Upcoming conference on emotional and sexual education for people with intellectual disabilities
Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:00 - 17:30 CET
Intimacy, sexual relationships and close personal relationships are a crucial and important part of life, to which each individual has a right. Yet, young people with intellectual disabilities can often be overlooked in these areas. The space for learning, conversing, and educating oneself, that exists for neurotypicals, isn’t always readily available for individuals with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.
SaHaSo (Safe & Happy Society), a training program on relationships, emotional life and sexuality for young people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, is organising a conference in Brussels, on 22 January 2024. The program is co-funded by the EU programme Erasmus+, Small-Scale Partnerships in Youth, and took place over the course of 2 years (2022-2024), across 2 countries – Belgium and Bulgaria.
The event is meant for trainers, social workers and anyone involved in the field, to gather and debate the challenges faced by this group, explore the tools and solutions developed by the SaHaSo project, and think of further steps that can be taken.
More about SaHaSo
The main objective of the program is to promote the well-being of young people with intellectual disabilities, as well as, to prevent sexual behaviours that may put them at risk.
Following the principles of non-formal education, the program’s materials address the areas of communication, emotional well-being, relationships, and sexuality for young people with intellectual disabilities. Other age groups or vulnerable people, such as underage parents, can also benefit from the program. The program utilised approaches such as improvisational theatre, dance, video, and thrash-art techniques in order to foster creativity, self-expression and self-confidence, and communication skills.