We are able

<< Background >>With the 'We are able' project, Time4Society wanted to contribute to a more inclusive labour market, together with partners Sopa and Eyes (the project countries are respectively Belgium, Bulgaria and Lithuania). ‘We are able’ is built on the conviction that everyone, regardless of any disabilities, deserves a fulfilling and meaningful job. After all, everyone is an amalgamation of personality traits, hopes and dreams, talents, abilities, circumstances, and so much more. In other words, people are not defined by their disabilities. By giving more people equal access to the labour market, an enormous amount of untapped potential can become available.However, the ESF project 'Welcome2Work' of Time4Society’s sister organisation Trendhuis showed that many employers and HR managers were willing to recruit people with a disability, but that the employment contracts came to an end after a few months. In fact, it was a ‘revolving door job’. The main reason was that colleagues, despite their goodwill, had major adjustment problems. With 'We are able', Time4Society, together with European partners, wanted to develop solutions that actually lead to sustainable job retention.<< Objectives >>With 'We are able', we wanted to make companies more aware of the fact that they left a lot of talent behind, by taking few or no applicants with disabilities seriously. Especially in times of scarcity on the labour market, companies must realise that these people have talents and that they ‘are able’ to contribute to more inclusion and mutual appreciation in the workplace.Furthermore, this project not only wants to support companies, but especially their employees, who often struggle with adjustment problems in the period after recruitment. By discussing their questions, concerns and problems in advance, a company can make the recruitment of an employee with a disability into a success story.To make this possible, Time4Society, together with Sopa and Eyes, chose to develop a Talent Game. Through this game, employees can engage in self-reflection in a playful way, so that they ‘are able’ to contribute to sustainable job retention for the recruited employee.<< Implementation >>The following activities took place within this project:- Development of Talent Game- Testing with stakeholders (e.g. GTB, Grip, etc.)- Strategy for 3 partners- Elaboration of different scenarios- Retesting: convincing companies to try out- Internship based on game<< Results >>Together with partner organisations, Time4Society created a Talent Game. The aim is to raise awareness about the talents of people with disabilities and to contribute to more empathy, recognition and cooperation from the future colleagues and the company. This will lead to more success when hiring someone with a disability. The Talent Game is based on three pillars: talents, empathy and problem-solving ability.In the game, six scenarios were worked out from the talent perspective. But of course we had to take into account the disability, e.g. a personality disorder, a mental disability, a chronic illness … In each scenario of the game, one concrete disability was chosen, while of course there are dozens of other possibilities. An effort was made to ensure a wide range, however, it’s impossible to be completely exhaustive.An effort was also made to design the content of the game with as much respect as possible for the talents of each person and each disability. Talents are named, the empathic and problem-solving abilities of each participant are addressed, and the illustrations are chosen neutrally. This game reminds everyone to always look at the individual and to be open to real encounters with realistic expectations.