Fundación Iberdrola España is collaborating with the Asturias Down Syndrome Association on a programme to promote the inclusion of people with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities in the ordinary job market through work experience and supported employment.

 

The collaboration project with Down Asturias proposes a work integration programme

2018 will be the first year in which the Foundation has collaborated with this association after having provided social assistance in previous years to other charities, from which about five hundred people benefited.

In a meeting held this morning at the offices of Down Asturias in Oviedo, the Fundación Iberdrola España Social Action manager, Alberto García Casas; the Iberdrola manager in Asturias, Juan Cifuentes, and the director of Down Asturias, Tatiana Redondo, welcomed the collaboration and detailed the initiatives that the two organisations will carry out in 2018.

The collaboration project with Down Asturias proposes a work integration programme with two lines of action: pre-work training with work experience in companies (and support from a job coach) and supported employment, so that people with disabilities can enter, remain and gain promotion in an ordinary company, with support from professionals with links to labour insertion. The necessary support will be provided both inside and outside the workplace.

It will involve a series of activities including pre-work workshops (work training, supplementary education, social skills, mobility and social interaction with their surroundings and supplementary content); recruitment and coordination with ordinary companies; incorporation and support on the job or an internship with a job coach; tracking (visits, tutorials) and continuing training classes; counselling and psychological support for the beneficiaries and their families.

The project will involve 35 people between the ages of 18 and 45 who have Down’s syndrome and intellectual disabilities. Of these, 19 will participate in the training workshops and 16 in the supported employment area (they are currently working). It is expected that four of the participants will be hired.