<< Objectives >>The aim of LIPS is to reach the inclusion of people with autism without learning disabilities in the labour market through the recognition of their skills, talents, and potential. Creating awareness of the benefits of working with them and breaking down stereotypes, along with preparing professionals to help in the integration of people in a neurodiverse world in jobs where they will be required to interact.<< Implementation >>We are going to implement:- Learning Lab-Review-discussion and ideas-generation workshop Stakeholder and Live Experience ResearchActivity related to the creation of a training scheme/ CurriculumActivities for the creation and adding updates to the WebsiteDissemination activities through the network the partners belong to.<< Results >>LIPS will create the following outcomes: - Learning Lab: will outline different existing support structures for integrating them into the workplace. The result will be a set of best practice recommendations that will guide the development of the other outcomes.- Curriculum that will contain a training scheme on how to create inclusive workplaces for people with autism.- Toolkit that will support people to create inclusive workplaces for people with autism.

<< Background >>Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a major public health problem due to the worldwide increase in its prevalence in recent decades (Laura Pérez‐Crespo, 2019). According to recent information available from the World Health Organisation (WHO-2019), one in 160 children has ASD, with higher rates in some countries like France (French body INSERM), where 1 out of 100 kids are born with autism or Denmark, where a study found an autism prevalence of 1.65 percent in 10-year-olds (JAMA, 2018).According to WHO, evidence-based psychosocial interventions, such as behavioral treatment and parent skills training programs, can reduce difficulties in communication and social behavior, with a positive impact on well-being and quality of life for children with ASD and their caregivers. Unfortunately, in many countries, such as Greece and Cyprus, no action has been taken so far to raise awareness and inform parents, the public and health professionals focusing on infants and toddlers. At the same time there are no educational programmes dedicated to the parents of these children hence, this particular need is going to be addressed within TIPS project. Additionally, the current COVID19 pandemic situation has highlighted several challenges in supporting families with autistic members. Therefore, the consortium consists of either, formal and non-formal education providers and autism organisations. Thus, they have diverse expertise- lifelong learning, education and training as well as social inclusion and autism. Therefore, all partners share a common interest- improving the trainers’ professional skills and improving the support parents of children get. By exchanging of good practices and ideas, it is expected that all members of the consortium will gain valuable knowledge and experiences which will not only result in the personal and professional development of their staff, but also in the creation of an innovative and comprehensive training package. More specifically,IDL, an organization with a strong focus on education would like to expand its expertise, products and services to cover people with disabilities, including autism cases. As a result, IDL will contribute to the consortium by providing state of the art technical knowledge towards creating experiences that benefit people with autism.Both Blue-firefly (an NGO working in the field of autism) and Autism Burgos (a parental Association) aim to promote the well-being and the quality of life of the persons with autism and of his families. They base all their programs and actions on the lines of scientific evidence and the most innovative and accredited models on this field. Therefore, getting involved in a project related to an evidence-based intervention for social skills in autism is of high importance and would increase the professional development of our staff.For STANDO, InnoHive, and SOSU, one of the main needs that will be addressed is to manage to bring together the skills of such a diverse set of partners in creating new curricula, in implementing new, media-based training tools, in the exchange of cultures especially through the society, with no boundaries between nations. Additionally, the need to expand previous works (such as in the NEWORK project, the Aclass, Positive Parenting) and knowledge in similar fields will be addressed.<< Objectives >>In 2009, the teaching interaction procedure (TIP) -a systematic social skills teaching package which consists of six steps (Phillips et al. 1974), was first empirically evaluated for individuals diagnosed with ASD (Leaf et al. 2009). The results indicated the TIP was successful at increasing the rate at which all of targeted social skills of all the participants. Since this research, there have been several studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of the TIP for teaching individuals diagnosed with ASD (e.g., Dotson et al. 2013; Kassardjian et al. 2013; Leaf et al. 2012a, b). Within these and other studies, the TIP has shown to be an effective teaching strategy for individuals diagnosed with ASD.Within this context, TIPS project aims to improve the life and personal skills of children with autism and their families. Therefore, considering how important learning social and life skills from an early age is we propose a project with target group parents of children with ASD and with the following objectives:*To design, test and publish an innovative Educational package for adult educators that will guide and support their training on parents of children with autism on how to use digital tools- a digital game and digital comic strip- as a teaching tool for the social and life skill development of their children with autism. Both digital tools will be based on the evidence-based procedure of teaching interactions.*To deliver training courses to directly train educators on how to effectively use the digital tools with children with autism and to deliver these courses to parents of children with autism in order to amplify and perpetuate the ripple effect of those courses<< Implementation >>First of all, regarding the project management of the project and for the successful implementation of the project, procedures and actions will be implemented from the very beginning of the project implementation regarding management and quality monitoring and evaluation of the project activities through the guidance on the agreed Project Management Plan (P1), the Evaluation and Quality Assurance Plan (P6), the Dissemination Plan (P4) and the Sustainability and Exploitation Plan (P5). All the material will be developed with the contribution of all partners to establish a strong foundation in which the project will be developed. These Plans will, also, clearly state and set the rules of the project, the obligations of the partners, the allocation of tasks and responsibilities, the processes of mitigating risks, and many other management actions for the partners to follow.Secondly, ongoing monitoring will be achieved through regular online and 3 face-to-face meetings.Moreover, the partnership is going to develop the project results, starting by the development of R1: Social Skills Curriculum for children with ASD, and at the same time, the digital tools (PR2-3) will be created to supplement the training course. All developed PR will then be incorporated into the e-learning platform (R4) of the project, which will be not only the online training platform of the project, but also a network platform for parents/carers. R3 will also incorporate an Open Badge system which will help validate the knowledge acquired through the training. After the completion of the first drafts of the results, the partnership will pilot-test them during the two LTT activities. C1 will be organized for adult education trainers. During the C1 training the trainers will be trained on how to utilise the PRs to teach children with autism social, so that they can then teach the parents, during C2. All PRs will be pilot-tested by the trainers and parents during the 2 training activities. The pilot testing of the developed PRs will start after the completion of their drafts to allow improvements and modifications during the C1 and C2. The participants with the completion of the training event will give feedback with suggestions for improvements. Provision has been made in order to limit the number of participants up to the limit that fosters project’s objectives and impact while at the same time their involvement produces the minimum environmental cost.Finally, towards the end of the project 6 ME will be oganised to promote the project, its results and outcomes among its target groups and stakeholders (E1-E6)<< Results >>The project outcomes are directly linked to the project results and activities:1. “TIPS” educational Package including 3 interconnected educational material: R1: Social skills curriculum for trainers. The training curriculum will be complemented by R2 and R3, two different digital tools with a common aim, improving the social skills of children with ASD. Finally, the training package will be available through an online platform (R4). The platform will feature an “Open badges” system which will be automatically linked with the assessment process of the courses for recognition and validation of the learning process. The platform will serve not only as an online training platform, but also as a network platform for trainers and parents. 2. 18 trained adult education trainers (3 from each partner organisation) who will acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of autism and social skills through a training activity, during which they are expected to learn how to plan and implement a parent training, focusing on social skills of their children with autism. The training will consist of a 3-days face-to-face training (C1) (approx. 20 hours of training)3. 30 parents of children with autism will participate in a blended training activity, during which they are going to learn how to use the two digital tools to help their children with autism acquire important life and social skills.4. 6 multiplier events to promote the project, its results and its outcomes among trainers, families of children with autism and other stakeholders (social workers, SEN professionals, NGOs, educational organisations, Universities, incubators, authorities, other stakeholders) (E1-E6) Other outcomes of “TIPS” project will be:1. Staff and associates of the partner organizations (trainers, educators, etc) will learn about the educational tools created within the project. Expected number: 402. Young children with autism, through their parents’ involvement in the project, will participate in the activities suggested by the project and use the digital tools developed. Expected number: 303. Increasing everyone’s awareness on autism and the importance of explicitly teaching social skills for that population. Social workers, trainers, SEN professionals, NGOs, educational organisations, Universities, incubators, authorities, other stakeholders etc will visit the project’s website and platform which includes all the educational tools (R1, R2, R3) and become aware of the project. Expected number: 1000Moreover, the project is expected to help children with ASD:-learn how to act in different situations-make friends more easily - expand their interests- improve their overall quality of life- improve their TIPS skills (i.e taking turns, sharing etc) -improve their conversation skills- learn how to manage their emotions - acquire problem solving skills- indirectly improve their digital skillsAdditionally, the project also foresees a set of project management, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination results.

<< Objectives >>-To develop an assessment tool for P.E. teachers for children with autism spectrum disorders.-To develop a goal bank for goals and objectivities to guide the P.E. teachers about ASD-To develop guide book with lesson plans for P.E. teachers-To develop a P.E. toolkitWith all these activities we would like to improve the teaching of students with ASD in P.E. classes.<< Implementation >>WP2: Project ManagementWP2: P.E. Educational KitWP3: E-learning PlatformWP4: Train-the-trainer and Train of P.E. TeachersWP5: Communication and Disseminationion<< Results >>-Needs analysis report on the needs of P.E. teachers for teaching students with ASD.-Educational toolkit with assessment tools, goal bank and guide and toolkit for lesson plans.-E-learning platform-8 training events,1 international and 7 national.