People with intellectual disabilities everywhere often find it very hard to find a job. Most of them do not work, and those who do often do not get a fair salary.
The “My Talents for Diversity“ project tackles this issue by promoting diversity management amongst private and public
Logo of the project
employers.
The focus of this project is the employment of people with intellectual disability in the primary job market.
The project will:
- map good practices in terms of inclusiveness around Europe
- based on the result, write a policy briefing with proposals on how to improve anti-discrimination laws
- offer capacity building and trainings to future employers, colleagues and employees with intellectual disabilities. The trainings aim to facilitate the process of employing people with intellectual disabilities, but also to raise awareness amongst employers on the possibility of hiring them.
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Knowledge transfer and capacity building training on diversity management and non-discrimination
The events starting from 8th of September will serve as a platform to exchange knowledge and share good practices to support the employment of people with intellectual disabilities. The objective is to explore what are the instruments in place that can be used to promote employment of people with intellectual disabilities and identify the barriers.
Past events
8th of September, 14h.00-16.00 CEST
KLAPjob: supporting employment and inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market
KlapJob, an initiative under Lev, which is also a member of Inclusion Europe, has years of experience working with supported employment to promote inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market, they will talk about their work and will share some examples of inclusive employment.
Speakers: Claus Bergman Hansen (Head of KLAPjob), Tine Stampe (Strategic leader of KLAPjob) and Bjørn Burkal (KLAPjob ambassador).
15 September, 14h.00-16.00 CEST
EU instruments to foster the employment of people with intellectual disabilities
The aim of the event is to give an overall view of what are the laws and policies at the EU level that can be used to foster the employment of people with intellectual disabilities. Â
Speakers: Timothy Ghilain – European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) Senior Policy Officer, Professor Mark Bell – Head of the School of Law of Trinity College Dublin, and Anouk Van Hoofstadt – Senior Researcher at Antwerp Management School
22Â September, 14h.00-16.00 CEST
Rytmus: supporting employment and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the labour market in Czechia
The event aims to shed light on inclusive employment and share what disability organisations are doing at the national level to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.
Speakers: Veronika Heribanová – job consultant at Rytmus and Martin Lubojacký – job consultant at Rytmus and Ivo Jindrák – Self-advocate
9 October, 10h.00-11.30 CEST
Employment in the next EU Disability Strategy
As the European Commission is currently drafting the next Disability Strategy, we will look at how employment should be covered in the document.
Speakers: Katarina Ivanković-Knežević, Director for Social Affairs and Inclusion in the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the EU Commission; Milan Brglez MEP – Member of the European Parliament (S&D, Slovenia), member of the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament and member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament; Haydn Hammersley – Social Policy Officer at the European Disability Forum (EDF); Soufiane El Amrani – Advocacy and easy-to-read officer at Inclusion Europe
14 October, 14h.00-16.00 CEST
Creating employment opportunities in the EU institutions for people with intellectual disabilities
The aim is to raise the debate about how EU institutions could make sure they are also fostering the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.
Speakers: Stefan Trömel – Senior Disability Specialist at the International Labour Organization (ILO), Rebekka Wiemann – Equal Opportunities Officer at the Council of the European Union, Silvia Muñoz – Project Manager at Plena inclusiĂłn and Katrin Langensiepen – Member of the European Parliament (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Germany), member of the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament and member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament, Melanie Wimmer – Staff member of Atempo, LászlĂł Bercse – vice president of Inclusion Europe and member of EPSA (the European Platform of Self Advocates), Ian Oja – development manager at EVPIT
Work to Inclusion: Jobs for people with intellectual disabilities in the labour market
24th of November from 15:00-16:30 CEST
As the goal of the project is to foster the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the open labour market through diversity management, in this event we will bring the perspective of companies sharing their experiences and knowledge of employing people with intellectual disabilities.
As the COVID-19 pandemic brought deep impacts in all areas of the life of people with intellectual disabilities, the employment situation is no different. Even though it is too soon to have a precise picture of the effects, there are some important impacts we can already see. In the event, we will also talk about the impact the pandemic has had on the lives of people with intellectual disabilities in Europe when it comes to employment.
Speakers: LászlĂł Bercse – Inclusion Europe’s vice-president and chair of the European Platform of Self-advocates Steering Group, Tibor CzakĂł – ÉFOÉSZ Self-Advocacy Coordinator, Sarah StemgĂ©e – Human Resources Director at Antwerp Management School (AMS), Thibeau Bastien – Junior Researcher at (AMS), Anouk Van Hoofstadt – Senior Researcher at (AMS), Klaus Candussi – Managing Director at Atempo, Melanie Wimmer – Staff member of Atempo, Roman Bojko – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Leader – Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia at Ikea Group, Ian Oja – Development Manager at EVPIT
My Talents for the Future: self-advocates and employment
15th of December from 14:00 CET
This event will aim to present the MTFD project, its outcomes and its success stories, and discuss with self-advocates about what comes after the project ends.
We will do an overview of the project, highlighting the improvements and the materials produced. Then self-advocates will intervene to tell us their experience in employment and what they want for the future. We will present the new report on employment and Covid-19, and self-advocates will contribute to talk about the recommendations for the future and what we need to work on in the future.
Documents about employment
Research about inclusive employment of people with intellectual disabilities:
Training material about the employment of people with intellectual disabilities:
- Guidelines for employers created by Plena inclusión.
Employment and Covid-19
- Employment and Covid-19 report
Employment of people with intellectual disabilities. Before, during and after the  COVID-19 pandemic.
Videos about the employment of people with intellectual disabilities
You can select subtitles for each video in Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Estonian by clicking on the “settings” sign.
Job coach
Training
Customised employment
Reasonable accommodation
Role of families
Optimisation
| Implementation Period | 2019-2021 |
| Financed by | European Commission – under the “Rights, Equality and Citizenship” programme |
| Project Coordinator | Inclusion Europe |
| Project Partners | Plena Inclusión |
Finding a job is often difficult
for people with intellectual disabilities.
The “My Talents. For Diversity” project
supports people with intellectual disabilities
in finding a job.
The project connects people with intellectual disabilities
with employers.
This project will do many things:
- find companies in Europe that are already inclusive;
- write documents for politicians,
so that they can make
better anti-discrimination laws; - train people with disabilities and employers
on how to work together.
With these trainings, it will be easier
to employ people with intellectual disabilities.
These trainings will also show to everyone
that employing people with intellectual disabilities
is not as difficult as many people think.
Inclusion Europe is doing this project
with other organisations:
- Plena InclusiĂłn from Spain
- EVPIT from Estonia
- Antwerp Management School from Belgium
This project has just started
and will continue until 2021.
