Community Based Special Education & Rehab. Program Review Workshop Final Report

Background

The Community-Based Special Education and Rehabilitation (CBSE/R) project is part of the PRCS Rehabilitation and Ability Development Program, managed by the Rehabilitation Department.

The objective of the CBSE/R project is to improve the quality of life of disabled children and their families. PRCS works with disabled children, their families, and the community to provide opportunities for ability development, education, empowerment and integration. The CBSE/R project started in 2000 as a pilot project in Gaza and the West Bank, with support from the International Federation (IFRC). In 2006, Norcross entered into a bilateral agreement with the PRCS to assist the program for an initial three years (2006-2008), and from 2008, SRC added its support.

During 2009-2012, the project was jointly supported by Norcross and SRC. PRCS has developed a four-year proposal for the period 2013-16, which Norcross and SRC will fund.

Purpose/objective

To identify strengths and weaknesses in the project between 2009-12, and challenges it encountered during those three years as perceived by the CBSE staff attended the workshop To identify opportunities and recommend key improvements for future consideration in the 2013-2016 plan.

Methodology

Data collection/desk review, interviewes, two day workshop with staff and volunteers

Key findings

Strengths: - Reach people who are severely handicapped - Accomplishing the integration of some children with disabilities - There is a satisfactory attention by the rehabilitation department to the capacity development needs - Workers on different components are very supportive to each other - Rehabilitation centers are very good sources and constitute a backbone for the CBSE program. - There is good level of progress on the cooperation of public schools system

Weaknesses: - Part of the targeted beneficiaries are not with severe disabilities – Understaffing - Limited time for awareness raising activities. - Budget is insufficient for some activities particularly the HBT and awareness activities. It was debated that sometimes it is the budget allocated to specific item and its activities which is more a planning issue, while sometimes it is a delay in disbursement of the needed funds from HQ. Some families are not committed to the training plan set for their child, so they don’t do their part between the visits of RW Some teaching and training materials are not available. There is little/or no psychosocial ventilation work for families. The expectations from the program, to provide material or financial aid, are beyond its capacities and mandate. The incentives provided to workers and volunteers are not sufficient. When staff accomplishing more than what was planned or taking an initiative that was not in the plan, management pays little or no attention to staff member(s) involved. The existing incentives for volunteers are considered not enough to recruit new volunteers or maintain the involved ones. This issue needs to be articulated and expressed in clear policy where consistency in application is ensured and the mutual expectations are cleared.

Opportunities:
- After 7 years of implementation, there is a need and opportunity to review and improve the vision and strategic goals of the CBSE program
- The cooperation with other PRCS department such as the Youth and Volunteers Department is improving and works effectively
- The relationships with LGUs, public schools and CBOs is very positive and cooperative especially in the field of awareness raising activities
- The success in establishing effective and sufficient referral system with other service providers and with the PRCS rehab center enhanced the margin for more effective and trusted rehab interventions as perceived by families and local communities.
- The positive attitude of many school teachers enhanced and there is a room for more progress on this level
- Families are generally very cooperative in implementing the plans of the program
- Many families become more positive to present having a person with disability and request the help from the program which was not the case some years ago.
- School children become more aware of the need for their cooperation and many become involved in the program activities like taking part in preparations for some activities at the school or community and the responsibility to help individual PwDs getting to school or departing it to home.
- The community attitude improved positively towards PwDs
- Cooperative relationship between rehabilitation programs - Giving the priority for the most marginalized and severely disabled is one major strength of CBSE program

Challenges:
- Lacking the national and local research and statistics in the disability area
- Planning for the long-run is difficult and the feelings of job insecurity are serious challenges due to unsecured external funding or the questioned sustainability
- Difficult mobility between house and locations especially in locations controlled by Israeli security forces
- Inaccessible public places for PwDs
- Negative attitude of the local communities towards PwDs still quite challenging
- Transferring the responsibility of the project in each locality to LGUs and CBOs still facing a serious failure.
- National advocacy efforts still weak under the leadership of the GUDP

Recommendations

• Improve the targeting system and strategies to reach out more PwDs within the most marginalized communities, families and individuals
• Reviewing and improving the assessment, monitoring, internal evaluation and reporting tools
• Review and improve the assistive devices the program may provide to PwDs
• Review and improve the incentives system for volunteers
• Review and improve the incentives system for staff
• Plan and conduct more systematic investment in the staff capacities through the available SE programs at local universities
• Review and improve the set of definitions of different terms used by the program
• Review and improve the set of KPIs to reflect quantitative and qualitative measures
• Develop a semi-structured guideline for friendship committees and train staff and volunteers on how to apply systematically by everyone and everywhere with clear benchmarks
• Increasing the number of staff who are with disabilities
• Review and develop the program strategy to transfer the program to local communities
• Review and develop the system, tools and capacity of the program on success stories, case studies and other means to improve the reporting system
• Building the capacities of program management and staff in the area of documentation
• Review the distribution of rehabilitation centers in the West Bank to make sure that there is sufficient coverage of various localities especially where there are no other services providers.
• Building special data base for CBSE program
• Developing monitoring tools that can measure the impact of all components of the CBSE program
• Review the organizational structure and develop competent JD and strategies for synergies
• Establishing rehabilitation teams in all targeted areas where all positions and functions are included in each team.