Background information

We, a European consortium composed by empirica, Bonn and Sozialhelden, Berlin, are currently
conducting a study for the European Commission’s DG EMPL on “Alternative employment models
for persons with disabilities: Set-up, working conditions and pathways to the open labour
market in inclusive enterprises and sheltered workshops” (see 2-pager attached). The main
objective of the study is to assess ways to boost transition of persons with disabilities from segregated
to inclusive employment models and the mainstream labour market. The project is part of the
European Commission’s Disability Employment Package and as such is set to be of some influence
for future EC policy-making on the topic. The report of the project will be widely published by the
European Commission (foreseen for early Summer 2024).

In this context, we have shortlisted your initiative/programme for inclusion in our set of 20 Good
Practices currently being finalised. From available sources, we have compiled the information
included below. There are, however, some gaps in our information.

For these reasons, we would kindly ask you to please correct/elaborate on our preliminary text in the
table below, and provide information to existing gaps in our coverage (highlighted in the table in red)
to the extent that such data are available. Alternatively, please guide us to documents available online
(or send them to us) from which we can obtain the missing information.

It would be of great help if you could send the document back to us by April 24th.

Thank you very much for your support!

Background and history

Year the organisation/ initiative Ability Hub is a group of Protected Units (sheltered workshops)
was set up/ launched, and for what with activities in the Social Economy. The central expertise of
reasons the group is given by the combination of three competencies: (a)
Holistic understanding of the legislation governing the lives of
people with disabilities, with its implications in other laws and
institutional frameworks. (b) Holistic understanding of the
Romanian business environment, especially medium and large
companies. (c) Expertise on the development of direct and
permanent relationships with people from disadvantaged
categories, providing them with support in social and
professional development. The group’s mission is to promote
human dignity and social cohesion, starting from the premise
that all individuals should be able to freely choose the direction
of their personal lives, to develop their talents and abilities to
the fullest. Ability Hub aims to become a national leader in
assessing, training and guiding all people who are affected by

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 the effects of discrimination on the Romanian labor market.

Main initiators, and main Government of Romania, National Disability council of

stakeholders today Romania, CONAF, EKOMAX International, Carpat Invest

Challenges faced over recent years

Objectives, scope and approach

Brief description of the case The central expertise of the group is given by the combination
of three competencies:

Holistic understanding of the legislation governing the lives of

people with disabilities, with its implications in other laws and
institutional frameworks. Holistic understanding of the
Romanian business environment, especially medium and large
companies. Expertise on the development of direct and
permanent relationships with people from disadvantaged
categories, providing them with support in social and
professional development.

The group promotes the professional activity of people with

disabilities, developing its own system of identification,
evaluation, counseling and their integration into the labor
market. The group’s mission is to promote human dignity and
social cohesion, starting from the premise that all individuals
should be able to freely choose the direction of their personal
lives, to develop their talents and abilities to the fullest.

Main target group in terms of PwD

Number of persons with and So far, Ability Hub has counselled over 1200 peoples with
without disability employed in the disabilities and the ability hub group has 14 companies under its
organisation/ engaged in the umbrella. 425 large employers and 137 subcontracting
initiative collaborators are involved with the project’s activities.

Quantitative development over

recent years
Funding

Main sources of funding for the

organisation/ initiative (incl. their
share of total costs)
Relevance of funding from the EU,
e.g. the European Social Fund
(ESF), if applicable
Level of expected difficulty in
securing funding in the future
Outcomes and impacts

Has an evaluation of the

organisation/ initiative taken place,

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either internally or independently?
Main achievements in terms of
tangible benefits to individual
PwD and employment of PwD in
the country
Effects regarding labour market
participation of PwD previously
not in employment or not in the
open labour market
Transition rates, i.e., the share of
participants who were able to
progress to a position in the (open)
labour market
Labour market outcomes such as
working conditions, training,
career advancement, access to
social protection
Target group perceptions, e.g.
satisfaction, increased sense of
empowerment, motivation, self-
confidence or stronger self-
advocacy
Cost-benefit ratio, if available

Participation

Level of participation of PwD in

the development, planning,
management, and monitoring of
the organisation/ initiative
PwD access to some form of
collective representation
Selection criteria, e.g., type of
disability/ level of work capacity
Active efforts to integrate persons
who are considered to have low
employability
Lessons learned

Elements of good practice in how

to foster transition from sheltered
employment models to non-
segregated employment, and from
alternative employment models to
the open (mainstream) labour
market
Requirements for support and
changes to policy/regulation to
maintain, scale up and extend
activities; improve rate of

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transition from sheltered
employment models to non-
segregated employment; improve
rate of transition from alternative
employment models to the open
(mainstream) labour market; boost
provision of work experience in
the open labour market to PwD
currently not or in segregated
employment, or in vocational
education and training
Main perceived barriers

Main success factors

Transferability and scalability

Factors that determine whether the

approach can be transferred to
other regions/ countries/ sectors
and/or scaled up to reach many
more PwD
Dependence of the success of the
measure on local/ national
conditions that are rare/ unique/
difficult to reproduce in other
regulatory/ organisational/ cultural
settings
Requirements for replicability in
other places
Existing links to other initiatives of
a similar nature (incl. whether the
approach been adopted by or from
another organisation)