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Innovation awards!

Travel Safe! Our new Peer Learning Project

We are so grateful to the IHC Foundation for their support of our Peer-Learning idea. The Travel Safe! video project will collate the lessons learned by youth with intellectual disability about getting out and about safely, as facilitated by trusted support people.

The project will fold out in two parts:
1. Content selection: Participants will workshop stories in a drama group setting. The group will determine how to include all safety elements in a series of video stories. Contents will be finalised in collaboration with experts - making sure no important topic gets left out.
2. Participants act out, role play and film themselves in a message to their peers.

An Advisory Group selected in collaboration with IHC will oversee the process and outputs ensure a good balance of quality control and zest, creativity and fun that will appeal to this age group. These two groups will curate the final collection of Peer-Support Learning Clips. The collection will disseminate the much-needed learning as shared between peers – as opposed to a resource made by educators or consultants – because peer-knowledge has been shown most effective!

We are hugely excited to be on the starting line of our Travel Safe project!!!!

The Travel Safe! initiative fits the IHC Next Generation strategy and the young people's request for "timely services which are tailored to individual young people and their family that facilitate community participation". The Travel Safe! project will contribute to their desire to "live and work in my community like every other young person. My education is lifelong and I want to learn new things". 

Tania Garrett, Next Generation Project Manager suggested that this project would be great for the Young Consultants group to lead and so our next steps will be to engage with the group.

This activity will form the backdrop for a Leadership Development activity, with the Young Consultants making choices to keep safe and share this learning with their peers as their contribution. The project will be mindful of both process and outcomes. 

Our first step was an introductory meeting at the upcoming ASID conference (photo below): Ros, Georgina, Natasha, Kyle and Tania.


Our next steps are a Hamilton meeting with the local Young Consultants and a Wellington meeting with the IHC Library - both laying the foundations for our upcoming meeting with the whole group in Palmerston North early May.

Much to do!!!!