Karina Chupina, Russia-Germany
As a person with a profound hearing loss, I have been a passionate disability rights advocate for more than 15 years. Iserved as a President of the International Federation of Hard of Hearing Young People (IFHOHYP) in 2004-2014, and have been a Board member of the Fund of Assistance to Disabled Children and Youth in St.Petersburg, Russia, since 1997. In 2011-2015 I was honored to serve asa Global Advisor to the Disability Rights Fund (Boston, USA) and to be responsible for review of the DRF grantmaking strategy for disability NGOs’ advancement of the UN CRPD. I never imagined all this would be possible to achieve for a young woman born in (then communist) Soviet Russia.
Apart from being an active disability rights advocate, I am wearing several hats, being a professional trainer, consultant, researcher and journalist. I can confidently say that I am a product of non-formal education / training and non-profit work. What’s more, I would be very happy to contribute to the Youth Council capacity-building + empowerment with my training competences!
Ihave been an expert and a trainer of the Council of Europe in the field of disability rights, social inclusion and civil society capacity building, since 2001. I conducted over 40 international training programmes and trained more than 350 young people with disabilities on Human Rights Education, Social Inclusion, Diversity & anti-discrimination, Disability Rights & Disablism, Training of Trainers, ProjectManagement, Media and Youth Participation. In mytraining work, I amstriving todevelop inclusive approaches to training young people from minority backgrounds, youth with disabilities and mixed ability groups.
Right now, I am excited to supportyoung people of the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (IFSBH) in building their capacity for the UN CRPD advocacy.
I like writing, and my passion for advocacyfound an outlet in the series of articles and policy texts on youth participation andsocial inclusion of youth with disabilities.I was honored to be a co-author of the Council of Europe“COMPASS – Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People”(2012) and “Companion” education guide for the “All Different - All Equal” European Campaign. I also edited and contributed to the “No Barriers, No Borders” manual onorganising mixed ability projects.At this moment,I am co-writing and editing the Council of Europe manual “Inclusive Human Rights Education for Youth with Disabilities.”
In my policy recommendations for the UN OHCHR,CRPD Committee, European Institutions and Russian Federal institutions, Ioutlinedconcrete measures for the implementation of national plans for accessibility, access to (re)habilitation, education and employment. I am happy when my work on different levels of research, policy and practice interconnects and brings results.
Formal educational background has always strongly supported my training and research commitments. I hold an MA in International Journalism (St.Petersburg State University), a degree in Russian-English interpretation in the field of professional communication (St.Petersburg State University), Exec. MA in International and European Relations & Management (University of Amsterdam), and MA in Political Science and Sociology (European University at St.Petersburg). Currently I am working on my PhD research at Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany) that explores mechanisms of social inclusion of people with disabilities in Germany and Russia.
To date, Iworkedas a consultant and facilitator for the European Commission, Council of Europe, World Bank, Open Society Foundations, U.S. Library of Congress, American Councils of International Education, Erasmus Student Network, European Disability Forum, IGLYO, OBESSU, and other organisations. My key interestsare social inclusion, disability rights, youth participation, intercultural learning, civil society, and non-formal education.
Youth Council champions, ready to embark on the training and advocacy journey with me? ;)
I’m waiting for your call!
Cheers,
Karina
LinkedIn:
Twitter: @KarinaMuse