A Supported Employment Project for Young Disabled Persons in Argentina
By Maria Ignacia Angulo (Mariaignacia37@hotmail.com)
In August 2000, a social and educational project on Supported Employment was presented to the Board of Education authorities in the Province of Córdoba, Argentina. The project aims at improving the quality of life of young disabled people and adults who are at social risk, generally coming from outlying districts.
Once the project was approved, its implementation started in September of the same year in the county seat of Cordoba and in some interior regions of the province and it continues to operate until the present date.
The purpose of this project is the integration of these young people in social and labor activities in their communities.
The programs fostering employment - arising from the Production and Industry Board of the province - target labor insertion. They incorporate young people, between 16 and 40 years of age, into private enterprises. The State commits itself to the payment of an income of $140 per month for four hours of work daily in the particular job.
The project is based on three fundamental premises:
1. Labor insertion and placement in a preferred job
The first stage of the project comprised a convening of the possible beneficiaries for diagnostic interview and the development of their labor profiles. Then, businessmen of some enterprises from the city were visited and after having heard the idea of integrating disabled people into their job force, many accepted the proposition.
The next step was to place 56 young people that are complying with their jobs for a whole year, in the 21 integrative enterprises selected. Professional support was offered on an individual basis and continued through close observation both in the enterprise and in the family surroundings once each young person was placed in his/her job.
A personal and professional support plan was developed for participants, taking into account age, kind and degree of the disability, capacities and abilities, district they belong to, among other things. The process was tailored to match the young person's wishes and expectations with the job characteristics.
As part of the integrative placement, the project staff made sure that the young person was accepted, respected and treated in the same way as his/her partners serving in the same position, in each of the companies where the experience took place.
Personal assessment tools were designed to be used in follow-up visits to companies. During the process, an increasing involvement between employers and the human resource staff in charged of each young worker enrolled in the program was noticed.
2. Interrelationships among the group of beneficiaries
Parallel with their labor experience a weekly gathering with the beneficiaries was organized to interrelate them, foster future labor opportunities, facilitate different kinds of participation through self-reflection, assess others' experiences and create free time activities.
These gatherings were enriched with the presence of the beneficiaries' siblings.
3. Presence of the young people in the community
The young people were invited to participate in different community activities such as: Display of photographs (Organized by Rotary Club), Supermarket owners International Congress, Book fair, theatre festival, etc. They choose which are the events they want to visit or participate in. Their presence in the community was visible and participatory.
Assessment
The assessment was carried out outdoors, in places chosen by the young people.
The first meeting, one afternoon at the Central Board, was basically assessed through group of reflection. The second meeting, one day in Cabana, (country side of the Province of Cordoba), was a whole day of recreation and assessment with some guests from the community. For the third meeting, in Huerta Grande (also, country side of Cordoba) they stayed in a hotel for three days. The Hotel belongs to the Gastronomic Union and beneficiaries did not have to pay for anything because the participating employers sponsor the whole event, providing accommodations, food, drinks, prices and souvenirs.
The topics the young persons assessed included their integration, the place they occupy in the job place, family and community. They share their impressions on how their lives were before and after their labor experience started. They also assessed the project's practical aspects, the fear of losing their jobs if the project has to be interrupted due to economic reasons, and the professional performance of the interdisciplinary team working with them, among other things. The results were shared within the community.
The Present Moment
The Project's implementation continues. Under the guidance of an interdisciplinary team made up of four trained professionals and supervised by the Adult School Inspection of Córdoba, the new outcome of the project is the creation of a purchase and sales cooperative of products that derive from Soya. The initiative also counts on the support of the Cooperative Management from Córdoba.
The Cooperative will be called Crece-Cor (Crecer en Córdoba: to grow up in Córdoba). All the necessary documentation for the acceptance of the proposal has been presented. At the moment, the project is working to identify a physical location to start with the activities.
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