Job training and Inclusion of Youth with Special Abilities through Urban Agriculture

According to WHO, 10% of the world’s children and young people (about 200 million), have some kind of disability or mental disorder. Talking about the European reality, according to the European Disability Forum, about 80 million Europeans have a disability, which makes people with disabilities the most significant minority in Europe. Even though disabled youth form a quite large part of our society, they often face discrimination and prejudice, which leads to their exclusion from the labour market and social life, sometimes even from education.

As about discrimination on the grounds of disability, there are several policies in EU level that have been developed in order to fight against this social phenomenon. For example, the Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the EU Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment, state that discrimination in the field of employment and on the grounds of disability is strictly prohibited. Even though many policies and initiatives exist to fight discrimination, still many Europeans face direct or indirect discrimination on the grounds of disabilities widespread in Europe.
Numbers can justify the above-mentioned feeling of European citizens. According to the EU-SILC the EU unemployment rate of people with disabilities in 2011 was 17,4% compared to 10,2% of people without disabilities. From the same study, it was also discovered that in some European countries the rates are extremely high, while in others are significantly low. Namely, in the Netherlands and Romania, the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is lower than 7%, while in Spain is 31%, in Greece is 32,6% and in Croatia is 49%.

Looking at the above-mentioned numbers, we can understand that the problem of unemployment of people with disabilities is quite severe in some countries and actions need to be undertaken. Many times, the issue of unemployment of this social group comes from the fact that first, young disabled do not have the necessary knowledge and skills and second, youth workers do not know how to manage the disabled youth and how to make working spaces functional for them.

The sector of Urban Agriculture allows disabled youth to develop a set of necessary skills and join the workforce of a fast-growing industry. The bond between nature and disabled youth can be powerful and urban agriculture can allow them to make their living funnily and creatively, by developing new skills and using their existing unique assets. For example, autistic people have some distinctive character traits – they are systematic, are passionate, have strong attention to detail and outstanding memory. These characteristics can help them grow in the sector of urban agriculture.

In this frame, the project AGRICLUSION aims to increase employability and to foster the inclusion of youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Syndrome Down and Psychomotor Retardation through urban agriculture. We will manage to achieve this goal by creating educational content and guides, in one hand for disabled youth, which will help them enhance their knowledge and skills on urban agriculture and on the other hand for youth workers, whose goal is to promote youth employment, so to provide them with guidelines on how to manage disabled young and what modifications should do in the working spaces to facilitate them. Significant role will have the pilots and webinar that will be implemented throughout the lifetime of the project.

The development of this project will be a win-win procedure both for youth with special abilities and youth workers. Disabled youth will have the opportunity to develop new skills and improve their existing ones and thus increase the possibilities to get included in the labour market. Also, youths who will be directly involved in the project activities will have the opportunity to get a job training in enterprises in the sector of urban agriculture and understand how they can apply their knowledge and skills in the workplace. Youth workers will increase their innovation and experience, as they will use new management methods and will enhance their commitment towards inclusion and non-discrimination.

Objectives:
- Foster employability and personal development of youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Syndrome Down and Psychomotor Retardation;
- Promotion of sustainable and innovative ideas in the sector of Urban Agriculture;
- Promote equality, social inclusion, diversity and non-discrimination;
- Development competences in various sustainability-relevant sectors, developing green sectorial skills;
- Development of innovative practices to prepare youth with disabilities to enter the labour market and help youth workers to increase their innovation and experience;
- Strengthen the recruitment and professional development of youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Syndrome Down and Psychomotor Retardation.

Partners who will offer mutual collaboration opportunities in KA projects will have an advantage.

If you are interested to join our project, please fill in the following form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKcphFLFv-hEqiQW6aOEWvrZGmjVprSZBIBD5JjepF5BF_vg/viewform