We have built the capacity of employees and volunteers of the Liepāja society for the blind
On 31st October this year, the Liepāja society for the blind will conclude the project “Darbosimies un pilnveidosimies kopā- “Dvēseles veldzes dārzā”” financed by the Latvian State budget. The purpose of this project is to increase the capacity and performance of employees and volunteers of the Liepāja society for the blind for valuable development and growth, ensuring quality services, improvement of inter-institutional co-operation in order to increase co-involvement of people with disabilities and to raise the quality of their life.
As part of the project, the motivation, capacity and encouragement of the organisation's staff and volunteers to responsibly address the problems and needs of people with disabilities were built.
Activities performed during the project:
• Employees of the association and volunteers of the association took an experience exchange trip to the social enterprise – the Centre for the well-being of horses “Dabas zirgi” and the Ķemeri national park in order to strengthen their capacity and acquire new ideas for the development of the society's services. A total of 19 members from the society and 31 volunteers.
• An informative stand in “Dvēseles veldzes dārzs” was created to make it easier for customers to navigate the territory, as well as booklets were created in three languages - English, Latvian and Russian.
• Four videos of experience stories were created to also address more people to join and operate in “Dvēseles veldzes dārzs” in Ziemupe.
• We created nine excursions for people with disabilities and seniors from surrounding Kurzeme counties to the centre to present in person the route of the new environmental attractions and a narrative about the operation of the rehabilitation centre and the objects to be viewed there. These tours included 67 people with disabilities and seniors from: Aizputes municipality, Liepaja pensioners' society, VSAC Kurzemes' branch “Iļģi”, house for pensioners “Aizvīķi” and Aizputes diabetes society.
• We conducted a seminar for employees of Liepāja University and social housing on “Emocionālo kompetenci saskarsmē ar cilvēkiem ar funkcionālajiem traucējumiem ”. A total of 29 participants participated in two seminars.
• There was also a seminar dedicated to the society's employees and volunteers: “Medijpratība un kritiskā domāšana” and “Sociālo mediju būtība organizācijas komunikācijas veidošanai ar mērķauditoriju". A total of 19 employees from the Liepaja society for the blind and 12 volunteers.
The project culminated in a presentation of the project result to members of the society, volunteers and collaborators. As well as the 160 most active members of Liepājas' society for the blind recieved gifts. Because of the current situation in the country, the "International White walking stick day" celebrations were unusual for us, and the presentation failed. On the other hand, we sent greeting cards to all volunteers, collaborators and members of the society, and our annual activities can be viewed by anyone on the video on our YouTube account and on our website, redzigaismu.lv.
You can see more of the activities we've done during the project here: PREZENTĀCIJA