EUROPEAN DOWN SYNDROME ASSOCIATION

Date: Wednesday, 19 April 2023 17.00 – 18.00 h. CET, per Zoom
Speaker: Paola Vulterini
Translation: Croatian, Czech, French, German, Turkish and Ukrainian  
Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3716806771014/WN_HXiega9tRc-76kjJh2zsiw

Valueable – A perfect example of how job inclusion can succeed!

Thanks to funding from the European Commission through 4 Erasmus+ projects, the Valueable network was born in 2014 and is now operating in 7 countries.

Valueable is both a trademark and a European wide network of about 130 members which are hospitality companies (hotels, restaurants, coffee bars, fast food…) including people with intellectual disabilities within their workforce as trainees or as workers.

Many EDSA members are among its promoters and act as training and placement agencies. Since the beginning, the network provides its members with a set of tools aimed at facilitating job inclusion.

Valueable has been recognised as a good practice by the European Commission and by the International Labour Organisation. Last November it received the second prize of the Social Entrepreneurship World Competition in Tourism.

Paola Vulterini will talk about how this was done and how further EDSA members could join Valueable and find job inclusion opportunities for their associated.

Valueable: A trademark
Valueable: A network
– our history
– our people
– our tools
– our proposals
Which will be the 8th Valueable country?

Paola Vulterini

Biography

Paola is a designer and manager of projects in favour of people with disabilities. Since obtaining her MA in Political Science with a focus on Disability Rights legislation from the University of Rome La Sapienza fourty years ago, she has been an ally of the Disability Rights Movement.

In 1985 – 1986 she worked at the Office of the European Commission in favour of people with disabilities. Since 2001, she is the head of the International Office of the Italian Association of People with Down Syndrome (AIPD); here, she has also promoted and managed projects aimed at training the leaders of European Down Associations on project design, in partnership with the European Down Syndrome Association (EDSA).

Paola’s projects obtained European grants that allowed to enhance new programs directed at people with disabilities in the fields of job inclusion, exercise of political rights, training mobilities, tourism and art.

In addition, she has worked for the Italian Government on the improvement of the legal framework on disability issues, and has taught at the Universities of Roma Tre, la Sapienza and Foro Italico.
She currently manages the European Valueable network project.
www.valueablenetwork.eu