Promote the Rights and Well-Being for Persons with Intellectual Disability

Background

The project “Promote the Rights and Well-Being for Persons with intellectual disabilities” targets persons with intellectual disability in the city of Nanjing, China.

The project has received Norad funding from 2012-2016.

There is a gap between the need for persons with intellectual disabilities and the available service in Nanjing. Based on a baseline study, 6 goals were set for the 5-year project:

1. Introduce a new model of rehabilitation center (Home of Grace)
2. Upgrade the quality of professional service: Provide training for (a) administrators and (b) special education teachers to cope with the urgent need of appropriate personnel for development of new rehabilitation centers in the next five years. 
3. Raise the capability of the parents: Provide training for parents to promote their awareness on human rights and develop appropriate capability to live and nurture their child in a more effective way. 
4. Initiate alternative employment: Establish an Eco-Farm/Sheltered Workshop and initiate alternative employment opportunities for the intellectually disabled persons.
5. Broaden government officials’ perspectives on the rights and welfare for persons with intellectual disability. Organize an overseas educational field trip for government officials as a mean to raise their perspectives on policy implementation and practical solutions in serving persons with intellectual disability. 
6. Raise public awareness: Introduce international and local events to raise public awareness on the rights and well-being for persons with intellectual disability. 

Purpose/objective

The main purpose of the final evaluation is that it should be an overall review of the results and impact of the project. It should also be a learning process that will provide valuable information for Nanjing YWCA, considering to localize the project or apply for certain period of extension.

• To review to what extent the project has achieved the six goals.
• To review the management status (administrative, financial, implementation)
• To review the changes (if any) in the last four years in daily living for the intellectually disabled and their parents. 
• To review what are the main lessons learnt for Nanjing YWCA and local day care centers on service to persons with intellectual disabilities.

Methodology

Review of project documents, such as baseline study, annual reports, budget and so on. Visit different day care centers. Interview with parents and students at Home of Grace, interview with Nanjing Disabled Persons Federation (NDPF) and staff at Nanjing YWCA. Interview with teachers at different day care centers, and teachers that have attended the training.

Key findings

• Service users at Home of Grace have significant progress of physical and mental health, self-care, working capability etc. About 20% are successfully employed through supportive employment. Home of Grace functions in some ways as a model center, and through this project the cooperation between the different centers has been improved.
• By the end of 2015, 70 admin/management staff and 110 professional staff were trained. 30 teachers/professional staff will be trained in 2016. 
• Parents association was establish. The association met with local government and as a result monthly support to families with severe disabled children was increased. 
• Officials from NDPF participated on a study trip to Denmark. After the trip the Service Quality Standard (SQS) was developed by NDPF, in order to secure quality control of all centers in Nanjing. The SQS is now also planning to be used nationwide in China, by China Disabled Persons Federation. 
• Through advocacy of YWCA, NDPF paid more attention to advocate of policy, resource mobilization, standardize management mechanism and quality control. 
• A yearly public performance (disabled persons performing) is now well recognized and has become a very important mean to improve public awareness. At the start of the performances less then 100 people attended as audience, in 2015 there were more than 1500 audiences. Through the public performance, persons with intellectual disability and their families realized more on their potential and capacity.

Recommendations

• YWCA and Nanjing Disabled Persons Federation should continue the cooperation. Together they should work on the following:
  1) Establish cooperation with organizations that can provide systematic technical support including capacity development for centers, this needs to be improved.
  2) Develop and train a core management and professional resource team in Nanjing, so they can give technical and systematic support and guidance to all centers.
  3) Identify possible local resource as much as possible to ensure sustainability.
  4) Following the principle of SMART to set up indicators of project plan.
  5) The public performance could be taken over by Nanjing Disabled Persons Federation, to secure sustainability. 6) Continue to develop parents group and training, improve the participation of fathers. 7) Discussions on how to also care for the severe disabled. 
• The evaluation team strongly suggests that Areopagos/Digni continue to support the project for another 3-5 year to reach full sustainability in all aspects. Also, to continue to share experiences from Norway to Nanjing, giving focus to human value and potential.
• Organize a participatory workshop for planning the next 3-5 years, including major stake holders.
• Establish training of trainers group, (ToT).
• Home of Grace needs to clearly define its position and target, and structure the work such as choosing one assessment system.
• For YWCA to re-define the purpose of Eco Garden, as the garden now does not fully function as planned.