ActivAbility: Promoting active ageing for People with Intellectual Disabilities through physical activities ​

The ActivAbility project is addressed to professionals and nonprofessional caregivers working with ageing People with Intellectual Disabilities (PwID). It aims both at increasing their awareness and at promoting greater knowledge, skills and tools related to how active ageing among aged people with intellectual disabilities can be fostered using physical activities. ​
The ageing issue is already problematic for people who do not present any form of physical or mental disability.

When people start getting older, for instance, they lose their capacity to adapt to changes in several aspects of everyday life, thus starting to be more and more isolated from the community to which they belong and losing a central position in some networks of people.

In addition to causing a loss of interest in interacting and socializing with other people, this condition also causes a loss of interest in keeping themselves active from both a physical and a mental point of view.

If the stated issues are valid for every person that is getting old, these issues are even more problematic for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PwID), considering that they often have additional problems in integrating in the society and they are usually located in a peripheral location of social networks, thus precluding them from an effective participation in the society.
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This project highlights the importance of physical activities in relation to the inclusion of aged PwID in the society, given that these activities can ease some of the problems they face in everyday life. These activities allow them to keep their minds and their bodies active and to create a larger network of people they can interact with. ​

The main project objectives are the following: 

1. Increase the awareness of professionals and nonprofessional caregivers working with ageing PwID about the importance of physical activities for the latter. 
2. Promote physical activities as a means of improving life conditions and social inclusion of PwID .
3. Improve the theoretical knowledge of the target groups about the benefits obtainable through physical activities. 
4. Improve the practical skills of the target groups about how to develop a physical activity programme and tailor it to the needs of PwID. 
5. Develop new methodologies that can be used by the target group in order toimplement physical activities initiatives. 
6. Develop innovative learning resources for professionals and nonprofessional caregivers working with ageing PwID .

Visit Website: https://www.activability-euproject.org/