ExchangeAbility meeting, Antwerp

The current and future socially oriented youth leaders active in the field of student mobility will gather in Antwerp (Belgium) from 26th-31st May 2010 to share best practices, receive training and create a common vision regarding inclusion of disabled youth in the student mobility.

The main goal of the meeting is to empower young people from all over Europe in various fields related to the disabled students’ mobility. The central idea of the activity is to offer disabled students an opportunity to volunteer in youth organisations, which are working in the higher educational field for exchange students. ESN wants to provide them with the possibility to actively participate in the student life and to benefit from the exchange programmes at their university

The main objectives of the ExchangeAbility project are:

• To encourage other youth leaders to involve disabled students in youth organisations and integrate them with exchange students.
• To raise the knowledge of participants concerning different kind of disabilities, social models and the way to approach and include disabled youth.
• To identify the problems disabled students face during the preparation phase and stay abroad.
• To empower the participants to act as opinion leaders in their country and transfer the gained knowledge to other youth groups in order to raise the awareness about disabled students’ mobility and to promote the sense of solidarity among young people towards disabled students.
• To develop the future continuation and follow-up of the project, and to encourage the participants to transfer the gained knowledge to other youth leaders and student groups in their country. 

Profile of the participants:

• active volunteers in the field of student mobility which will be selected based on their motivation and long-term commitment to the project’s follow-up and final goals. 

• persons which are already involved in the ExchangeAbility introductory phase

• disabled students who have been involved in the local sections to share their point of view and experience

More information about registration and the details will be available after the Annual General Meeting. In case you have any questions you can contact the project coordinator at exchangeability@esn.org.