Fundación ONCE funds programmes implemented by 23 organisations from all over Spain

More than a hundred young people with mental disorders aged 16 to 30 will participate in a series of employment programmes that will be launched by 23 disability entities chosen by Fundación ONCE. The initiative, which has a budget of 550,000 euros and support from the European Social Fund (ESF), aims to improve the chances of a group of people who have greater difficulties than the rest of the youth population to access the labour market.

According to the latest available data, in 2017 the activity rate of young people with disabilities aged between 16 and 24 stood at 25.4%, compared with 37.1% for people of the same age group without disabilities. 

In addition, within the disability group, which has an activity rate of 35.1%, this value is lower for people with disabilities caused by mental disorders, whose activity rate is 31.1% and the employment rate is 18%. These values contrast with those obtained for the group of people without disabilities, whose activity rate stands at 77.7% and who have an employment rate of 64.4%.

In this context, Fundación ONCE sees “the need to provide greater support regarding professional development to the group that meets these three characteristics: young people with disabilities caused by a mental disorder.

The selected projects favour labour inclusion by recognising and valuing the attitudes, knowledge, skills, expectations and needs of the participants on an individual basis. The initiatives benefiting from the aid will provide participants with the knowledge, competence and employability skills necessary to access and handle themselves properly in ordinary or protected training and working situations, among other goals.

These projects must also promote transversal actions in relation to the participants and include a multidisciplinary team of professionals capable of promoting the training, access to employment and the social inclusion of the beneficiaries. The minimum duration shall be 320 hours for each person, including a group and an individual intervention phase. The projects will have to be completed by 15 December 2019.