The Conference is the final mutual learning event of a cycle of capacity-building seminars aimed at improving the capacity of the actors at local, regional and national levels to develop measures supporting the transition from institutional to community-based services, using EU funding instruments. The Conference will also share existing European practices in the area of independent living and community-based care. Finally, the Conference aims at improving the understanding of the European Commission and other stakeholders of the progress towards deinstitutionalisation and its main challenges. The participants will identify and exchange information on practical examples on implementing the Common European Guidelines on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care, using European Structural and investment Funds (ESIF) and other EU funding instruments.

This side-event will discuss, from both an academic and an experiential point of view – including through 2 panellists who would be speaking both as researchers and as autistic mothers – the experiences of autistic mothers in areas related to parenthood: pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, self-perception of parenting strengths and weaknesses, communication with professionals in relation to one's child, and the social experience of motherhood, including disclosing one’s diagnosis of autism in parenting contexts.

Ensuring inclusion of persons with disabilities in a changing world through the implementation of the CRPD