På rätt köl

På Rätt Köl is a proactive project aimed at teenagers between ages 16 -19 with special needs in order to graduate from upper secondary school. Children and teenagers with ADHD and ADD are a core target group.

The projects main idea is to challenge and support teenagers to jointly, within the framework of their education, take the responsibility of building a sailboat, launching it and sailing it throughout Europe. After the sail, the boat can be utilized in a minor shipping company run by former På Rätt Köl participants.

The goal for the project is to enable children and teenagers with different challenges to acquire the self-esteem and competence needed to discover their potential in life. By creating a turning point and a change process based on empowerment a fundament is built helping teenagers withstand future work-life discrimination and exclusion.

The På Rätt Köl program is driven by experienced pedagogues with a strong engagement in teenagers’ education and social development. The education consists of theoretical and practical studies, life-coaching alongside the work at the shipyard. By active participation the teenagers’ creativity, ability to collaborate, sense of responsibility and perseverance is supported. A positive community is created where a sense of context can grow and ultimately the self-confidence enabling a repossession of life-control.

an alternative educational form

Finalizing elementary and upper-secondary school is a prerequisite for avoiding discrimination and seclusion from work-life. Young people with low educational skills and especially those with some form of disabilities risks being alienated from society. Today, more and more youths have difficulties finalizing elementary and upper-secondary school. Qualified and long term support is needed for these youths to pull through, a support that many schools have difficulties offering.

In spring 2006 a pre-study was done examining the success factors for youths to get back on the right track. The pre-study gave birth to a new idea the creation of a new educational form adapted to youths with special needs.