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DISEMEX: Disability Employment Expert
Programme: Erasmus +
Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for adult education
Project Number: 2018-1-DE02-KA204-005223
Duration: 01/09/2018 - 29/02/2020 (18 months)
Coordinated by: INTAMT e.V. (Germany)
Project website: http://disemex.eu/ (not operational)
Facebook: @disemex (currently used for new disability project venture i.e. Inclusiva)
EU Projects Database: DISEMEX
Partners
INTAMT e.V. (Germany) - coordinator
36,6 Competence Centre (Poland)
36.6 Competence Centre (Scotland) (United Kingdom)
Asociatia Centrul European Pentru Integrare Socioprofesionala ACTA (Romania)
Balgarska Agentsiya Za Razvitie (Bulgaria)
CEIPES Centro Internazionale per la Promozione dell'Educazione e lo Sviluppo (Italy)
ETOD Engelsiz Toplum Oluşturma Derneği (Turkey)
T.C. İzmir Valiliği (Turkey)
OZARA Storitveno In Invalidsko Podjetje d.o.o. (Slovenia)
Project description
One of the declared aims of the European Union’s policy, corresponding to Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, is to improve social and economic situation of persons with disabilities, i.e. improving the situation of their exclusion from the labour market and providing their right to the self-determined participation in social life, reflected in the concept of inclusion. According to the EASPD Employment Declaration of December 2014, people with disabilities are structurally disadvantaged in the labour market because of different barriers. Their labour market participation is still significantly lower than that of persons without disabilities and this situation has not significantly improved over the past 15 years. The persistent underemployment of persons with disabilities needs to be addressed with immediate action to end the situation of exclusion from the labour market.
The goal of the project was the exchange of good practice and benchmarking of best practice strategies aimed at facilitating the successful integration of people with disabilities into the first (open) labour market and thus promoting inclusion. Of particular interest were organisations and methods that reduce structural barriers without having a charitable claim to help. The main focus of DISEMEX project laid primarily on empowerment projects and not transfer.
The members of the partnership were 9 organizations from 8 countries of the EU (Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, the UK) and Turkey with various background, form and specialization, such as: 1- Governmental office, 1- continuous education & training institution, 2- social enterprises and 5 adult education providers, but all with main or partial interests and activities in the area of social inclusion of PWD, gathered together in order to benchmark the current status of professional inclusion in their countries. Within the project the consortium looked at the employment models for people with different disabilities in their respective countries, examining and selecting the best practice cases in order to find possible innovative models for successful full professional integration of the affected individuals into the regular labour market and to promote their transferability.
Objectives
to benchmark the most effective inclusive strategies in the area of the first labour market
to identify the best practice cases
to develop and promote understanding among participating organizations of good and bad strategies
to foster the employability of people with disabilities and by doing so the societal inclusion
to discuss failures in order to be able to specify “bad” practice examples
Target group
Persons with disabilities - the primary focus is on improving their social and economic situation, particularly in terms of labour market inclusion and participation in social life.
Organizations working with people with disabilities - especially those involved in empowerment projects that focus on reducing structural barriers without a charitable approach.
Practitioners and stakeholders in the labour market - including employers and employment services, who are interested in integrating persons with disabilities into the open labour market.
Policy makers and public authorities - involved in implementing strategies and practices to promote inclusion and address underemployment of persons with disabilities.
Researchers and experts in disability inclusion - engaged in benchmarking and exchanging best practices for the integration of people with disabilities.
Results
During the project the consortium members have not only managed to become a new perception of possible job pathways for people with disabilities on the open labour market in different countries, but also to fill the gaps on the additional possibilities within supported and sheltered work, depending on the nationally/regionally/locally provided support and infrastructure opportunities. As part of the transnational project meetings, the organisations and institutions corresponding to the project goals were visited and workshops with project participants and relevant stakeholders in the respective partner country were held.
After extensive exchange internally and with external experts, the consortium was able to develop an evaluation methodology on the basis of which best practice examples in the participating countries were recorded and analysed. Some of the examples became video depictions of the cases, either as personal stories or presentations of the companies with particularly successful inclusion practices. The findings of the project have been and are continuously promoted within each partner’s national and transnational networks. Some of them will serve as a basis for aftermath activities of the partners. A major international dissemination outside the partners operating regions took place within DISEMEX+East project co-financed by the German Federal Foreign Office under the programme of development of a cooperation with the civil society in the Eastern Partnership countries and Russia. The preliminary results of DISEMEX were presented at the main event of the mentioned project DISEMEX+East “Together for inclusion”- an international conference during the Rehacare International Trade Show and Congress in September 2019. More than 60 representatives of civil organisations of people with disabilities and experts from 14 countries participating in the DISEMEX (partner countries) and DISEMEX + East (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and the Ukraine) projects took part, as did experts in the field of inclusion from the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, inclusion agencies and leading German companies.
The project results should assist the public administrations and organisations involved in the facilitating social inclusion of people with disabilities through employment in different countries to discover and understand the new opportunities, based on technological and social innovations.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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