INNOVATIVE MODEL OF OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY WORKSHOPS MEMBERS

Poland is still facing the problem of uneven economic growth, huge regional income disproportion, increasing unemployment rate (27% among academic graduates), helplessness and relying on social care benefits. All this leads to social exclusion growth which fuels the vicious circle. Proper remedy seems to lay in social economy model, consisting of achieving social goals by using economic tools by former marginalized society members. Role model examples are social cooperatives which proved to be an innovative form of counteracting against social exclusion. Still most of social cooperatives rely only on partnerships with local NGOs, rarely with public sector and scarcely with business partners what proves their isolation on the market and lack of competitiveness resulting in low financial results (WYG Int. research 2009). According to EU (2009) ca. 10 million people are working in social economy sector (6,6% of total employment) and every forth company is an effective and competitive social enterprise. In comparison to EU, in Greater Poland region (called the green island of social economy in PL) it’s only 2%. The situation is even worse for mentally and physically disabled people – they are not favoured on open job market and the social care lacks tools to effectively fulfil their social and occupational activation. There are only 608 working Occupational Therapy Workshops (OTWs) in PL, 83 in Greater Poland region. According to last Supreme Control Chamber report, the abiding regulations unable them to fully realise their mission i.e. by not allowing them to cross out members who finished their activation path (and usually are fit to start either a regular job or apply for a post in Supported Employment Enterprise) and by forcing them to redistribute their income, so that they can’t invest it and develop themselves. Taking all of this into consideration the diagnosed problems are:

• Ineffective and maladjusted regulation system which prevents occupational activation of nearly 93% of disabled people in PL
• Low awareness between entrepreneurs regarding the possibilities of employing disabled which results in few job opportunities for 76% of disabled • Low awareness between businessman regarding the role of social cooperatives in solving the society problems
• Maladjustment of local strategy to 83% of OTWs needs Answering the mentioned problems, Association for Social Cooperatives wish to create a new model of disabled social and occupational activation. By supporting inter-sector cooperation, creating friendly environment for social economy growth and adapting good practices from EU, we want to establish new form of social cooperatives by OTWs which would hire disabled and help them in sustaining on open market.