Today, official partnership agreements were signed within the project “Development and support for the development of sustainable employment models for vulnerable groups in the Urban area of Pula” in the Municipality of Marčana, which is also the holder of the project. The signing was attended by the Mayor of Marčana Predrag Pliško, and the Head of the Department for Social Activities, Economy and Projects Jakov Benazić with representatives of partner organizations from southern Istria – Association of the Blind of Istria (Katja Meden, representative), Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Istria (Alma Zulim, representative), the Association of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities of Istria (Ozren Catela, president), the Society of Multiple Sclerosis of the Istrian County (Snježana Raić, president) and the Association of Cerebral Palsy of the Istrian County (Gordana Hosni Hrvatin, president) and the Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development (Helga Možé, director).
The project “Development and support for the development of sustainable employment models for vulnerable groups in the urban area of Pula” totalling 2,201,232.00 HRK aims to increase the employability of vulnerable groups and special attention will be paid to reducing discrimination as it is recognized as a serious obstacle to social inclusion of vulnerable groups, especially through employment.
This project will carry out activities to empower and prepare vulnerable groups for easier employment, as well as activities to prepare and raise awareness of employers about employment opportunities for vulnerable groups and their networking and potential match-fixing. Furthermore, mentors will be trained and their salaries provided to accompany people from vulnerable groups to work to facilitate their adjustment and help them adjust and overcome difficulties in the first few months of employment. Furthermore, as part of this project, the educational curriculum “Manager and management of a social enterprise” will be developed and future social entrepreneurs will be trained, social innovation workshops will be conducted and the Social Impact HUB programme will be developed. In addition, a number of PR activities are planned with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of social inclusion of vulnerable groups through a media campaign, a short documentary, video content, public events, and cooperation with influencers.