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Description
The project Inclusion Lab aims to promote the development of skills and employability tools in 10 people with cerebral palsy and other related neurological conditions, fostering their future professional integration and autonomy. The project will engage the participants in the creation of awareness-raising campaigns to demystify prejudices and promote the employability of the target group and implement training and personal development actions of the participants.
Summary of project results
According to the report ‘People with disabilities in Portugal: human rights indicators 2020’ by the Disability and Human Rights Observatory, despite the slowdown in unemployment among people with disabilities since 2016, in the first half of 2020 there was a 10% increase compared to the overall figures for 2019. Long-term unemployment also worsened by 11.3 per cent (n = 7289) in the first half of 2020 compared to the figure for the whole of 2019. These figures highlight the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the employment of people with disabilities. According to the Social Balance Sheet data presented by private sector companies with more than 10 employees, only 0.55% of the total human resources of these companies have a disability, a very low percentage. In regional/local terms, based on data from the Social Diagnosis Status Report 2013-2015, an integral part of Évora''s Social Development Plan 2019-2021, the occupational situation of people with disabilities in the municipality of Évora shows that 285 are students, 83 are attending a training course, 74 are retired, and 64 are in labour occupation (insertion employment contract). It should be noted that 32 people are actually employed, 26 have been unemployed for more than a year and 15 are looking for their first job. One of the conclusions of the municipal report on disability even mentions the need to ‘sensitise public and private companies to take on SEN pupils and integrate them as adults into professional activities, bearing in mind that once they have finished their schooling, the big question is integrating these pupils into working life, and there is a shortage of responses’.
That said, the organisation believes it''s essential to act on two fronts: - Raising awareness: sensitising regional/local public and private companies to take on/employ people with cerebral palsy or other related neurological conditions. - Training the target group for their professional integration: actions to train them to develop their skills and employability tools.
Therefore, this project aims to promote the social inclusion and empowerment of people with cerebral palsy and other related neurological conditions, fostering the development of their skills and employability tools, and consequently their future professional integration.
The ‘Inclusion Lab’ project involved the following activities: Drawing up APCE''s Organisational Diagnosis using participatory methods; Drawing up an Action Plan aimed at addressing organisational shortcomings/difficulties and boosting strengths; Developing training and personal development actions that equipped the target group with skills in terms of personal development and employability in the following thematic areas: Skills Balance (50 hours), Active Job Search (50 hours), and Labour Legislation (25 hours); Production of 10 videos of storytelling by participants who shared their professional and personal experiences; Dissemination of the videos through APCE''s social networks and by e-mail to all the institution''s partners; Dissemination of the project to potential employers and liaison between employers and people in the target group.
The ‘Inclusion Lab’ project involved the following activities: Drawing up APCE''s Organisational Diagnosis using participatory methods; Drawing up an Action Plan aimed at addressing organisational shortcomings/difficulties and boosting strengths; Developing training and personal development actions that equipped the target group with skills in terms of personal development and employability in the following thematic areas: Skills Balance (50 hours), Active Job Search (50 hours), and Labour Legislation (25 hours); Production of 10 videos of storytelling by participants who shared their professional and personal experiences; Dissemination of the videos through APCE''s social networks and by e-mail to all the institution''s partners; Dissemination of the project to potential employers and liaison between employers and people in the target group.