Caritas of Serbia and the Youth with Disabilities Forum opened the Career Center for People with Disabilities in Zrenjanin, with the aim of providing support to people with disabilities in the process of job hunting and inclusion in the working environment.
“In our development agendas, priority is given to investments and new jobs, as well as the possibility of employment for all sensitive categories of our fellow citizens. With the project of economic empowerment of persons with disabilities, we supplement the range of public calls that the City of Zrenjanin implemented for the first time in the previous period, such as those for economic empowerment of women and economic empowerment of youth. We are glad that the City of Zrenjanin, in this way, in cooperation with the Youth with Disabilities Forum and Caritas of Serbia, can promote the potential of people with disabilities, which is huge.
I am sure that the opening of the Career Center for people with disabilities in Zrenjanin will contribute to their easier employment, inclusion in the work and social environment, but also to an increase in the awareness of all of us in the local community, especially employers, that people with disabilities are our fellow citizens with the same rights to work and existence,” said Mr. Simo Salapura, mayor of Zrenjanin.
“We work intensively in three areas of interest: (1) improving the workforce so that people with disabilities have the skills and knowledge necessary to secure employment; (2) we encourage entrepreneurship of people with disabilities so that they have access to capital, markets, technical assistance and networks on an equal basis with others; (3) we promote an inclusive enabling environment that responds to the needs, challenges, and opportunities of persons with disabilities. We strive to facilitate the significant inclusion of people with disabilities in various processes in the field of employment, and to value their attitudes and experiences,” said Jovana Krivokuća – Milovanović, executive director of the Youth with Disabilities Forum.
In front of Caritas Serbia, Marina Kostić, project coordinator, addressed the audience:
“It is our honor to develop this very important service together with the Forum. The core of Caritas’ activities is improving the position of all vulnerable groups and individuals in a sensitive position, and we believe that realizing the right to work is the most effective way to an inclusive and just society and a basic prerequisite for a dignified life. For this reason, during the last few years, Caritas has increasingly focused its activities on raising the capacities of its users in order to increase their employability.
Accordingly, within the Career Center, persons with disabilities will be able to use the service of career guidance, counseling and empowerment for the labor market. The aim of the service is to support users in choosing appropriate professional goals, then to enable and facilitate inclusion in the work and social environment, i.e. to contribute to greater motivation and empowerment of users for active job search. An important aspect of working with users will be the provision of support in recognizing individual needs for adjusting the workplace and work tasks, as well as support for registration on the portal for employment of persons with disabilities.
On this occasion, I would like to invite all those interested to contact us. In the Zrenjanin Career Center, in the premises of Caritas, at the address Ljubljanska 15, every working day from 08:00 to 16:00, counselor Valeria Molnar will welcome you. The interview with the counselor can be scheduled by email: savetnica.caritaszr@gmail.com, as well as by phone 065/93-06-644″
The Career Center in Zrenjanin is one of the 6 centers that were opened within the project “Job Fit: Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities”, financed by the American Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented by the Youth with Disabilities Forum. 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.
