On Monday, April 3, the Youth with Disabilities Forum signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Provincial Secretariat for Economy and Tourism within the framework of the “Job Fit: Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities” project.

The Memorandum of Cooperation was signed with the aim of promoting equality, improving competences and improving the employability of persons with disabilities.
“Youth with disabilities Forum, in cooperation with Caritas of Serbia, will establish centers for career guidance and counseling of persons with disabilities in Novi Sad, Zrenjanin and Subotica, where they will be offered free training and retraining programs, while employers will receive guidelines on how to adapt their workplaces and work tasks for persons with disabilities. With the support of the Provincial Secretariat for Economy and Tourism, we will work to increase the number of people with disabilities who are employed in the private sector in Vojvodina,” said Jovana Krivokuća-Milovanović, executive director of the Forum of Disabled Youth.
“By cooperating on this project, we plan to provide as many places as necessary for people with disabilities to participate in retraining programs in the IT sector that the Provincial Secretariat for Economy and Tourism plans to implement in the coming period. As collaborators on the project, we are additionally planning to empower people with disabilities through two contests for supporting entrepreneurship and removing barriers, which will be implemented by the Secretariat,” said Nenad Ivanišević, Provincial Secretary for Economy and Tourism.
“It will not only be the removal of physical barriers, but also the introduction of sign language and the introduction of changes on websites as well. We strive not to have even two steps at the entrance to shops and that every toilet in cafes and restaurants be adapted. Everything we do corresponds to the goals of this project,” Ivanišević added.

The “Job Fit” project is implemented by the Youth with Disabilities Forum with the support of the American Agency for International Development (USAID) and in cooperation with partners: Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, Caritas Serbia, Smart Kolektiv and the Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia.
Project activities will be implemented at the national level with a focus on Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica, Zrenjanin, Niš and Valjevo.