Pool of experts

This report focuses on the role of adapted work settings in the international framework provided by the UNCRPD; in particular, special attention has been given to Article 26 and 27, as they both deal with principles, measures and services offered by adapted work settings.
Adapted work settings, commonly known also as sheltered workshops, are not referred to in the UNCRPD. This requires clarifications for the thousands of people that benefit from their services and whose future looks therefore uncertain.
The analysis was carried out starting from three main subjects:
- what the Convention brought in general terms through its paradigm shift and the subsequent challenges for social services
- the analysis of the current text of Article 26 and 27 and the links to the role of sheltered workshop matters
- the history of the discussions around the inclusion of sheltered workshops in the UN CRPD.

Services like sheltered workshops may sometimes and very often fulfill more than one function for persons with disabilities, thus their compliance to the UN CRPD articles is particularly sensitive. In the framework of a holistic approach to persons with disabilities, where disability itself is not the focus of attention, but everything is about the individual and the enjoyment of his rights, it is of utter importance to keep a good balance between the multitude of skills, personal choices, possibilities of individual development and society’s response.    
The report provides a state of play of possible links existing between sheltered workshops and the UN CRPD in order to gain a view on future developments needed in the provision of work opportunities to persons with (intellectual) disabilities.

The full report is available here.

For more information on the report please contact Ms. Sabrina Ferraina at sabrina.ferraina@easpd.eu.

The PASS IT ON project led to the creation of a pool of experts.

Composition:

It is composed by 5 persons having an extensive track record in supported employment, some of them currently employed by project partners. Each of them was associated to one of the Eastern & South-Eastern partners through a twinning system, which aims to create or further build up an interactive relationship.

 

Role:

The role of these experts is:

• To support partners from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in the organisation of the seminar to be held in their country.

• To support the project's national helpdesks individually (twinning relationship) or collectively when needed. The helpdesks (set up by the 5 Eastern & South-Eastern partners) are meant to answer technical questions related to the project's training materials coming from the field at national level

• To contribute to the evaluation of the project's achievements

 

The members of the Pool of Experts elaborated an Evaluation report at the end of the project, which you can download by clicking here.

 

Below you will find interviews of the experts, extracted from the October 2010 Newsletter:

 

Rudi Wouters (Belgium):

“Initially, my participation within the framework of the PASS IT ON project entailed exchanging ideas and know-how with some experts and taking part in project meetings. I contributed to the project’s summary compilation by providing inputs and further on reviewing it. Moreover, I was actively involved in the process of preparing presentations and establishing trustful atmosphere during workshops. Upon completion of seminars, I had a brilliant chance to develop some personal contacts and provide support and information to the organization to which I was entrusted. I maintained a strong contact with the twinning partner by means of telephone communication and e-mail exchange

 

Needless to say, that the social sector in Europe faces a number of challenges. Therefore, I would like to address some political messages to the PASS IT ON target groups in terms of supported employment for persons with disabilities. First of all, there is a necessity to emphasize the fact that historical gaps in various aspects of employment and inclusion of persons with disabilities still prevail. The issue includes the following elements: challenges in employment of persons with disabilities and considerably old fashioned way of offering support by employers and other relevant services. In order to solve these issues numerous projects and programs should be developed in order to bridge these gaps by primarily optimizing employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, demonstrating that a fruitful cooperation in this sector is possible and proving that the employment of persons with disabilities is a win-win situation."

 

 

Chiel Kamp (The Netherlands):

"I was closely associated with the PASS IT ON project (by taking over the role of Mr Christy Lynch) aimed at setting up a robust collaboration with Bulgarian partners. I made my direct contribution to the project by delivering a chapter on Supported Employment for the Summary Compilation. I was actively involved in the preparation and setting up of some themes for the agenda of the conference that was organized by the Bulgarian Association Vision on June 24-26, 2010. During the conference I had the honour to deliver a number of presentations on a wide range of topics concerning the issue of employment of persons with disabilities in Europe. Prior to the conference, a special meeting was organized with persons who had an interest in Supported Employment: as a result the Bulgarian Organization Vision and the national coordinator of the European Social Fund from the Ministry showed an interest in starting a pilot project on Supported Employment in Bulgaria. The conference also provided the framework for introducing a proposal for the implementation of Supported Employment as a pilot project.

 

Persons with disabilities, indisputably, have the right and possibility for social and economic integration. The focus of the previous years encompassed individual tailored support measures, which helped persons with disabilities to get and sustain a paid job in the open labour market. Supported Employment has proven to be successful and beneficial for both persons with disabilities and employers, however service providers need to further develop skills to deliver Supported Employment services."

 

 

Sabine Prettenhofer (Austria):

“At the beginning of the year, our twining partner from Malta sent us a list of questions concerning supported employment services in our organization and at regional and national level. My colleague – Ms Erika Szalai-Lendl – and I prepared some information concerning the legal system of supported employment and the transition period from school to employment in Austria. Furthermore, we delivered information on services (employment/training) provided by our organization and statistics regarding beneficiaries of our services which were then put on the PASS IT ON webpage (www.passiton.gov.mt)

 

In July 2010, our twinning partner sent us a memo with first considerations about the seminar in Malta: from our perspective, a deeper cooperation started since then on  by cooperating with our twinning partner in organizing the national seminar in Malta and providing information on wide range of topics concerning employment possibilities of persons with disabilities.

 

Our starting point is that each person has the right for vocational training and for a good job. Integration to the open labour market is possible, but experts need to accompany teenagers already at school and develop together with them vocational perspectives. A good vocational orientation with a lot of opportunities to get to know different kinds of vocational field is an important base for vocational satisfaction.”

 

 

Luk Zelderloo (Belgium):

“As Secretary General of EASPD and member of the pool of experts in the PASS IT ON project, It was a great pleasure to enhance the long lasting cooperation with our partners from the Czech Republic. I participated at the event held in Prague. The streamline of e-mail communication between me and my colleagues, Ms Lenka Kohoutova and Ms Katerina Sirotková, resulted in an added-value in terms of discussing some aspects of the seminars agenda (e.g. by properly redirecting the scope), its content and practicalities

 

The event was not the only one organized in the course of the productive dialogue with the partner from Czech Republic. We could summarize our main achievements under an effort of bringing together all stakeholders such as national, regional and local authorities, employment providers, business world and representatives of persons with disabilities. We should expand the scope of our activities and stress the attention of our work on legislation, funding systems, exchange models of good practice (e.g. PIO. For instance: as Supported Employment is not well known yet, it is important to review the existing legislation and facilitate its implementation by updating existing legal frameworks)

 

Unfortunately, the funding schemes are still based on a medical defect approach which, instead of encouraging active participation of persons with disabilities in society, distances them from it. In addition, the pension scheme should be changed into activating schemes, which means that the work of people with disabilities should contribute to society. There is a substantial need for training of trainers as well as training persons with disabilities as the supportive employment methodology is until now not well understood.”

 

 

Harrie van den Brandt (The Netherlands):

“As a twinning partner of Romania, we closely worked with our colleagues from Fundatia Alpha Transylvana to prepare and carry out the seminar held in Tirgu Mures in March 2010. They were already familiar with the material of the ATLAS project (one of the projects, which were used for the PASS IT ON Summary Compilation) as they were partners in that project. However, the focus on supported employment was something new for them.

 

Our input is mainly based on the ATLAS project, which was previously implemented in Romania at Fundatia Alpha Transylvania. The essence of our contribution lies in the different approach of persons with disabilities with the focus on social competences of people and a competence-based training. The core of the approach is based on “developing possibilities.

 

The main issue is rooted in the focus of development of the abilities by persons with disabilities, where other approaches are problem-based. The starting point often stems from what people know and do in certain jobs or situations. Our starting point is: how can people manage to cope in certain situations, with their own abilities and their own approach? Therefore, we carried out basic ideas of Inclusion and Supported Employment; our political message would be “equal opportunities for all” as everybody has the right to work, therefore we should keep looking for the ideal match of possibilities of the employee and workplace”.