The Project

EFE – Equality Future in Europe is an Erasmus+ co-funded project aiming to raise awareness concerning the social integration of people with disabilities within the workplace by promoting work skills and develop practical and theoretical tools to support disabled people in the workplace for the successful collaboration between people with disabilities, participant organizations and employers.


Context

Disability from light to severe affects one in six people in the European Union, about 80 million people that often do not have the possibility to participate fully in social and economic life due to behavioural and environmental barriers. Too many people whit disabilities feel remote from their communities, civil institutions and policies that affect their daily and future lives.

The poverty rate relating to persons with disabilities it is 70% higher than the average, partly due to limited access to employment. Only 59.7% of people with disabilities in the EU are economically active, compared to 82.2% of people without disabilities, which suggests that there are significant obstacles to accessing the former to the labor market.

In gender terms, the employment rate of women with disabilities (45.9%) was only slightly lower than that of men with disabilities (50.6%) while the situation was reversed in some Member States. Those who are employed report much less frequently than they feel excluded from society than long-term unemployed respondents or those who are unable to work because of disability.


Objectives

  • To provide new skills to disabled people that can be spent in the world of work
  • To encourage and support public authorities, companies, associations, etc., to include persons with disabilities in their staff
  • To provide new tools and skills to workers, in order to be able to work side by side with people with disabilities
  • To promote equity and inclusion
  • To promote innovation in the training sector
  • To contribute to achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy
  • To contribute to the promotion of European values under Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union
  • To sensitize society to disability issues and ensure that people with disabilities know their rights better and know how to exercise them.

Target groups

  • People with disabilities
    The project addresses the needs reported by people with disabilities consulted for this application from all the partners. Most of these people have fewer opportunities because they are in poverty and lack of key skills and competences. Many are marginalized which can lead to losing motivation, to mental ill-health and sometimes extremism.
  • Workers and organisations
    From a needs survey carried out by the partnership on their territories in the preliminary phase, the need for training has emerged both from the workers and from the host organizations and the need for greater awareness and information of employers on the issue of disability.
  • Disability experts
    Experts working with the disabled (psychologists, educators, social workers, etc.) need new practical and innovative tools to support them in the workplace.