to the pilot observation. |
| In this
transnational programme supported by the European Commission,
Dortmund University, Germany and Bolton Institute of
Higher Education, UK are the partners in Germany and
UK, respectively. The project is administered with a
co-ordinated partnership of Klaus Novy Institute, Germany.
In Orissa, the Psychology Department of Utkal University,
is an active partner of the project, in addition to
NYSASDRI. |
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