33 practitioners in the field of education and social assistance working with children with special needs from the districts Cahul, Calarasi, Falesti, Nisporeni and Ungheni are attending the follow-up training on the implementation of the Portage Program addressed to families with children with special needs aged 0-7 on January 30-31.
The goal of the event is to build the professionals’ skills in the use of the Program’s methodological tools. The event is held under the EU-funded project “Improving access to community-based early years and pre-school support services for vulnerable children with special needs in Moldova” implemented by the NGO “Partnerships for every child” /P4EC/. The training is delivered by local experts who were trained in the United Kingdom.
The Portage Program is being piloted in the 5 pilot sites and implies educational assistance provided at home to children with special needs by using a holistic model of support for families and children to facilitate better communication, learning, play and relation-setting, full participation in the family’s life and inclusion of children with special needs in the community life.
The group of practitioners trained at the above mentioned workshop will qualify as Portage Visitors and will establish the vital link between parents and children and the outside world and help them overcome difficult situations. The program is delivered at home by the Portage Visitor who helps parents to set learning objectives for the child and monitor the child’s progress.
Portage was introduced in Great Britain in 1993 in response to the increasing need to support vulnerable children with special needs and their families. The Portage Program is one of the 4 programs and work tools for children with special needs that are included in the “Improving access to community-based early years and pre-school support services for vulnerable children with special needs in Moldova” project, implemented by the P4EC, in collaboration with the organizations Mellow Parenting and HealthProm from Great Britain, with support of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, Ministry of Education, Culture and Research and local public authorities of the five project sites. The project amounting to EUR 680.000 is funded by the European Union.