Training 

Accessibility

From all the research car­ried out so far, Acces­si­bil­i­ty turns out to be one of the biggest chal­lenges faced by peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties in our coun­try. Phys­i­cal environment/Infrastructure, trans­port not adapt­ed to their needs, pre­vents them from par­tic­i­pat­ing in every­day life activ­i­ties. In order to raise aware­ness, increase knowl­edge, and skills in audit­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty, with­in the frame­work of the EU fund­ed project “Inclu­sive Koso­vo” 9 train­ings on Acces­si­bil­i­ty Audit in the Built Envi­ron­ments have been car­ried out, the major­i­ty of which were deliv­ered by Dis­abil­i­ty Part­ner­ship Fin­land (DPF) project part­ner, bring­ing to Koso­vo a new stan­dard for build­ing and audit­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty. (1) 3‑day train­ing with DPO rep­re­sen­ta­tives from cen­tral lev­el. (2) 3‑day train­ing with DPO rep­re­sen­ta­tives from local lev­el; (3) 3‑day train­ing with par­tic­i­pants from cen­tral lev­el insti­tu­tions. (4) Six 2‑day train­ings in 6 regions of Koso­vo (Prishti­na, Peja, Gjako­va, Prizren, Suhare­ka, Gji­lan) with par­tic­i­pants rep­re­sent­ing local author­i­ties. Ben­e­fi­cia­ries of these train­ings, employ­ees and mem­bers of DPOs, offi­cials of cen­tral and local lev­el insti­tu­tions increased their capac­i­ties and devel­oped their knowl­edge regard­ing the stan­dards of acces­si­bil­i­ty for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, and they were trained in prac­tice how to make the audit­ing of acces­si­bil­i­ty, using the guide and stan­dard forms.

Capacity building

One of the main objec­tives of the project is to raise the orga­ni­za­tion­al capac­i­ties of DPOs. In the frame­work of the EU fund­ed Project “Inclu­sive Koso­vo, 9 two-day train­ings were held in the fol­low­ing areas: (1) Human resources man­age­ment; (2) Finan­cial and asset man­age­ment; (3) Draft­ing the log­i­cal frame­work; (4) Fund rais­ing; (5) Mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion of Projects; (6) Con­duct­ing Research; (7) Web and social media man­age­ment; (8) Strate­gic Plan­ning; and (9) Project Man­age­ment. These train­ings were orga­nized in order to increase the knowl­edge and devel­op the capac­i­ties of DPO employ­ees, lead­ing to a bet­ter man­age­ment of projects and orga­ni­za­tion­al per­for­mance. The ben­e­fi­cia­ries of these train­ings have applied the acquired knowl­edge in the train­ings with­in their orga­ni­za­tions in the area of human resources plan­ning, the recruit­ment process, per­for­mance man­age­ment, how to design the log­i­cal frame­work and project man­age­ment in gen­er­al as well as how to bet­ter use the media for com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the pub­lic. More­over, they also learned about finan­cial man­age­ment and the log­ic of project budgeting.

Social Media

Social media nowa­days is a pow­er­ful tool to inform, raise aware­ness and con­vey mes­sages to a wide audi­ence. Tak­ing into account the impact of social media on soci­ety, the EU fund­ed Project “Inclu­sive Koso­vo” in the cycle of train­ings for increas­ing the capac­i­ties of DPOs, has car­ried out a two-day train­ing with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of DPOs, focus­ing on the social media tech­niques, explor­ing all their poten­tial and their use for advo­ca­cy, aware­ness rais­ing and wide­ly inform­ing for var­i­ous caus­es. DPO offi­cials have ben­e­fit­ed from these train­ings, using the knowl­edge gained in the train­ing for the devel­op­ment and man­age­ment of their orga­ni­za­tions web­sites and social network

Mentoring

The Finnish part­ner of the Project Kyn­nys has deliv­ered train­ings and ses­sions relat­ed to advo­ca­cy for the rights of women with dis­abil­i­ties. Women with dis­abil­i­ties, employ­ees and mem­bers of DPOs have learned new meth­ods to advo­cate on impor­tant issues, the improve­ment of which would make life eas­i­er for these women. In addi­tion, through these ses­sions they have been moti­vat­ed by the mod­els of suc­cess in oth­er coun­tries, which has encour­aged them to con­tin­ue fight­ing for their caus­es in order to advance their posi­tion in society.

Use of media in advocacy

Media is one of the main chan­nels of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the gen­er­al pub­lic. They have a great impact on the way cit­i­zens per­ceive poli­cies and help raise aware­ness among cit­i­zens on var­i­ous issues. Being a top­ic of great inter­est and impor­tance for DPOs the EU fund­ed Project “Inclu­sive Koso­vo” orga­nized two 2‑day train­ings on the top­ic “Using Media in Advo­ca­cy” were held with­in the train­ing cycle for orga­ni­za­tions of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties. DPOs had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain knowl­edge about the impor­tance of the media in advo­cat­ing for the rights of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties; how to con­vey infor­ma­tion to the audi­ence; how to pre­pare for media appear­ances, and their approach to the media in order to pro­mote their caus­es. They were also trained on the prac­ti­cal side regard­ing the tech­niques and meth­ods of using the media, by draw­ing up even work plan on the media usage, at the orga­ni­za­tion­al level.