Karin Dom participated in EASPD’s conference in Croatia – “Persons with Disabilities in Employment”

In the period May 6-8 2015, Karin Dom took part in the EASPD conference in Croatia EASPD conference “Persons with Disabilities in Employment: Inclusion through Jobs – Making it Real”. The conference has the goal of fulfilling article 27 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, by demonstrating good examples for integrated employment and support of the employment throughout Europe.

This matter is of great importance for the EASPD since many of its member organizations specialize in supporting employment, providing career development and advocacy for the integrated employment and also because many European countries have high levels of unemployment and need a deeper exchange and research in the field of employment of people with disabilities.

During the conference, Franz Wolfmayr, President of EASPD, stressed on the problem of unemployment and half employment among people with disabilities in Europe. “The data shows that half of the people with disabilities in Europe are unemployed, some of them are even legally excluded from the labor market”. This is one of the reasons to stress and give attention to the subject and find solutions.

Franz Wolfmayr continued with presenting the Employment Declaration of EASPD, officially presented in January 2015, that recommends that “support services need to be provided in two ways: support of the person in order for him to find work but also to support the companies that give opportunities and create suitable conditions in order to guarantee the employment of people with disabilities.”

This summer the European Commission is planning on developing a series of measures that will support the member countries in order for them to succeed in creating employment spots for people who have experienced longer unemployment and the young people to improve their skills and become part of the qualified work force. EASPD made a document for presenting the basic factors, necessary for support services and to benefit on managing long term unemployment in Europe, not only for people with disabilities but for all groups in an unequal situation.