Youth Club for adults with Down Syndrome

Adults with Down Syndrome after graduating the school in the age of 18 usually return to their "four walls". Lack of communication is a major problem faced by boys and girls, which worries parents. The Down Syndrome Youth Club was created to fill this communication vacuum. It brings together 20 guys from Kyiv, the region and other cities and is opened for new members. People with Down Syndrome need constant training of their skills – cognitive, social, communicative. Joint leisure events and trainings organisation is the task of the Youth Club staff.

The situation with the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly limited  our traditional format of working with the group – face-to-face meetings. It requires all of us to follow new rules to stay healthy and alive. Our guys are again at risk – isolation. And communication and socio-pedagogical work is their vital need. In this new situation for everyone, we put our Youth Club into an online format and implemented a series of trainings "Development of emotional intelligence". At the same time, we received one extra plus – the expansion of the geography of participants. Now these are guys from different cities of Ukraine who don’t need to go anywhere, but just turn on the phone or computer to meet friends, listen to the coach, play games. We are betting on remote communication for the next 4 months.

We plan to hold two meetings a month. It would be wise to further develop the on-line Club in order to maintain the availability of communication regardless of the place of residence. We hope that with the arrival of spring face-to-face meetings will be possible, because live communication is indispensable. People with Down syndrome are very attached to their friends and have a hard time separating. One group meeting per month is the minimum requirement. This is a tour, celebrating a birthday in nature or training.

Please support young people with Down syndrome and the team that works with them! We want to raise UAH 40 650, which will support us in the next 7 months!