Protocols and desks spread the initiatives over each territory

A Memorandum of Understanding for the employment of persons with disabilities, which will see Venetian employment consultants and Anffas Veneto Aps (Regional Association of families and persons with intellectual disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders) committed: it was signed at the end of July, during the annual meeting of the members of the Order of Employment Consultants of Venice held in Forte Marghera, and is defined as a 'milestone to create a truly inclusive society'.

The aim is to define and then activate actions and strategies that can ensure that people with disabilities have the right access to employment opportunities and can be reintegrated into the world of work. Specifically, Labour Consultants, if during the course of their activities they find available positions within companies, can contact Anffas for names of people who can be placed. At the same time Anffas will undertake to accompany the person involved in educational and workshop courses if these are included in the placement project of the person with disabilities (tutoring). The two organisations will also be able to develop joint projects and/or participate together in calls for tenders relating to the work placement of people with disabilities, both nationally and locally.

"This Memorandum of Understanding represents a milestone for relations between Employment Consultants and Onlus organisations, in particular the one related to people with disabilities," explains the president of the Order of Employment Consultants of Venice, Luca Scalabrin. "We must stop considering people with disabilities only in relation to the need to cover certain quotas (reserve burden, ndr), established by law, but consider them as resources who need to find a place in the world of work and who have a lot to offer. This is therefore a different strategy from the previous ones,' Scalabrin continues, 'because in this case we are not just covering a regulatory obligation, but there is a desire and a will to change the social system, setting up virtuous paths that will lead these people to work together with companies, making the most of them'.

The idea 'is to move from a situation of mere social inclusion, such as the one we are witnessing today, to a real inclusive system, in which inclusion is not seen as an obligation, but as normality,' concludes Anffas president Graziella Lazzari Peroni. 'Too often, in order to include people with disabilities, they are removed from the normal training courses that are carried out, with the result that instead of including them, they are excluded. Instead, we need to start looking at these people like everyone else, that is, as people who are following training courses that can lead them to a place in the world of work, like any other individual does'.

More and more often, initiatives to combat discrimination take place on a strictly local scale, in order to better understand and influence reality. In Vicenza, representatives of associations of people with disabilities, families and third sector organisations participate in the Permanent Table on the "Quality of inclusion of people with disabilities and the study of pathways for the implementation of Life Projects" set up to "focus on listening to the needs of people with disabilities and their families, also involving institutions such as the Azienda Ulss, the school and the world of work, which will be invited to participate in the working groups in order to carry out participatory planning experiments in specific areas of intervention," said Councillor for Social Policies Matteo Tosetto, citing for example the activation of information desks on the network of services, training initiatives, leisure activities, and independent living paths, truly responsive to needs, "another important step towards the construction of an inclusive and responsible community, capable of enhancing the skills of all, starting with those of the people directly affected.