“YAID - Young Adult with Intellectual Disability: an European Learning Partnership for a new approach to the family system” is a project founded by the Grundtvig - Life Long Learning Program 2007-2013. The project started with the recognition of the transition to adulthood as a critical period influencing the quality of life of the families of persons with intellectual disabilities exposing them and their family members to a progressive social isolation.
In the field of intellectual disability in many European countries there is a lack of services that operate on the transition to adulthood. For this reason the YAID project has involved a group of organizations based in Italy, Croatia, Lithuania and Scotland in a transnational action research to identify the main problems faced by young adults with intellectual disability and their families. The action research has involved 60 families of young adults with intellectual disability: 15 families has been involved in each country.
The staffs of the partner organizations have meet each other in a series of 6 meetings in which the participant organizations have explored and analysed the different local contexts visiting the services for persons with intellectual disability they run. Furthermore, during the meetings the action research data have been discussed. The final result of the project is a “compass”, a set of criteria to develop effective projects and services for the young adults with intellectual disability and their families. The “compass” is addressed to all the organizations working in the field of disability realizing projects and services for the families of young adults with intellectual disability.
