Resource Centre for People with Disabilities

In Serbia, despite policy changes in social welfare and disability inclusion, people with disabilities continued to face strong prejudice and structural discrimination, high unemployment, and (until a new employment law in May 2010) frequent rejection from jobs on account of disability. Many lacked basic computer and foreign-language skills and social skills, often after long isolation and little work experience, leaving them non-competitive in the labour market and dependent on small state benefits.

The Resource Centre for People with Disabilities aimed to strengthen advocacy and lobbying on behalf of disabled people, run a day-care centre to improve quality of life, inclusion, self-confidence and independence, and provide alternative social welfare services through practical skills and work-involvement programmes that would improve participants' position in the labour market.

The centre's primary target group was 100 men and women aged 18-50 with varying types and degrees of disability. Activities centred on education in computer literacy, digital printing and foreign languages, alongside practical work-involvement opportunities intended to make clients more employable.

In participant evaluation, 95% of clients rated cooperation with the Resource Centre as excellent (4% good, 1% satisfactory), and 89% rated the courses they attended as very useful (9% pretty useful, 1% medium useful). Overall, the centre's work was rated 4.91 out of 5.00, quality of communication 4.93, and quality of services 4.93.

The programme is cited as a successful, extremely cost-effective model for supporting disabled people and their families: it engaged volunteers instead of paid experts, reused workshop materials, and minimised printed material by moving information and communication online. It is described as a good example of working with a vulnerable group under challenging circumstances caused by limited funding and services.