Community Engagement Event in Belgium
28th February, 2024
Belgium
On February 28, 2024, a community event took place in Eupen as part of the Include3 project.
The event was about sharing ideas and experiences on inclusion.
13 people took part, including experts, employers from social enterprises, workers from special schools, and a person with a disability.
They talked about the challenges and opportunities of helping people with disabilities find jobs in regular workplaces.
Presentation of Include3 Project:
Liliane Mreyen explained the Include3 project, which aims to help people with cognitive disabilities by offering counseling and training.
Ursula Meyer shared findings from group talks with people with disabilities and experts.
Important points included reducing stress, avoiding conflicts, and helping people build special skills.
Discussion and Interest in Guidelines:
The project guidelines (rules to help with inclusion) were presented and sparked a lot of interest.
The discussion highlighted that in Belgium, training and counseling for people with disabilities are done separately.
Participants asked for better education and more preparation for companies to understand the needs of people with disabilities.
There was a call for new rules, such as requiring companies to include people with disabilities.
Workshop and Creative Ideas:
In the second part, a workshop was held. Participants shared ideas about inclusion by 2050, how to make things better now, and challenges.
Dreamers: Their vision included a stronger community, accepting differences, open communication, and positive energy.
Realists: They focused on practical actions like improving social skills, reducing stigma, and supporting inclusion.
Critics: They mentioned challenges like a lack of acceptance, high costs, and funding issues in private businesses.
Summary and Next Steps:
The event was a big success and allowed people to share ideas and make connections.
The results from the workshop will help improve the Include3 project as it works to help people with cognitive disabilities find jobs in the regular job market.
Focus on inclusion: community event in Eupen
On 28th February 2024, a community engagement event took place in Eupen as part of the Include3 project. The aim of the event was to bring together various stakeholders from the field of inclusion and to share their experiences and ideas.
Experts, employers and people with disabilities in dialogue:
around 13 participants, including inclusion experts, employers from social enterprises, employees from special schools and a person with a disability, discussed the challenges and opportunities of inclusion in the primary labour market.
Presentation of the Include3 project and the guidelines
At the beginning of the event, Liliane Mreyen from the VHS-Bildungsinstitut presented the Include3 project. The aim of the project is to provide counselling and training for people with cognitive impairments and to offer appropriate training material for this purpose.
Ursula Meyer presented the results of the focus groups that were conducted with people with disabilities and experts. The most important criteria for inclusion in the primary labour market were stress reduction, avoidance of conflict and opportunities to develop special skills.
Animated discussion and request for more information
The presentation of the guidelines, which are intended to serve as an orientation aid for the inclusion process, met with great interest. In the discussion that followed, the situation in Belgium was highlighted, where counselling and training for people with disabilities take place separately.
The participants asked for more educational work and better preparation of companies for the needs of people with disabilities. There was also a call for political measures, such as social clauses that oblige companies to become inclusive.
Workshop results with creative methods:
In the second part of the event, a workshop was held in which participants shared their ideas and experiences on inclusion in the DG in 2050, ways to improve the current situation and challenges of inclusion. The most important points that were developed in the various groups were
Dreamers: Vision: Strengthened togetherness, acceptance of differences, open communication, community-building projects, positive energy, consideration of intersectionality.
Realists: Concrete measures: Promotion of social skills, destigmatisation, operational support, social clauses, information in easy language, acceptance of support needs, change in values.
Critics: Challenges: Lack of acceptance, excessive demands, funding, higher costs in the private sector.
Summary and outlook
The community engagement event in Eupen was a complete success. The event offered participants the opportunity to network with other stakeholders in the field of inclusion and to share their ideas and experiences.
The results of the workshop will be incorporated into the further development of the Include3 project. The project team will continue to work towards improving the inclusion of people with cognitive impairments in the primary labour market.
