"Employability of young people with mental disabilities in local communities"

2020 - 2023

The project "Employability of young people with disabilities in local communities" was organised by Ahtme School (Estonia), FUNDACIÓN ASPANIAS BURGOS (Spain), LEARNING CENTER FOR YOUTH (Cyprus), Narva-Jõesuu Linnavalitsus (Estonia) and OBCINA SEZANA (Slovenia). The project partners come from different backgrounds ( a school, a parents' association, local municipalities and youth organisation).
The main project aim was to create an effective network of local cooperation and its detailed processes and procedures based on person-centred approach for ensuring employability of young people with mental disabilities.

The project results are:

1. The manual "Steps, tips and best practices for employers". We have created the present tool in order to support the potential employers in recruiting and helping young people with mental disability on their way to successful employment. It can be useful for you when the organisation is just considering this possibility, have some challenging experience already, start planning the first steps or want to get more knowledge and recommendations to the existing practice in the company. The material is made in English and translated into Estonian, Spanish, Greek, Slovenian and Russian languages.
2. Four joined-staff training sessions for the project partners' team members (Slovenia, Spain, Cyprus and Estonia).
3. In total 9 pilot trainings for representatives of local stakeholders (members of cooperation networks and potential employers).
4. Pilot study among the public and private employers in the region of Ida-Virumaa, Estonia (141 company reached, 19 taking part in questionnaires and interviews).
5. The final project event in Estonia, which attracted more than 40 local stakeholders who learnt from the project partners and took part in the discussion for improving employability.

Some feedback from the partner organisations:

All the original objectives were met. Here we provide results and achievements of each partner:
Ahtme Kool: "The achievements for us are enlarged network of local stakeholders, the manual to use in further work, improved cooperation with VET, mapping the potential employers in the region, results of the pilot study. Our role as an active partner in the community has increased".
Narva-Jõesuu Linnavalitsus: "For our municipality it was a very productive experience, because with this topic we are only at the beginning of this road. We not only learnt how work was done in partner's organisations and countries, but also implemented our new knowledge into practice in our local environment.
During the summer labour camp for teens Narva-Jõesuu Youth Center employed 3 young persons with mental disabilities for 2 weeks. It was a very good experience for the local community and also for teens and their families. One of them before participating never left his living place alone, but after finishing the camp he started attending the Youth Center every day and alone, walking along our town.
Also we did meetings with potential employers and Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund and project partners with the aim to talk about possibilities for young people with mental disabilities on our local level for employment and we saw a big interest in this topic from the local community".

FUNDACIÓN ASPANIAS BURGOS: "We have created synergies with all project partners, new collaborations have been generated, we have shared experiences and work and we have experienced how to work with people with intellectual disabilities in each of the partner countries.
We have been able to see how the personalised employment works in other entities and the methodology of Integral Attention Centred on the Person (AICP), which is not very different from the way we work in Aspanias Foundation. The workshop on employability, which was organised for the presentation of the Guide on employability that the partners have prepared, has led to collaborations with different companies in Burgos, possible contracts with Serbusa, which until now only had people with physical disabilities, and with ETL Global to comply with the Spanish legislation of 2% of people with disabilities from 50 workers onwards, among others. In addition to leaving with the good feeling of seeing so many agents involved, including social services, employment and education of the Junta de Castilla y León, who later congratulated us on the initiative".

LEARNING CENTER FOR YOUTH: "We translated the final material and presented it to different national partners. The Cyprus Confederation of organisations of people with disabilities, was interested in the manual and decided to print it out and share it to all participants, at the Conference implemented in February 2023 "The right to work and employment". Dr Litsa Charalambous made a presentation on the theme "Inclusion of people with cognitive/mental disabilities in employment - contemporary supporting models" and presented also the manual of the project and recommendations about the ways organisations could use it. We decided also to use the manual as part of the information package in our Job Coaching Service and distribute it to the first meeting we do with each stakeholder, company or employer".

OBCINA SEZANA: "For the Municipality of Sežana, the project has been a very interesting, welcome and educational experience. It was the first Erasmus project and the first project on the topic of people with disabilities. Although the local community is not directly responsible for the care of persons with disabilities (in Slovenia, this is the responsibility of the state), the Municipality of Sežana is aware that persons with disabilities are our citizens and a valuable part of our society. With this mindset we have addressed the public with the aim to contribute to social inclusion, employment of the hardly employable people, to increasing equal opportunities for all citizens and, in this way, to improve the quality of life in the local community.

We are pleased to have strengthened relations with existing partners and to have met new partners, both at international and local level, which opens up possibilities for future cooperation. The content of the project has also opened up many new possibilities for further work and development in the field of special needs.
The biggest achievement of the project are certainly actual employments of individuals with disabilities in public institutions and concrete arrangements for the employment of others, especially in private sector companies.
The recognition of the project as an example of good practice at national level also makes a significant contribution to the effort and the overall work carried out within the project. We believe that the project has significantly contributed to the acceptance of difference, to a more tolerant society and to the reduction of discrimination".

Guidelines Zaposlovanje oseb z motnjami v duševnem razvoju

Manual for epmloyers ENG

Presentations 18.01.2023

Pilot study in Ida-Virumaa

Recommendations for employers ET

Recommendations for employers RUS