The INCLUDNET project (Development of Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem for Young People with Intellectual Disability) aims at fostering social and labour inclusion of young people with intellectual disability through the provision of entrepreneurship education and access to entrepreneurship and self-employment. Young people with Intellectual disability are subject to employers discrimination thus self-employment or entrepreneurship remains for many the only option for labour inclusion. Even if this is the reality in all the European Member States there is still not yet any inclusive entrepreneurship policy or entrepreneurship education for this category of young people. The INCLUDNET partnership will for the first time develop an accessible easy to read training programme on entrepreneurship for young people with Intellectual disability and will establish business support network that will provide them with couching and mentoring services. Inclusive Entrepreneurship programs aim to offer all people an equal opportunity to create a sustainable business whatever is their social group or background thus are an important requirement for achieving smart sustainable and inclusive growth. Five different European countries will participate in the INCLUDNET project and will exchange knowledge and best practices on inclusive entrepreneurship programs for young people with intellectual disability. The INCLUDNET project will: • Develop a sustainable ecosystem of inclusive entrepreneurship for young people with intellectual disability • Enable users to be equal partners within the planning and development of the training program, thus enhancing self-determination; • Provide opportunities for self-development and employment inclusion for young people with intellectual disabilities so that they can be acknowledged as people that can contribute to the development of their community. • Test dedicated pilot actions of inclusive enterprises • Evaluate the impacts of the entrepreneurial process on the quality of life of the users as well as the overall impacts of the project in terms of social inclusion • Promote the development, testing, and implementation of innovative practices in the field of youth participation in the labour market • Promote activities that could better prepare young people on equity, diversity and social inclusion in the training / learning environment. The INCLUDNET project is innovative in the following way: • It will establish a transnational business support network for young people with intellectual disabilities • It will implement the Social Safari methodology within the training/learning activities • It will develop an easy to read learning platform on how to become an entrepreneur • It will offer mentoring services for young entrepreneurs with intellectual disability The INCLUDNET project will directly and indirectly contribute to better fulfillment of the following rights enshrined in the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities • Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons; (art 3 a- General Principals Art 3 UN CRPD ) • Full and effective participation and inclusion in society ( art 3 c) • Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity (Art 3 (d)) • Will promote recognition of the skills, merits and abilities of young people with disabilities, and of their contributions to the workplace and the labour market ( Raising awareness Art 8 (iii) UN CRPD • Will promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications ( Accessibility of Information art 9 UN CRPD) • Provide information disabilities in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities (Freedom of expression and opinion and access of information art 21 UN CRPD ) • Ensure that young people with disabilities are able to access, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others (art 24 UN CRPD education) • Promote opportunities for self-employment, entrepreneurship, the development of cooperatives and starting one’s own business (art 27) The project is in line with the following objectives and priorities of the European Union • Erasmus plus- Youth Agenda • Social Business Initiative • Research programme on social innovation by DG Research & Innovation • EaSI programme of DG Employment, Social affairs and Inclusion • Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion
The Includnet project (Development of Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem for Young People with Intellectual Disability) aims to promote the social and labour market inclusion of young people with intellectual disabilities through the provision of entrepreneurship education and access to entrepreneurship and self-employment. Young people with intellectual disabilities are subject to discrimination by employers, so self-employment or entrepreneurship remains the only option for employment inclusion for many. The Includnet partnership has developed an accessible and easy-to-read training programme on entrepreneurship for young people with intellectual disabilities and established a business support network that will provide them with mentoring and support services. The Includnet training programme aims to give all people an equal opportunity to create a sustainable business, whatever their social group or background. Five different European countries participated in the Includnet project and exchanged knowledge and good practices on inclusive entrepreneurship programmes for young people with intellectual disabilities. Within the Includnet project, the partners aimed at the following objectives: - Development of a sustainable ecosystem of inclusive entrepreneurship for young people with intellectual disabilities - Design and development of a training programme dedicated to inclusive entrepreneurship - Testing of the training programme in 4 different EU countries - Promotion of the development, testing and implementation of innovative practices in the field of youth participation in the labour market - Promotion of activities that can better prepare young people on equity, diversity and social inclusion in the training/learning environment - Promoting the preparation and training of staff of services for people with disabilities on entrepreneurship and inclusive work - Promotion of co-productive processes in the development of training material - Organisation of dedicated activities/workshops and visits to disability services as part of the project's transnational meetings. In order to pursue the above-mentioned objectives, the following activities were carried out: Activity 1: Creation of a business support network for young entrepreneurs with ID Activity 2: Analysis of successful cases of entrepreneurs with ID in the respective countries Activity 3: Training programme for inclusive entrepreneurship and piloting Activity 4: Feedback session Activity 5: Dissemination of results. The following participants were involved - 67 participants in transnational project meetings - including 37 users - 14 support staff members. Young people with intellectual disabilities were actively involved in all project activities. They helped to identify peer success stories, participated in the development and testing of the content of the training programme, provided feedback and suggestions for improvement. The Includnet project generated a broad impact: - improved knowledge for both staff and users on the topic of entrepreneurial opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities - motivated staff - improvement of autonomy and self-esteem of users with disabilities, thanks to the possibility of travelling, exchanging experiences (empowerment) and having their say on training modules, being able to recognise a new glossary and new concepts when working, reasoning about their potential, talents and wishes - enhancement of creativity of both staff and users - development and use of training modules for awareness-raising and training on entrepreneurship and disability, freely accessible at co-production.eu