dessa

Disability Equality Specialist Support Agency (DESSA)

Challenge Partner Details

Award Level: Bronze
Challenge Area: Community Involvement
Age Group: 16-18
Region: Leinster
Online/In Person: In-Person

Contact Details

Email: dessaoffice@gmail.com
Website: https://www.dessa.ie/

About

DESSA is a national community development organisation working to create non-disabling communities. CKAN is network of individuals and organisations working towards making County Kildare inclusive and fully accessible to all.

Challenge Area Activities

Community Involvement
Participate in the disability education course provided through a partnership with DESSA, Kildare Access Network (CKAN) and Kildare County Council.

Programme Breakdown

This is a partnership initiative between local post-primary schools, DESSA, County Kildare Access Network (CKAN) and Kildare County Council. DESSA will provide 6 disability equality and access auditing workshops to students, introduce students to local CKAN members, facilitate access audits of students' local communities and support students in presenting their findings.

On completion of training, students undertake an access audit of their local community and/or school and present their findings to the local community.

So far, DESSA has trained 48 TY students in 2 schools in Celbridge and Newbridge and is currently working with another school in Newbridge. Dessa fulfils the Community Involvement Challenge Area with this project. They will deliver a series of interactive workshops (6) to TY students over 8 weeks and support these students to conduct access audits within their local community and/or school. Students will then be supported to present the findings of their access audits to their fellow students, teachers and the local community. The Kildare Inclusion in Schools project (KISP) provides training workshops to students on disability education. Disability equality awareness in schools is extremely important because it educates students so they may become better citizens. On completion of training, students undertake an access audit of their local community and/or school and present their findings to the local community.
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