BRIDGES – Broadening positive Reflections on the Issue of Disability, Generating Empowerment for Stakeholders - XENIOS POLIS

• by admin
• 0 Comments

BRIDGES attempts to give a holistic approach to disability and, through really innovative products, supports the cultivation and the development of skills in order to deal with disabilities; disabled members of society should enjoy fully and equally all the human rights. It is up to the family environment, training providers and professionals along with society reflections and stakeholders to ensure that disability deserves equal chances and to promote dignity, self-reliance and the efficient integration of people with disabilities into society.

In the EU the estimated numbers of disabled people are around 80 million. Most of them face barriers in their everyday life and experience: social exclusion, poverty, income inequalities, limited labor market choices, limited access to healthcare, justice, education and training. The main cause for the social exclusion of disabled people and the problems they face on a daily basis is the lack of information and awareness of society towards disability issues.

Accordingly, what researchers have shown is that beyond the positive reflections and the ‘elimination’ of exclusive practices or discrimination these people face or experience, what is of high value for them is their access to the right of being employed or being given as much as possible employment opportunities; lack of participation in the workplace can put people with disabilities at high risk of poverty and at a low level of life quality while on the contrary, facilitation of relative services or training of specific persons acting as the ‘bridges’ between the disabled and the society employers or the labor/market sector can lead to positive integration results. In the context above what is central is the implementation of efficient and effective actions towards disabled people’s participation in society through the recruitment and reinforcement of specific supporters: these people will undertake the role of bridging the disabled with society, support them in the labor activation, of mentoring in their employment and of acting as proper and appropriate channels.

Thus, in the BRIDGES project, the target groups will be public servants and public services representatives, relative professionals, NGOs & CSOs members and members of family environments, who will be trained to support disabled people in the employment process and integration procedures.

The project’s objectives are:

a) to strengthen and reinforce via training and relative tools those key factors involved directly or indirectly with the disabled people’s integration and the positive reflections on the issue of disability

b) to create content resources towards the proper training of specific persons, who will act as mentors, ‘intermediators’ ‘intercoachers’ for people with disabilities and their integration; to cultivate their special knowledge and skills (as also to act as access-point) such as for example the skills of career counseling, performance coaching, emotional intelligence empathy building, behavior change and work culture, self-activation and symbol work, sustainability disability, Call 2019 Round 1 KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices KA204 – Strategic Partnerships for adult education FormId KA204-DD10D642 Deadline (Brussels Time) 26 Mar 2019 12:00:00 EN 4 / 147 knowledge of labor services provisions, expertise on the supported models of employment, etc, in parallel with labor mapping and contextualization skills for people with disabilities

c) to take advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT and digitize the quality of learning content

d) to create and deliver innovative products and training tools – as tailored needs learning resources – based on differentiation methodologies and adult education approaches

e) to promote public campaigns and initiatives on positive and respectful attitudes towards disabled members of the community with targeted actions for market and labor key players. The project includes 7 partners (ATLANTICA, XENIOS POLIS, CSI, InEuropa, CAMINOS, MEATH, Akademie Klausenhof) from 7 countries (Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Germany).

For more information you can visit https://bridges.pt/