CONVERSION
A PILOT PROJECT TO DEVELOP AND TEST A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMME ON CONVERSION FROM SEGREGATED SETTINGS TO INCLUSIVE EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
This project receives funding from the Leonardo da Vinci Programme, European Commission
It is now widely acknowledged both at international and at European level that disabled people should be able to secure inclusive employment. Numerous studies and reports over the past 20 years have demonstrated the unequivocal advantages this approach has over segregated employment. The European Union itself is committed to a human rights perspective to disability and has in recent years invested significant energies into promoting social inclusion, mainstreaming and non-discrimination policies and legislation. Inclusive employment for disabled people is a critical part of this agenda. There are, however, very few disabled Europeans in inclusive employment, although there are notable factors and success stories in a minority of member states.
Findings emerging from the LABOr project (a LEONARDO project setting up a Knowledge Centre on training and employment enhancing measures for people with intellectual disabilities) helped to identify a key reason behind this dichotomy. Traditional agencies providing segregated services that have accepted the need for change and are committed to the process of transition are very often faced with a seemingly insurmountable knowledge and skills gap at both management and staff level with regard to how to achieve this transition in an effective and sustainable way. To date, no resources or tools exist that support this process. This leads to an impasse on the part of these agencies and they become locked in stagnating battles with those advocating for inclusive employment.
To remedy to this, this project is about the development of a comprehensive training programme to enable staff –managers and front line staff - to have the needed skills to be able to support the movement of persons with a disability from specialised employment to employment on the open labour market.
The project will improve not only the skills and competences of managers and staff who pilot the training materials in different agencies but also the quality and access to continuing vocational training focused on the open labour market by equipping front line staff in agencies with the knowledge and skills needed to adapt a high quality client centred approach.
The final conference will examine the different project outcomes, will present a set of policy recommendations and will develop a Road Map to achieve effective and sustainable conversion to inclusive services.
For more information on the project, you can contact:
KARE, Mr Christy Lynch, Project leader + 353 (0) 45 431544
EASPD, Dorina Iuga, Project Promoter +32 2 282 46 13 or
EASPD Gioia Maria Rossi, Project Assistant, +32 2 282 46 13
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