On the 29th and 30th of September of 2022, the partners of IPAT project – Integrative Parents’ Autism Training – met in Italy for a two-day meeting. It took place in a hybrid format. The meeting, hosted in Catania, Sicily by Controvento was the first face-to-face were finally the project partners had the chance to work together in presence. In fact, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the partnership was not able to travel since the beginning of the project. Unfortunately, the Gaziantep University staff was not able to travel to Catania and attended the meeting online.
The Italian partner, Controvento, did the honors and warmly welcomed the Consortium. Martina Nucifora and Enrica Chiara Cappadonna, standing in for President Daniele Casella, opened the meeting by wishing all participants a two-day of fruitful meeting and underlining the importance of cooperation projects such as IPAT within the framework of what Controvento does daily in providing support to people with intellectual disabilities
The first day of the online transnational meeting covered two core topics for the IPAT project. The first session led by The Child and Adolescent’s Center, the coordinator of the project and of the second intellectual output, focused on the partners’ feedback on the Parent Training that took place in the partner countries in the previous months and ended in June.
Each of the partners highlighted the overall progress and then addressed both the strengths of the training as well as the weaknesses and challenges faced by the moderators.
The session aimed at identifying strengths, weaknesses, general impression, challenges, suggestions for the improvement of the materials used during the piloting actions with parents.
After the lunch break, partners had the chance to visit one of Controvento’s centers in Acireale. Here partners concluded the day’s work: each one presented to the consortium the draft agenda – as long as the main activities, participants involved, format of the day, guests- for the Multiplier Events in all the countries where partner organization will promote locally the results of the IPAT project.
On the second day of the IPAT fourth transnational project meeting, partner organizations were introduced to some of the activities carried out by Controvento and its network in Sicily. The Consortium visited the “Agorà delle Abilità” a center with a special focus on supporting people with autism. There, partners had the opportunity to get to know three organizations and their activities:
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Cooperativa TEAM: which offers high quality services, optimizing resources and applying the values of ethics, solidarity and the centrality of the person
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La Libellula: an educational and recreational center
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Associazione Autismo Oltre: an association formed by parents of people with autism with the aim of being a strong point of reference for all those families whose lives have been disrupted by autism.
Day 2 was devoted to the overview on the fourth and last intellectual output, including the internal evaluation of the project as coordinated by Gaziantep university, to the Steering Committee and the internal management of the IPAT project covering the procedures for the overall monitoring of the project, the management plan, the communication plan and the dissemination activities and the planning of the activities for the following months.
The session started with the Steering Comittee in which it was decided to include the discussion on the ΙΡΑΤ Self-training digital tool (IO3), the online platform where parents will be able to attend a digital self- training. The session on IO3 led by Conchi Remírez de Ganuza and Nikoletta Mavroidi gave an overview of work in progress and the pending issues. The digital training is based on the IPAT modules with the addition of features that will ease the self-paced learning path. In the following months, partners will finalize the platform content that will be soon available in all partners’ languages.
Partners also agreed to have all the material reviewed at the country level by an external expert and to proceed with an additional bilateral review, all this to ensure the highest quality of the material. During these months, in parallel with the work mentioned above, partners will work to recruit parents who will test the platform in January.
The Steering Committee ended with the Consortium’s unanimous decision to request a three-month extension of the project. Then the Turkish partner presented the draft of the internal evaluation and the dissemination plans of all partners.
The IPAT fourth transnational project meeting ended with the discussion on the communication plan and dissemination activities.