EDGE

Enhancing Disabled-people Greatness and their Employability

The unemployment rate of people with Intellectual Disabilities in Europe is more than twice that of unemployment in general terms, despite legislative reforms concerning work and non-discrimination, and financial and tax incentives for businesses.

The EDGE Project is promoted by Consorzio SIR for the implementation of the European Erasmus Plus Strategic Partnership, in collaboration with agencies and organizations from the following countries: UK, Portugal, Greece, Austria and Lithuania.

EDGE intends to design and experiment with innovative approaches to promote the inclusion of young people with intellectual disabilities skills in the labor market, leveraging win-win solutions that involve young unemployed people, businesses and society as a whole.

Objectives

Creating and promoting innovative and effective training methodologies for job insertion
Support organisations and businesses to be proactive in employing young people with disabilities
Promote the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, as well as skills and possibilities for self-employment.

Strategies

Supply-side: for the development of hard and soft skills and experimentation with placement strategies
Demand-side: to sensitize companies to recruit young people with intellectual disabilities
Third way: self-employment paths and self-entrepreneurship with young people

Target

Young people (18 – 35 years) with relational and intellectual disabilities
Educators and operators working with young people with relational and intellectual disabilities
Business Mentors trained to support the path of self-entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs and HR managers, to be involved in creating inclusive work environments.