1. AAPEI
ASSOCIATIVE
PROJECT

2. AAPEI
OUTLINE

3. ASSOCIATIVE PROJECT
 History
 Who are we?
 Our values
 Our goals
 The structure
 The “SISES” (School and Social Integration
Service) as an example

4. HISTORY
In 1976 young children's parents faced with their
children's deficiency and difficulties, as well as the
ignorance toward mental disability, came together to
share their concerns.
They organised themselves to meet unsatisfied
expectactions and end of 1978 they funded the non-
profit general interest association under the French
law of 1908 : the « AAPEI (Association of parents with
mentally disabled children and friends) of Strasbourg
and its surrounding area », whose main objectives
are to be attentive to families' needs, to advise them
and guide them.

5. HISTORY
A real challenge was given to our society: our children
had to live with their differences with and among the
others. »
The AAPEI of Greater Strasbourg, a non-profit family
association of parents with disabled children and
volunteers began as organisations administrator with
a first school class set up in 1980 to meet at the time
the need to send mentally disabled children to
school.

6. HISTORY
« Familyaction », one of AAPEI’s main goal aiming at
promoting relations between the association and
families was a strong commitment for the first years. It
enabled the life development of the association its
events, picnic, walks, and thematic meetings.
Training actions and diverse fund raising activities
were subsequently organized.

7. WHO ARE WE ?
30 years have gone by. AAPEI now has a senior
management an administrative and financial
management, as well as a welcoming and logistic
facility, all found within the head departments
Thanks to a strong commitment and collaboration
efforts from parents, administrators, senior
managers, employees, 10 reception structures and
facilities have been opened in the most diverse
sector:

8. WHO ARE WE?
 early care,
early childhood welcoming
structures
early care of children and teenagers suffering of autism
and multiple disabilities.

education, home care, integration,
 social care,
professional training,
protected work, housing,
visual arts,
sport,
culture,
With the support of general departments:
administrative, financial, logistic and training

9. WHO ARE WE?
To date 600 mentally disabled children, teenagers
and adults have been able to benefit from those areas
created and managed by the AAPEI in collaboration
with 214 employees
To meet in the best way as possible its objectives
and to guarantee its efficiency the AAPEI has been
enhanced by 13 voluntary commissions with around
sixty active members who are continually commited
in favour of the 630 families among which 270 are
members of the Unapei (National Union of parents
with mentally disabled children and their friends)
movement. The coordination of these commissions
is carried out by a Vice-President.

10. OUR VALUES
They fall into the values of the Movement with which
the AAPEI agrees: nationally as far as the Unapei is
concerned, locally at the level of French regional and
departmental level as far as the Urapei Alsace is
concerned.
Our values are based on the term family in the broad
sense and on its main role toward mentally disabled
persons concerning their reception, care, and social
integration.
Those values are the following ones:

11. OUR VALUES
Dignity and citizenship : The mentally
disabled person are full citizens and benefit from
rights admitted to any human individual. They fulfill
obligations to which any citizen is bound.
Into this light the association promotes the dignity
of mentally disabled persons and this is reflected in
the respect of all their rights as well as their
requirements, their choices and their freedom of
speech.

12. OUR VALUES
Participation: the association promotes the right
to every mentally disabled person and to its family to
take fully part in their life project and decisions that
concern them, regardless of the degree of their
difficulties and in accordance with those.

13. OUR VALUES
Solidarity: it is the pillar in the action of the
association which is a place for exchange, welcome,
care and support combining expertise and humanity.
The AAPEI of Greater Strasbourg also cares for those
who have not found a suitable solution to their
situation. This solidarity is present and expressed
among all the actors of the association : the persons
welcomed, families, volunteers and professionals

14. OUR VALUES
Life quality: through its material and human means,
through the expertise of its professional and volunteer
team, the association works to improve the life quality
of mentally disabled persons, ensuring:

that their dignity are respected
their integration into society is encouraged,
 a change in the way society perceives and accepts
mentally disabled persons

that their specific needs and development is taken into
consideration.

their well-being,
that necessary adjustments are carried out in order to
face the socio-economic change.

15. OUR GOALS
MISSIONS
• t
o
p
r
t
o
p
t
t
o
promote and manage suitable services and
structures to meet needs for support and
guidance.
• to enable personal development within the city
• to bring together families faced with disability
• to represent them before the diverse decision
making authorities (ARS, MDPH, CG…)
• to protect the general interests of mentally
disabled persons and their families
• to develop dialogue, exchange, and collaboration
with other associations working for the same
cause

17. THE STRUCTURE
In compliance with its statutes the association is
organised according to the action of its
Management Board and its numerous committees
which guarantee the dynamic and coherence of its
functioning.
The different actors’ responsibilities are clearly
identified (administrators, volunteers, employees)
in order to enable the best cohesion within this
structure.

18. THE STRUCTURE
The General Assembly (GA) remains the sovereign
body. The Management Board, chosen during the
annual general meeting is responsible for the
associative project.
The committee is chosen within the Management
Board: the chairman, the deputy chairman, the vice-
presidents, treasurer, secretaries, assessors.
An Executive Board is responsible for following
conducted actions as well as for connecting the
different commissions with the Management Board.

19. THE STRUCTURE
In accordance with the law n°2002-2 of January 2nd
,
2002 social and medical-social action, in each center
and service managed by the AAPEI, a council for
social life has been set up; different administrators
elected by the Management Board take part in
meetings of the CVS and embody it.

20. THE STRUCTURE
Thanks to the work achieved by many volunteers
who get involved in many different commissions,
mentally disabled persons and their families meet an
adapted care fitted to each other’s needs.
The president and the Management Board work in
close cooperation with the chairman. This latter gives
an overview of each centre during management board
meetings.

21. THE “SISES”
Service for social and educational
integration
Objective:
• Promote the well being
• To enable each one to live with their difficulties
• To enable the acquisition of as much practical learning as possible related to daily
life
• To suggest a progressive social inclusion for each child
• To promote the acquisition and the development of basic learning (reading, writing,
arithmetic)

22. THE “SISES”
Areas that should be
developed:
The educational line: aims at:
• School and pre-school learning
• Cognitive experience linked to the child’s skills
• Increasing the points of interests
• Inviting curiosity in

24. LE SISES
Areas that should be developed:
The educational line: aims at:
• Getting to know each other
• Learning to live together
• Discover and act on your environment

25. THE ‘SISES’
Areas that should be developed:
The therapeutic line: aims at:
• Guiding in the development of the relationship and
communication in all its forms (verbal or non-verbal)
• Helping children to give sense to their way of being
and their way of understanding the world to enable an
harmonious development
• Guaranteeing a support to their family

27. THE
SISES
Means of intervention:
Educational and teaching areas

Children are cared for in group of small numbers (7
to 10), 5 classes geographically located within many
primary schools

A specialised school teacher and one educator co-
organise the school day

28. THE
SISES
The intervention means:
Educational and teaching areas:
School time enables:
 To continue with first part learning

T
o implement educational tools adapted to children’s capacities and personality
 To promote and develop educational basic educational learning

30. THE
SISES
Children share many moments of the school social
life: break time, canteen, cultural activities, sports
activities and take part in other transferred classes
with other classes from the reference school

31. THE
SISES
After school activities :
• Wednesday morning: focused on leisure activities and social inclusion
• Children are taken care of by the educational team which suggest diverse
activities strengthening social development, cultural and social inclusion.

32. After school activities :
After school activities :
LE SISES
After school activities:
• Children are taken care of in the unit or the socio-
cultural centre for a specific activity, integration is
done in small groups and the follow-up care is done by
a unit educator.