Being and planning together: the involvement of young people with intellectual disabilities in helping processes. Reflections from a participatory research.

The contribution aims to illustrate the results of a PhD research conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic and ended in September 2021. The research explored the issue of the involvement of people with intellectual disabilities in planning social interventions for themselves. In particular, the research focused on the participation experience of young people with intellectual disabilities (from 18 to 35 years) and on the social workers’ role in the Lombardy Region. Fortytwo young people with ID and fifteen social workers took part in the research. Data collection has been conducted through thirteen focus groups with young people and two focus groups with social workers. Most of the focus groups were held remotely. Due to the constraints imposed by the pandemic, only young people attending day services were invited to participate. As a result, social workers working in the same areas were involved. Focus groups were transcribed and analysed by qualitative content analysis. The research was carried out by adopting the participatory approach (Cocks & Cockram, 1995; Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995; Bourke, 2009; Aldridge, 2016).