Train – Improve – Deliver

Starting date 01.06.2018 – 31.05.2019

This was an Erasmus+ Learning Mobility of Individuals under Action ‘Mobility of learners and Staff’. This project focused on the provision of a job shadowing experience n the field of Supported Employment to volunteers of MFOPD. MFOPD’s partners in this project came from Spain, Netherlands and Portugal.

This project provided a job shadowing experience in the field of Supported Employment to 11 volunteers. These were divided in 3 groups : Group A, which involved mentors, was hosted by Aura Foundation in Spain; Group B, which involved job coaches, was hosted by GTB in Netherlands while Group C, which involved volunteers who provide support to the programme were hosted by Associacao Intercultural Amigos da Mobilidade in Portugal.

This project focused on Supported Employment for persons with disabilities. The objectives were to

To develop the skills and knowledge of the 11 volunteers in the field of Supported Employment
To equip the volunteers with knowledge on how to lobby with authorities to introduce such measures that are not yet locally available
To strengthen the relationship between the MFOPD and the other 3 organisations

Each mobility of this project included visits to different Supported Employment centres in the region in question, with a hands-on practical interaction opportunity on how service providers react and interact with their job seekers; specialised workshops which served to create a platform for information and practice sharing, dissemination of experiences and a compare and contrast exercise where Maltese practices were compared to practices in the host countries; hands-on presence at job and or community centres giving Supported Employment services so as to initiate the MFOPD volunteers in the work practices of the regions in questions.

All three organisations informed us about their work and even went into detail to how they do it. All have professional staff working within their structure and all get funding from their government. MASE, a branch of MFOPD, which focuses solely on Supported Employment, does not! All three mobilities gave our volunteers the experience of accompanying their job coaches while visiting their beneficiaries at work.

Our Spanish partners even went a step further and introduced us to the mind behind the positive networking – Caxia Bank. Our volunteers in this Mobility had a meeting with representatives of Caxia Bank who are directly involved with the networking and were informed about how the networking started, about the need of such networking, about the importance of such networking and finally how this can be started up here in Malta.

Our Belgian partners also went a step ahead. They organised discussions / talks about relevant topics concerning Supported Employment specifically tailor made for our group. Their brilliant networking between NGOs and government entities working within the employment sector is working well and is leaving very positive results.

These Mobilities left many positive results on the participants…..much more than we ourselves had expected and even thought about.