Through the Carousel of Careers project we want to give deaf children the opportunity to dream about what they want to be when they grow up. We want the children to meet their heroes from all walks of life - doctors, teachers, firemen, policemen, photographers, actors and so on, and to get to know what their jobs are. Learning about the professions, the knowledge and skills they need, will boost their motivation for success. Supporting them to build a world where Deaf Kids Can Do Anything!
National
Bulgaria
The team is located in Sofia where the largest proportion of deaf kids live or study. Many activities will be available online so all deaf children in Bulgaria will have access to the initiative. This is especially relevant for rural areas where there is a profound lack of services and opportunities.
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Deaf Kids Power Foundation Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Darinka Last name of representative: Borisova Gender: Female Nationality: Bulgaria Function: Director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 5 Viktor Grigorovich St. Town: Sofia Postal code: 1000 Country: Bulgaria Direct Tel:+359 87 824 3390 E-mail:dari@deafkids.bg Website:https://deafkids.bg/
The preliminary stage of the project has been already carried out and included a promotional campaign raising awareness about deaf children, the quality of education and the need to widen their opportunities. The campaign used posters under the motto “Deaf Kids Can Do Anything!”.
(1) The initiative will include a series of workshops carried out by professionals in various fields (industry, business, services, science, education, fine arts, performance arts, etc.) with deaf children and youths with the support of schools and educators. Involving a variety of professionals and attracting support by professional bodies, businesses, local authorities, etc. will ensure the enforcement of best practices in career advice and support for deaf children and youths. Using creative and innovative (educational) forms for interaction will deeply impact the children and the community in order to give them impressive and aesthetic experiences in career orientation.
(2) In addition, the deaf children with the support of educational sign language specialists will provide basic sign language knowledge to the professionals which will be widely spread in terms of easy to learn signs and sign language resources. This will be interesting for the professionals (e.g., doctors and nurses knowing basic signs related to healthcare; firemen learning some basic signs on fire safety), will be beneficial for the community by promoting sign language and will give the children the opportunity to contribute with their knowledge.
(3) Promotional and informational materials will present the results of the project in the form of videos, interactive materials, quizzes, sign language videos, etc. which will aim at deaf youths, all youths and the wider public. The purpose is twofold: to widen students’ perspective on careers and professional success, as well as to facilitate social acceptance and enforcing a positive image of the deaf in the society.
careers
deaf children
deaf education
inclusion
education
Our main long-term objectives in terms of sustainability are:
(1) To provide more information and awareness about the professions of the modern world and their accessibility to deaf youths allowing them more opportunities and giving them the chance to contribute more to society.
(2) To develop and establish best practices in providing career advice and support to the deaf, among other groups of disadvantaged children and youths.
(3) To boost the motivation of deaf children to develop their communication and social skills, aiming at higher levels of education and qualification, and participation in the social life, contribution to society, promoting social responsibility and active citizenship participation.
(4) To make steps towards reducing the unemployment rates that are much higher among young deaf people compared to their hearing peers.
(5) To establish long-term network of organisations, educators, local authorities and the government to advocate for deaf rights, deaf education, career support, accessibility.
Our main long-term objectives in terms of quality of experience are:
(1) To create unforgettable experiences, positive emotions and inspiration for deaf children by providing them with the opportunity to get to know many different professions, to hear about them, to see the skills and knowledge they require, to meet their heroes.
(2) To give deaf children the opportunity to see professions as part of the social and cultural life contributing to a better life and better society.
(3) Using innovative, interactive, creative and aesthetically attractive approaches to create awareness, boost motivation and provide life knowledge and skills to deaf children and youths.
(4) To celebrate diversity in terms of all of us living together in a close-knit society and contributing in many different ways.
Our main long-term objectives in terms of inclusion are:
(1) To improve opportunities for social inclusion of deaf children through providing them with better access to information and high quality and versatile education.
(2) To advocate for accessibility to different forms of education, professional qualification, and a variety of modern-day professions. This objective will be addressed through promoting the results of the project and working closely with local authority, NGOs, professional bodies, etc.
(3) To encourage diversity and independence, educational and professional mobility. Access to deaf-friendly education, specialist deaf education programmes and exchange between the deaf people in EU is an essential step towards supporting inclusion.
(4) To build a modern society where technological advances and innovative practices provide new opportunities for all minorities, including the deaf.
The social impact will include:
(1) Deaf children and youths from primary and secondary school will widen their knowledge about different career opportunities, the education, knowledge and skills required to do different jobs, the ways deaf children can achieve their dreams.
(2) Professionals will have the opportunity to meet deaf children and to discuss the challenges of their profession, especially in terms of accessibility. This will improve their social awareness and will help them to improve the profession and the working conditions.
(3) Educators will be encouraged and supported to use more interactive, mentally and psychologically beneficial approaches to improve students’ involvement, motivation, learning attitudes.
(4) Professional organisations, schools, local authorities, deaf NGOs will participate in advocacy campaigns for equal access and improved accessibility.
Stakeholders in the initiative include:
Deaf children and youths and their families
Schools and educational professionals
NGOs and other organisations focused on the deaf and other minorities
Professionals, professional bodies and industry sectors
Business owners
Artistic communities
Local authorities and the government
(1) Professionals from various fields will take part to promote their professions and their fields of work as a range of possible careers, discussing their challenges and rewarding experience. Workshops and informational materials will raise awareness about the accessibility of different professions for deaf people. We have close ties with many supporters and local and national celebrities who are always open for collaboration.
(2) Professional organisations, artistic communities, business owners, NGOs, etc. will be involved in the discussions and in advocating accessibility of different fields of work, study, etc.
(3) All the way, educators and sign language educators direct the process and provide support for the initiative, organisation of events, involving more and more deaf children and youths as well as developing various interactive forms of career advice and support.
(4) Local authorities and the government play a key role in establishing and promoting good practices, as well as including career orientation as part of school education. We work closely with Sofia municipality and other local authorities in the field of education and youth initiatives and they traditionally support our work.
(5) EU programmes and initiatives will be examined in order to use more opportunity for knowledge exchange and to promote education and professional mobility.
Disciplines and knowledge fields reflected in the design and implementation of the initiative include:
(1) Education, Special Education (Deaf education in particular), University Education: career information and advice should be integrated in general education and deaf education in particular. This will help to boost motivation for higher and further education, will help with professional orientation, etc.
(2) Career advice and coaching: moreover, the field of career advice and orientation requires innovative approaches to be introduced in an attractive way to attract students’ interest.
(3) Deaf community, social services and support, social activity and inclusion: focusing on accessibility and providing wider accessible opportunities for professional development in various fields is an area that is underdeveloped in Bulgaria and other lower income countries.
(4) Different professional and artistic fields: discussing the aspects of accessibility of different professional fields will in general have impact on improving the working conditions, promoting diversity, etc. Focusing on socially significant and/or sectors that face significant challenges (e.g., insufficient staff in medicine, agriculture, etc.) will contribute to place the focus on these sectors, will encourage public discussion and will attract more people to these professions.
Nationally, there have been no similar initiatives focused on deaf children and youths. The specifics of our focus group are in the modes of communication (to a varied degree a combination between spoken language, sign language, visually aided communication) and based on that, the specific requirements with a view to accessibility in different professional fields.
In many European countries (UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, etc.) career advice has been in the focus in final years of (both secondary and higher) education in order to help students to get a clear perspective on their opportunities in preparation for university, when graduating from university or when obtaining professional qualification. Mostly, this is provided in terms of personal advice or career fairs. There have been no initiatives that aim to provide more complex experience of different professions, with focus on the positive and aesthetically pleasing impact though artistic forms, performance arts, interactive methods, etc.
In many European countries there are specialist organisations focused on career advice for the deaf. However, these are mostly focused on providing accessibility services such as information, professional sign language interpreting, etc.
Our initiative targets school children at all levels of education and rather than providing services, aims at giving them something to dream of, encouraging them to search for their dream job, to experience various opportunities. Our work is to educate about professions but also to inspire.
All elements of the initiative can be replicated and transferred.
(1) Workshops can be organised with representatives of different professions in various parts of Bulgaria, local celebrities and inspirational local people who serve ad role models. These workshops can be organised in different countries as well, with focus on the Balkan region where (a) such initiatives are not common; (b) unemployment among young people, and young deaf people, is very high in comparison to general unemployment levels.
(2) Sign language resources (sets of signs on different professions) can be developed for other sign languages as well, with the support from the local deaf communities.
(3) Information and interactive materials can be created in different languages and/or with focus on particular area, giving information specific to the country or the region. For example, in coastal cities (e.g., Varna and Bourgas on the Black Sea) focus can be on careers in tourism which is the dominating sector in the region.
(4) The exchange of ideas and approaches with different communities will enrich the variety of methods for interaction and impact.
(5) Although our main target group are deaf children due to the specifics of accessibility related to deafness, the initiative can be replicated with other groups of children as well.
Our initiative includes several distinct activities which use specific methods:
(1) The workshops will use interactive methods for education and exchange of ideas - interactive presentations with the support of abundance of visual materials (to support the learning of deaf children through visual aids), discussions with the professionals,
(2) Hands-on approaches - demonstrations, artistic forms such as drawing, performance arts, etc., role-play, games.
(3) Learning will be supported through sign language - either direct sign language interpreting or adapting materials to be presented using sign language, depending on the occasion and the information provided.
(4) Knowledge exchange - children will be presenting knowledge about sign language to the professionals participating in the workshop, which will make it more interactive and exchange-like.
(5) Promotional materials will use methods to enforce positive messages and present different professions in a good light as well as to encourage and support deaf children.
(6) All used methods will aim at aesthetically pleasing experience.
(7) Further, advocating methods will be used to promote accessibility for the deaf to different professions. These will include meeting, presentations, participation in events with NGOs and authorities, academic conferences and initiatives in the field of (Deaf) education, etc.
The most important challenges are:
(1) The new professions of the 21st century which appear as a result of the technological revolution. The Deaf education in Bulgaria and many other countries has not been able to keep up with the requirements in the modern world. Professions in technology, engineering, science are largely inaccessible to the deaf. Our idea is to introduce these professions and to boost the confidence for deaf people to pursue these professions with active support from the community (educators, NGOs, local authorities) to make them accessible.
(2) The global society envisages long-term exchange of ideas and ever growing mobility. This still needs to be seen with the deaf. Education abroad is not accessible for the deaf in terms of university education, exchange programmes, specialisations, etc. We would like to establish regular career-related activities and provide information for a wider range of opportunities.
(3) Using the technological advances to provide adequate and efficient methods for access to information. These include, for example, automatic captioning for audio (through speech to text applications), automatic translation, in the future will also be possible to see automatic translation to and from sign languages and many other technological achievements. These are still underrepresented in Bulgaria and many other countries, but when implemented in education and in the workplaces they can create accessible environment for the deaf.
We have already held a campaign on different professions just before COVID-19 hit. We have created a range of posters featuring children from our Academy for Deaf Kids with different professionals and the children’s dream jobs. The slogan of the campaign was “Deaf Kids Can Do Anything!” Our campaign was very successful in gaining popularity and fundraising in support of the Academy, we received supportive feedback from many individuals, NGOs and business organisations.
We are now planning to continue our work with the next stages of the project in this direction of:
(a) widening the number of professions;
(b) organising interactive workshops between children and professionals from different professions;
(c) actively discuss and promote accessibility of professions;
(d) preparing sign language materials and signs for different professions;
(e) preparing more promotional and awareness materials;
(f) advocating for accessibility to different professional fields by involving decision-makers (educators, local authorities, e.g. municipalities, government representatives, e.g. the Ministry of education and science, members of the National Assembly, etc.).
Our initiative helps equip deaf learners and deaf educators with a wider range of approaches to motivate and target learning in a more inspirational way, through providing knowledge, skills and supporting attitudes needed for a more sustainable economy and society where diversity is encouraged and deaf youths can choose a wide variety of professions and professional fields.
Our initiative actively supports the discussion on the transformative changes needed in deaf education and training in order to provide equal opportunity for the deaf to choose their professions.
Our initiative helps to put the focus on sustainable economical and social development with a view to the professions of the modern technological age and to support the deaf community and the deaf education to keep pace with the modern trends.
Our initiative aims at advocating for integrating career advice and orientation as part of the general curriculum, to develop novelty educational resources and programmes teaching essential professional skills, promoting mobility in higher and further education, actively discussing the globalisation and its effects on the deaf community.
