The project aims to increase the inclusion and integration of disabled and disadvantaged young people (DDYP) into the job market by addressing the difficulties faced by the partner organisations in encouraging employers to offer job opportunities to DDYP. The project will bring together 3 organisations from 3 EU countries (UK, Spain and Germany) to develop an effective model of working with employers to include and support disabled and disadvantaged young people into work.The low employment rate for disabled people is a significant problem across Europe. The EU Youth Strategy 2010-2018 identifies employment and social inclusion as major concerns for young people. The EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020 states that “For people with disabilities the rate of poverty is 70% higher than average partly due to limited access to employment”. A major cause of high unemployment has been identified by participating organisations as the negative attitudes of employers to working with disabled young people.The partners will identify the issues that DDYP and their employers face at work; research best practice solutions to address these and test these practices in each organisation with a view to improving and adjusting them to work for different target groups. Specific objectives are to:• Improve knowledge and understanding of employers’ attitudes and barriers to employing DDYP.• Understand, transfer and develop knowledge of successful approaches to engaging employers in different countries.• Develop the capacity of youth workers to engage with employers in recruiting DDYP into the workplace.The main beneficiaries will be staff members of the 3 partner organisations who engage daily with DDYP. Indirect beneficiaries will total 240, comprising two staff members at each employer engaged by the project and 150 disabled or disadvantaged young people that the organisations will involve in the project.We will apply an iterative methodology to develop the model using the following steps:• Sharing practices on employer engagement.• Testing practices• Identifying working elements• Sharing results• Fine tuning practices accordingly• Testing new fine-tuned practicesThe project will be implemented within the programmes that participating organisations currently deliver. We will collect, analyse and evaluate data focussed on the following four stages of employer engagement:1. First point of contact (what is the best way to approach an employer, what type of employer is more receptive to what type of approach, how to reach decision makers within a company).2. Persuasion (how to most effectively change perceptions and improve knowledge regarding capabilities of disabled people in the workplace across an entire company organisational structure).3. Getting the disabled person into work with due support (how can employers provide due support within the working environment in an effective way and optimising the time spent by internal resources, how youth workers can support young people effectively into employment, how youth organisations can support employers to engage with DDYP).4. Gradual withdrawal to allow the disabled person to continue working independently (how long does it take for the person to work independently, what are the steps, what means of verification are needed).The project will achieve the following impact:• Improved capability of organisations to test and implement different practices to engage employers.• Changed perceptions and knowledge of employers regarding disability in the workplace, improved use of equipment and understanding of appropriate technologies (if needed); improved capability to integrate DDYP into the workplace.• Improvements in the way employers support beneficiaries in delivering tasks, improved understanding of the benefits of employing a DDYP; employers are better equipped to hire disabled young people.• DDYP are more empowered in the workplace; have improved their interpersonal skills and are more effective in the workplace.Project findings and good practices will be adopted by each of the partner organisations by capacity building staff to implement the identified best practices. This means that the results will be maintained and become an integral part of employability projects for the target groups. Trained staff will cascade these new methodologies to their peers which will ensure that engagement and successes in securing employment for their participants is maintained.The project results will be shared locally and nationally in UK, Spain and Germany and across Europe and the model will eventually be applicable to different organisations working with young people facing different types of disadvantages, to improve their engagement with employers. As a result, disabled and disadvantaged young people in Europe, will have improved access to employment opportunities.

The employment rate of young people with disability is half the current rate among individuals of the same age in Europe. This deplorable state of affair is not in our view resulting solely from the tense economic situation. In hindsight it appears that granting people with disability with a full-fledged access to education, training and employment has always been a problem for given member states of the European community. The European Union as well as member states have ratified the UN Convention of the right of persons with disabilities. This strong symbolic act is meant to convey the message that people with disability shall no longer be considered as an exception to the rule but rather as full-fledged citizens whose rights have to be promoted. This political act indicates that non-discrimination and promotion of fundamental rights are a common task. Politicians, economic actors, media and citizens alike are all responsible in this endeavor. Meanwhile the European Union and its member states are promoting through law and regulations that anyone from the northern to the southern part of the continent as well as from the western to the eastern part implement policies and strategies that aim at securing career paths. What is it all about? Access to employment is intricate especially for people with disability as redundancies, transitions between professional activities and unemployment, access to vocational training and returning to work can be hard to manage. Career paths have therefore to be secured. In order to do so, it requires to lay the ground for a realistic and above all lasting individual project, to identify the essential stages and to support the person. Securing career path, promoting supported employment, promoting the European Disability Empolyment week (EDEW), is the way we choose to sensibilise and act on/with entreprises and society. We want to act and measure. It is the reason why we promote in this program not only actions but the way to produce evaluation of what have been clearly done on the ground. EASPD, EMPLEA, SCUOLA VIVA and L’ADAPT are complementary organizations considering their competencies and skills. They are bound together through their DNA contained in their institutional projects. We claim our commitment to translate into proposals and actions the principles enshrined in the international convention of the right of persons with disabilities. The have been the promotors of DESC1. Our prposition is to go by DESC 2 a step beyond with those same organisations and their partners. With this project we establish a link between implementing the rights of young people with disability , the economical reality, the state of play of the labour market but also the necessary need of change in the way to move and act for the service providers. Our proposition is based on three axes First Axe : To experiment on the ground 150 career path and supported emplyoment. To create an evaluation method. To produce each years, results, analysis and success stories. To associate 40 partners to realise those career path. To work with 40 entreprises. As a matter of fact, 120 professionals from our national networks have been trained during DESC 1 to securing path careers and supported employment. We expect to train 40 more professionnals. Second axe : To associate partners who work in the field of health, culture, citizenship, housing, etc... This way we want to promote a global approach to secure career paths. We want to create a good practices guide to develop sustainablity and awardness in the paractices of those partners. We expect to train 40 of them to securing career path and supported employment. Third axe : To produce a method to support the sustenaible implementation of EDEW in the networks at a national level for the members of the consortium and their partners (funders, politics, entreprises , civil society, associations). We want to measure the efficiency and the quality of the networks we will contribute to create. We will promote sensibilisation actions about EDEW in each country wich is apart of this program. For each axe a delivrable. Each delivrable will propose an analysis method and a measure of the results This European initiative will synthesize our skills and good practices and will disseminate them. We will review the programme on a yearly basis in order to evaluate our action. International conferences will be held in order to share our experiences. We will make sure that they are fully accessible.

The employment rate of young people with disability is half the current rate among individuals of the same age in Europe. This deplorable state of affair is not in our view resulting solely from the tense economic situation. In hindsight it appears that granting young people with disability with a full-fledged access to education, training and employment has always been a problem for given member states of the European community.The European Union as well as member states have ratified the UN Convention of the right of persons with disabilities. This strong symbolic act is meant to convey the message that people with disability shall no longer be considered as an exception to the rule but rather as full-fledged citizens whose rights have to be promoted.This political act indicates that non-discrimination and promotion of fundamental rights are a common task. Politicians, economic actors, media and citizens alike are all responsible in this endeavor.Meanwhile the European Union and its member states are promoting through law and regulations that anyone from the northern to the southern part of the continent as well as from the western to the eastern part implement policies and strategies that aim at securing career paths.What is it all about?Access to employment is intricate especially for people with disability as redundancies, transitions between professional activities and unemployment, access to vocational training and returning to work can be hard to manage. Career paths have therefore to be secured.In order to do so, it requires to lay the ground for a realistic and above all lasting individual project, to identify the essential stages and to support the person.EASPD, EMPLEA, SCUOLA VIVA and L’ADAPT are complementary organizations considering their competencies and skills. They are bound together through their DNA contained in their institutional projects. We claim our commitment to translate into proposals and actions the principles enshrined in the international convention of the right of persons with disabilities.With this project we establish a link between implementing the rights of young people with disability and shaping strategies to secure career paths from skill developments to integration in work.Providing security for career paths and supporting employment is our first proposal. Indicators for monitoring and recording good practices will lead to editing two documents:- A guideline for providing security for career paths and supporting employment in Europe,- A training resource for professionals involved in these matters.Our second proposal is related to the training of 120 professionals from our national networks and beyond. We will spread information and good practices gathered through observation and edited in guides in order to support people with disability in work.Our third proposal is to extend to Europe the concept of the week for the employment of people with disability which has been carried in France for more than 18 years in a row. This event will become the European Disability Employment Week (EDEW)EDEW is a set of actions such as jobdatings, employment fora and handicafés carried with companies. They are aiming at facilitating the encounter between employers and job seekers with disability.EDEW is also consisting of streets actions in order to raise public awareness.We would also like to edit a guideline based upon the best practices of every partner involved in the European week for the employment with people with disability.This guideline will be used as a grid for the training of 100 activists: volunteers, employees, managers and so on.We aim at contributing to reassess the situation of young people with disability regarding their access to training and lasting employment.This European initiative will synthesize our skills and good practices and will disseminate them.We will review the programme on a yearly basis in order to evaluate our action. International conferences will be held in order to share our experiences. We will make sure that they are fully accessible.

Context:Millions of Europeans are still on the side-lines both from the labour market and from social inclusion and integration. Together with social exclusion often comes urban exclusion, taking the form of marginalised, precarious neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are characterised by very deteriorated buildings, which offers a very low comfort and in some of the worst cases, unsafe or unhealthy living conditions. Partners:“Participatory Actions for Social Inclusion” (PASI) brings together five organisations working in different and complementary ways, in order to explore how the participatory approach in places of urban precariousness can contribute to social inclusion :- Quatorze and its experiences and resources regarding slum resorption projects.- The Emplea Foundation and its expertise on profesional insertion - ACINA and its experience on social follow-up in the context of slum resorption projects.- Finacoop and its knowledge concerning Social and Solidarity Economy. - ZaLab and its experience concerning participatory video laboratories.They have identified 3 needs to address within this strategic partnership:1/ The need to structure and legitimate the participative methodologies for the fight against urban precarity.2/ The need to gather methodological references for entities of the third sector and civic organisations.3/ The need of a cross-disciplinary approachObjectives of PASI:- To define the components of good practices of participatory processes within places of urban precariousness- To define participatory methodologies for social inclusion in places of urban precariousness- To analyse case studies where these methodologies have been applied by third sector entities- To define the needed core competences needed for a local development- To promote a transdisciplinary approach of pedagogy through participationTarget group:- Non-profit organisations working in local development project in precarious neighborhood (social workers, architects, educators, project managers) and their local partners.- Policy makers and decision makers (municipalities, regional authorities, national states and UE)- Inhabitants of precarious neighborhoods.Activities: - 6 transnational meetings- 2 training courses - production of 2 intellectual outputs - 1 multiplier event.Output:- A Handbook, expounding the results of the projects: learning-by-doing methodologies, a set of tools and cross-disciplinary approaches.- A website, with videos and articles, to document the PASI project and showing the results of the different activities.The main impacts will be: - The raised readiness of civil society, private, public and third sector, to commit in participatory processes within social inclusion initiatives.- The raised awareness and expertise in Europe regarding local development projects in urban precariousness situations.- The raised knowledge about social follow up, architectural, cultural actions in shantytowns.- The raised knowledge about participation tools as a type of non formal education

Project objectives are:- To improve the knowledge, capacities and skills of professionals who provide support services to entrepreneurs with disabilities- To facilitate the recognition of the knowledge, experience, capacities and skills of these professionals, providing a sound base for the definition of a Professional Qualification by the competent authorities- To increase the mobility, job opportunities and the exchange among professionals and organizations which provide support services to entrepreneurs with disabilities by means of facilitating a common framework for the recognition of competences- As a consequence of the previous results, to increase the number of professionals aiming at increasing their capacities and skills to support entrepreneurs with disabilities using a validated intervention model and tools. - To increase the number and quality of support services provided to entrepreneurs with disabilities throughout Europe and, as a consequence, to improve the self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities.That will be achieved by means of the design and validation of: 1) An Intervention Model to provide support services to entrepreneurs with disabilities, 2) A specific Professional Profile for professionals that provide those services, including the requested experience, education, knowledge, capacities and skills.The following activities will be carried out:- Design of the Managerial Procedure, appointment of an external evaluator and design and set up of an internal Communication tool- Gathering of Best practices regarding the support to disabled entrepreneurs’ initiatives in Europe. - Adaptation of the Supported Employment methodology (including toolkit) to support entrepreneurship. - Design of the professional profile of the Supported Self-Employment Advisor. -Design of a European Course for Supported Self-Employment Advisors. - Validation of the professional profile by means of a training activity addressed to 40 professionals from all throughout Europe. - Design and execution of a Dissemination Plan, including specific dissemination activities addressed to stakeholders and policymakers- A final European Seminar to increase visibility and awareness on project productsBy executing the above indicated activities, the projects aims at achieving the following objectives:- Locally, more organizations traditionally supporting labor opportunities for disabled, will offer support services for entrepreneurs with disabilities. Due to the existence of a recognizable professional profile, more professionals will choose to increase their capabilities in this field. The increase of mobility will increase the expertise and experience treasured by these professionals and, as a result, more entrepreneurial initiatives promoted by people with disabilities will result in new businesses and jobs.- At a National level, competent authorities will have available a professional profile following the ECVET principles and technical orientations and designed and validated with the participation of the involved agents. After validation and presentation, that could lead to the appearance of a new qualification and, in any case, to the offer of more and better training and capacity building activities in that field.- At a European level, the Intervention Model and the Professional Profile will be of special interest for those countries which do not have a strong tradition in support to entrepreneurs with disabilities as they will have access to a sound model to start working with. Furthermore, the existence of a European professional profile promoted by the European Union of Supported Employment will increase not only mobility of professionals, but exchange of experiences and the continuous enrichment of the model, too