Abilities Above Barriers: Join the ‘ZAPOSLI-OSI’ Workshop for a New Perspective on Employing Persons with Disabilities

The Croatian Association of Organizations for Youth and Students with Disabilities (SUMSI) and partners are organizing the ZAPOSLI-OSI workshop for employers on employing persons with disabilities, which will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM at the WESPA Spaces Center, Zavrtnica 17, Zagreb.

The event is part of the ‘Together Through Challenges2’ program, aimed at contributing to greater employment and self-employment of persons with disabilities in an open and competitive labor market. The workshop will discuss the need for employing persons with disabilities and the opportunities and challenges that employers may encounter in this area.

The SUMSI Association has long recognized the real need to create a competitive and equitable image in the labor market that naturally includes persons with and without disabilities in its ‘mosaic’. Denis Marijon, President of SUMSI, emphasized that the goal of this project is to walk through the challenges imposed on the path to a more equitable image of social, professional, and entrepreneurial life that is equally created for all, including persons with disabilities, but it is necessary to know how to use its resources appropriately.

– The modern way of working allows everyone to enhance and develop their interests, knowledge, and talents through various professional segments. This model is particularly good for persons with disabilities who have long been a hard-to-employ group due to the emphasis on their (in)abilities rather than the skills that often do not depend on disability. Today’s ways of working (online and virtual services, assistive technologies, and computer support in general), as well as significant incentives in co-financing salaries for persons with disabilities and different market needs, are indeed of great help so that every person, regardless of the deficiency or specificity that each of us has in a certain area of functioning, can live, develop, and act through their own personal and professional talents and thus contribute to society, which is the ultimate goal of all policies for the integration and inclusion of persons with disabilities – said Marijon.

All interested employers wishing to participate in this event, which includes a reception, can register via the link. Registered employers will have the opportunity to participate in the entire project program, which will also include individual consultations and an additional final conference until April 2025.

The ‘Together Through Challenges2’ program is implemented by the SUMSI Association in partnership with: the Center for Professional Rehabilitation ‘Zagreb’, the Croatian Institute for Social Work, the Croatian Employment Service, the Study Center for Social Work at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, the Liberato Association from Split, and the Radio Student Association. This three-year program is funded by the Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family, and Social Policy.