With the support of Renovabis, ADRF worked throughout 2015 to design an assessment tool based on strengths/abilities, focusing on identifying functions and needs for self-support and education, towards a successful work experience for persons with disabilities.
This tool was realized through the partnership of ADRF, NESA and Caritas Albania, whose experts consulted assessment instruments, using two models, one from Croatia and the other from Italy, models that ADRF had the opportunity to share and benefit, as being a partners in the SLID project. A team of 19 specialists/trainers (Caritas 2, Employment Offices 6 and ADRF 11) were directly involved in testing the instruments.
The testing helped to adapt and create a guide that will help in the process of evaluating and orienting people with disabilities towards vocational training and employment. But in the meantime, the recommendation was that (a) the preparation of this guide be accompanied by a review of the services currently provided by the national employment service, the creation of structures and human resources that will provide specialized services/including assessment of the job seeking person with disabilities and job and working environment evaluation; (b) employment service reform should be carried out in parallel with the disability assessment reform to create a network of support services, including supported employment services that will ensure the active involvement of individuals with disabilities, and their return from passive beneficiaries to active participants and contributors to society. During a workshop organized to introduce and discuss the instrument, representatives from the NESA and the MoSWY reconfirmed their commitment to include the instruments provided through the project intervention to enable the improvement of employment services for persons with disabilities. Sustainable partnership and cooperation will be needed to improve the system that provides specialized employment services for persons with disabilities. The ADRF through the program supported by USAID is implementing activities aimed at meeting the recommendations that have emerged from the process of drafting and discussing the instrument of assessment of unemployed jobseekers with disabilities.