Conference Report

Conference Report
The EPR Annual Conference 2015 was hosted by the ONCE Foundation in
Valencia, Spain on 28-29 May. Over 120 delegates, including experts from
Denmark, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands, attended the event.
The conference focused on the collaboration with employers as a key factor to
boost the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market. In the current
context of global crisis and lack of economic resources, social service providers
have to be able to understand and meet the needs of businesses so that inclusion
can be perceived as mutually beneficial by employers and people with disabilities.
The programme of the conference proposed a reflection on the needs of the
labour market from the point of view of employers. It also offered the opportunity
to explore innovative projects that have been successfully implemented by EPR
Members to tackle the current low rates of employment of people with disabilities,
in close cooperation with employers. The conference gave participants the
opportunity to discuss proposals and solutions to better match services to
persons with disabilities with labour market needs.
All the presentations given during the conference are available on the EPR website,
at www.epr.eu, “Annual Conference” section.
Date: 28-29 May 2015
Location: Valencia, Spain
Number of participants: 122
Programme: Panel debate with
4 employers representing private
businesses, 5 speed presentations,
5 ateliers (training workshops),
group discussions, 1 video
summary, 3 speeches, Innovation
prize awarding ceremony.
Host: ONCE Foundation (EPR
full member) provides quality
services to people with disabilities
to maximize their independence
and improve the quality of life.
Special thanks to the “Coral
Allegro” who livened-up the
welcome reception on
Wednesday evening!
DAY 1 Highlights
The conference was opened by Teresa Palahí, Secretary
General of ONCE Foundation; José Abargues, Human
Resources Director Ford Spain; Jean-Paul Essers, EPR President
and Fernando Díaz, Regional Secretary of Economy and
employment of the Region of Valencia. Geoff Meade, from
Maede Davis Communications, chaired the conference and
accompanied delegates during the sessions.
SESSION I: Mind the gap!
Mike Evans, EPR expert, set the scene by giving a broad view
of the challenges faced by employers and service providers in
supporting the employment of people with disabilities.
A panel debate followed with representatives from private
businesses that are part of disability networks, who discussed
provocative statements about employers’ engagement in
employing people with disabilities.
From left to right: Sabina Lobato, ONCE Foundation; Jean-Paul Essers,
EPR; Fernando Díaz, Region of Valencia, José Abargues, FORD Spain,
Theresa Palahí, ONCE Foundation
The employers’ representatives:
Lucia Jimenez, (in the upper-left corner) Deloitte Spain and
partner in Foro Inserta;
Javier Simón, (in the upper-right corner) AXA Spain and partner
in International Labour Organisation Global Business and
Disability Network;
Carlos Revert Arnau, (in the lower-left corner) Dr. Schneider
Graeme Whippy, (in the lower-right corner) Lloyds Banking
Group and partner in Business Disability Forum.
The discussion highlighted as building the relationship with
employers as preparatory step to sell the concept of employing
persons with disabilities is the key factor for services
providers to achieve their goal of increasing the rate of
employment of people with disabilities.
SESSION II
Building blocks: service initiatives bridging the gap
Speed presentations followed by a question and answer session gave
participants the opportunity to learn about innovative practices and
approaches in the collaboration with employers to increase the rates of
employment of people with disabilities. Speakers focused on the use of
ICT in linking people with disabilities who are looking for a job with
employers.
Centre de Réadaptation de Mulhouse (France); National Learning Network
(Ireland); EKON (Poland); ONCE Foundation (Spain) and VRC (Lithuania)
presented their good practices. In the picture; Edurne Alvarez de Mon, ONCE
SESSION III: Making bridge crossing easier
The all afternoon involved delegates in 5 selected Ateliers that offered concrete trainings and space for an in-depth
reflections on other solutions to reduce the gap between providers of services to people with disabilities and employers.
Parallel ateliers
Career management skills (CMS)
Participants learned about CMS frameworks used to
define attitudes, knowledge and skills that a person needs
to manage changes in their life, including in the world of
work. Professionals from Norway guided participants
through their experience in developing such frameworks.
Ethics in management
The atelier focused on the new mind-set that leads
employers to engage people with disabilities and social
services providers to cooperate with employers to better
support employees with disabilities in their self-care
learning path.
The collaborative economy as a lever
inspiration and innovation in service provision
for
This training session engaged participants in inspirational
exercises to broaden their vision of ecosystems that could
support their organizations in expanding service provision
and optimizing service delivery. There was a particular
focus on using the “crowd” and technology as resources.
Mental health recovery through work: Individual
Placement and Support
The training looked into supporting work inclusion for
people with serious mental health problems by bridging
health services and employment offices using the evidence
-based method of Individual Placement and Support.
Participants worked in small groups to assess their
organization’s readiness to implement the method.
Development of Sustainable Quality Assurance in
VET (DeSqual)
The atelier presented the DeSqual project and the training
programme developed for quality assurance in VET
providers for people with disabilities on Quality Culture,
Quality Awareness and Quality Behaviour .
DAY 2 Highlights
SESSION IV: Crossing the bridge
The morning of the second day focused on drawing out the main learnings
from the conference and future perspectives of international cooperation. In
small groups participants discussed the main barriers to implementation of
their learning, challenges in service delivery in general and at solutions.
Laura Jones, EPR Secretary General, in her speech highlighted the added value
of international cooperation in unlocking change and continuously developing
innovative products, tools and methodologies in service delivery.
The conference ended with Hanne Danielsen, Director of Grennessminde,
who presented her experience in “selling a dream based on a partnership” to
realize projects together with employers, service providers and people with
disabilities to connect them to the labour market.
Focus: Innovation Prize Winner
The Irish member organisation RehabCare with “Dundalk FC
Supporters’ Club Project” won the 2015 EPR Innovation Prize. Stephen
Caraher, Programme Supervisor in RehabCare presented the project
to the conference delegates and explained why the initiative has been
such a success.
The project began in 2008 when RehabCare, which provides services
for people with disabilities in Dundalk, approached Dundalk Football
Club as some of the men in RehabCare with an interest in football,
wanted to join the Supporters Club. From day one, they were made feel
very welcome by the supporters. They became well known in the
football grounds around the country as they travelled to all the away
games supporting Dundalk FC. The initiative between RehabCare and
Dundalk FC Supporters Club has been an outstanding success and has
made a big difference to the lives of those involved.
For those involved in the Supporters Club, it’s not just about being fans
of football, it’s also about the friendships they make, being part of a club,
the social life, and being part of the community. Darren Belton said, “I
love going to the away games. It’s brought me to places I’ve never been like
Limerick, Longford, Athlone, Derry and Cork. There is always good craic on the
bus. You can chat to people. I’ve made new friends through the club. One of
my goals was to see Manchester United play. Because of being more
confident now after a few years in the Supporters’ Club, I’m going to go Old
Trafford in a few weeks. It’ll be my first time out of the country.”
Thank you for your participation!
Stephen Caraher, Darren Belton and Colin Savage
The EPR Annual Conference 2015 was
well perceived by participants as shown in
the evaluation forms distributed during
the event. The conference scored a mark
of 4.2/5, with great satisfaction for all
those who have worked hard to make
this event relevant and successful.
The Conference was partly co-funded by
the European Social Fund within the
framework of the Spanish Programme
“Fight against Discrimination 2007-2013”
which runs until 2015, and by he
European Union Programme for
Employment and social Innovation
“EaSI” (2014-2020)