This year’s EDSA annual meeting will take place in Madrid from 27 to 29 October. After online events in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the participants will now meet again in person.
The location is the Espacio De Inclusión Y Oportunidades Las Tablas (Fundación Apricor). The event will be organised by EDSA member Down España.
About 35 representatives of EDSA member DS organisations from 20 different countries have announced their attendance.
This is the official registration Link: (To be announced within the next few days)
Friday 27 Oktober – Board meeting and AGA
On 27 October in the morning – already before the annual meeting – the board members will meet.
The AGA will start from 13.00 hrs with all the representatives of the EDSA members. Apart from the usual agenda items, this year’s AGA will also include the election of the Board of Directors. Next projects and the future of EDSA will be discussed.
The official part will be followed by a visit to an inclusive rugby club and afterwards Down España invites all to a small reception.
Saturday 28 October Seminar: Self-Advocacy
A full day seminar will take place on Saturday 28 October. As always, the AGA will be combined with a conference around a specific theme. This year the topic is: Self-Advocacy.
The main speaker will be Prof. Pep Ruf. He is a Pedagogue and the Coordinator of the Independent Living Network of Down España as well as Professor of social education at Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).
After his lecture, different initiatives of Down España and from EDSA member countries in the field of self advocacy will be presented. Young people with DS from Spain and France will also present their work in person. Others will be online from e.g. UK and Turkey. And there will be video presentations from Romania and Ireland.
In the late afternoon, we will visit the Prado Museum together and finish the day with a social dinner in Spain’s capital.
Sunday 29 Oktober – Exchange of ideas, projects, experiences
On the Sunday morning 29 October will be a day of exchange of experiences. Member associations will have the opportunity to present their projects, interesting results from studies, new publications etc. There will also be an overview of the latest scientific results of studies on trisomy 21.
The annual meeting will end at 12.00.
We hope for an interesting meeting, with a lot of exchange of experiences, a reunion with people with whom we often work together for many years from a distance and to make new contacts. Our goal is to work together to create better living conditions for people with Down syndrome.
The annual meeting gives us strength and inspiration.