Fundació Projecte Aura

TESTIMONIES

My job gives me autonomy and independence. I can spend more money now then I used to before... I've become more sociable... I love helping people and that they can count on me as a friend in good and bad moments. Thanks to the Project Aura I have managed to accept better my disability. I know the job has helped me a lot and that I've matured with it..."

To find out what are our abilities and our limits we need to be given a vote of confidence. It has been the Project aura that gave Monica that chance. The opportunity to develop her own life, to realise herself personally and professionally. A fundamental right that people like her didn't have ten years ago..."


We have learnt from Anna to value the aspects that before we would let pass unnoticed. Her contribution to our group is very important..."

1. Prior training and personal autonomy program

The young people who join the Project Aura do a training which mainly includes an individualized program for personal autonomy improvement, social skills, autonomous traveling, the program awareness, motivation and attitude towards the job. This program is carried out in individual sessions, together with the family and providing a periodical assistance for new participants of a group.

2. Job placement program

After prior training for personal autonomy and social skills program, the participants do an internship in the companies, which have been contacted before. The internship will be assisted by a professional from the Project aura (real situation training). The job coach assists a person during the internship which lasts from 2 to 4 months. An internship agreement is signed with the company, the Project, the candidate and the job department of an Autonomous Catalan Government, which exempts the company from any legal or contractual responsibility. After this period of apprenticeship and when the candidate knows well his job and shows a correct attitude, the company will employ the person according to the established contractual conditions.

3. Personal and job monitoring program

This program includes the personal and individualized attention, consulting and continuous assessment of the company. This program is carried out through individual interviews to the young worker and to the company, which remain recorded in the assessment registry. The young people of this group participate in the Cognitive Improvement course and, also, can attend, out of working hours, the Continuous Training courses.

4. The continuous training is a space offered by the Project Aura to the young who participate in the program, as an essential complement to the labour integration. Presently, it is considered a right and a duty of all the citizens to try to improve their training is essential in order to maintain the already acquired competencies as well as to develop new skills that, apart from a normal job, enables them to be active, participative and responsible citizens, according to their possibilities.

5. Independent life program AURA HABITAT

The Project Aura-Habitat started in November 2002. This project aims to offer the possibility to young people with Down Syndrome and with other global learning disorders to interact in a normal environment with young university students, learning to live together and to be in charge of the responsibilities, that sharing a flat with others implies. it is about residing a certain period of time in a shared flat with three participants of the Project aura and other three psychology, education science or social work students in order to acquire some skills and responsibilities that generally are difficult to acquire in one's own house, with the family.

6. Self-presentation program

The self-presentation group VOX NOSTRA was created in 1997 by the initiative of the young veterans of the Project Aura. This group was born with the Project aura support so that the young could debate and protect their rights and interests, such as labour inclusion in a common market and their dreams as of all the young people in our society.

7. Efficient communication program

The main objective of the efficient communication program is to improve social skills and the communication and linguistic competencies of the Project aura participants in order to support their social and personal development. This program uses a set of activities and strategies directed to the individual characteristics and needs. There are three main intervention areas: social, communication and verbal expression skills.


- Social skills: working on their own behaviour and attitude of the social interaction, which are functionally effective in different situations. For example, a look, a facial expression, a body posture, gestures, a smile, expressions of the emotions, opinions...

- Communication skills: working on the strategies supporting an intention to communicate and conversation skills (to start and to keep a conversation, to find an appropriate contents to talk on, questions and suitable answers related to labour issues and to personal life, to take interest in others,... as well as written expression.

- Oral expression skills: working on the aspects related to articulation, fluency and speech prosody in order the message were more comprehensible.

The program is for all the participants of the Project Aura who are willing to participate, either in reduced groups or in individual sessions. A contact person is Roser Fernández.