By ratifying the UNCPRD, the EU is obliged to protect the fundamental rights of disabled people based on the principle of non- discrimination. However, 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 is a dramatic obstacle that does not allow to unfold the fundamental rights of the disabled people and leads to social exclusion from all relevant societal fields. Moreover, Eurostat analyses show that there is a clear north-south divide in the EU. Eurostat analyses show that there is a clear north-south divide in the EU. In almost all areas, those affected report the smallest daily hurdles in the states of Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and the highest in southern and eastern Europe. As early as 2001, Eurobarometer 54.2 showed that in precisely these states (collectively grouped together with the states of Eastern Europe as D EAST item) the social perception of people with disabilities as fully recognized members of society was the least pronounced. The employment rates of people with disabilities surveyed in 2011 show an equivalent pattern in the respective groups of countries. We assume that the level and type of employment of people with disabilities provides information about the quality of the infrastructure and the social recognition of people with disabilities. At the same time even under the given circumstances there is always a space for innovative approaches and non-trivial solutions. In the course of our project, we would identify those new innovative solutions and examine them in a best practice comparison. In exact terms, we want to deal with two thematic blocks: 1) What tools and methods do stakeholders (externals) at different levels use to promote and support the employability of people with disabilities, especially with a strong focus on the first labour market? 2) How do the involved organisations (NGOs, agencies etc.) practically promote the employability of people with disabilities? What are best practices mechanisms and strategies applied to support people with disabilities trying to enter the first labour market? The aim of the kickoff TPM is to identify relevant fields of actors for area 1) and relevant topics for area 2). On the basis of the results drawn up here, the partner organization will prepare the TPM in their respective country, in the course of which a workshop will be held, serving relevant stakeholders to present respective best practice strategies, networking mechanisms and societal approaches to foster the employability of people with disabilities. This will cover all levels, from the association to companies and organisations to policy makers. Within the framework of the TPMs, the respective examples are discussed, classified, benchmarked and filmed. The respective best & worst practice examples are included in the result log and produced as video. This report be published after the end of the project and the video released as a learning film on YouTube. The project explicitly serves as a basis for future projects with intellectual outputs. A corresponding pre-structuring and analysis will allow for substantially more specific proposals in terms of content and methodology in different key actions of the ERASMUS+ program as well as for a more detailed scientific analysis of the respective topic area. The consortium is founded with the intention of proofing its approach for submitting a follow-up application in the field of adult education and social integration.
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. 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. More information can be found at : www.disemex.eu