Youth with disabilities Forum and the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, together with their partners, organized a media breakfast on July 3, 2023, during which the “Job fit” campaign was presented, which has been intriguing the public for a week, and whose main goal is to encourage the employment of people with disabilities.
In Cafe Terasa in TC Rajićeva, a panel was organized where the portal for employment of persons with disabilities www.zaposljanje.fmi.rs was presented, which is the focus of the campaign and is part of a four-year project for the Economic empowerment of persons with disabilities, financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the amount of 2 million dollars.
The portal is a bridge that connects employers with potential candidates looking for a job, the goal of which is to create equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities and is one of the answers to unemployment among people with disabilities, as indicated by the results of the labor market research in Serbia, which was also presented today.
“In order to assess the current state of the labor market and determine the needs of employers and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, the Youth with disabilities Forum recently conducted a labor market survey, focusing on employers from six cities where the project “Job fit: Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities” is implemented. Research findings provided information on the level of development of employers’ awareness of the importance of inclusiveness, familiarity with policies and procedures in the field of employment of persons with disabilities, and their current needs for qualifications and skills of employees. The obtained data are not only informative, but will serve the Youth with disabilities Forum to direct its activities to those segments that are most important for supporting employers to employ people with disabilities, but also to empower people with disabilities for the labor market through psychosocial support and career guidance services, and referrals to training for which there is demand on the market,” said the executive director of the Youth with disabilities Forum , Jovana Krivokuća-Milovanović.
The employment portal will also contribute to encouraging a more open and inclusive labor market in Serbia. People with disabilities will have the opportunity to create their profile, monitor vacancies and apply for jobs they are interested in, while employers will have a platform for advertising vacancies and the opportunity to select candidates who meet the criteria for the job they are looking for.
“The campaign was launched last Monday on billboards and social networks with a teaser phase, which, as expected, caused controversy about the messages that were posted, and today we are exclusively revealing the people behind those messages. Our idea is to present the employment site to both employers and people with disabilities who are looking for work, inviting them to register. This is only the initial phase of the umbrella campaign that will be developed and whose various phases will last for the next 3 years, and from September it will be intensified in 6 cities: Belgrade, Subotica, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Valjevo and Niš, where advocacy campaigns will also be developed with the aim of creating public support for the improvement of employment policies for people with disabilities. Together with our media partners, we will work to promote an encouraging environment that corresponds to inclusive economic development for people with disabilities,” said Sanja Vukelić from the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation.
On this occasion, the project partners invited other companies to join the campaign and through various forms of inclusion, and disabled people to share their positive experiences in employment.
The project Economic empowerment of persons with disabilities is implemented by the Youth with disabilities Forum, and the other partners in the project are Caritas of Serbia, the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, Smart Kolektiv and the Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia. It will be implemented at the national level with a focus on Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Subotica, Zrenjanin and Valjevo.
