The NOMARCHIAKO SOMATEIO KARDITSAS AMEA (Disabled People) was founded on 1994 and numbers 2000 members and serves 2000 families. It hosts informative seminars of specialized subjects of interest and education for its members. It tries to configure the completion of legislature which concerns disabled persons. It promotes the growth of structures for the professional and social restoration and employment of disabled people.
The basic goal of this corporation is to organize the disabled people who reside on Karditsa County, to study, project and try to solve the issues which concern the disabled of the county. It claims the solution of problems through group action and prevention. A large part of prevention is the hosting of seminars of training and update for the members of the corporation through which we fight social exclusion, strengthening our trainees with skills and knowledge in various thematic articles.
A large sum of people from within the corporation desires to move towards the business sector through the creation of an enterprise as well as supporting extroversion and promotion of the participants’ skills through the creation of cultural bodies (e.g. Sports Teams for Disabled, Traditional Dance Groups etc.), and finally the upgrading of knowledge on the ICT for Disabled, areas in which we are inferior and we intend to make up for by using this program.

For this reason we have prepared the present project with title “Active participation of Disabled people in the business and cultural sectors”, for two weeks in Cyprus (11-25 September 2017), with 30 participants members (mobility disabilities) of our corporation and an equal number of accompanying persons. The Host Organization is SSM Global Training Services.

Our Project’s goals have multiple aspects (social, working and educational), we list indicatively:
• Raise of professional skills of individuals with Disabilities
• Knowledge update in regards of Disabled Entrepreneurship
• Acquiring of empirical knowledge in regards to organizing and running cultural bodies for Disabled
• Development of communication tools for people with disabilities, as well as development of ICT in education and inclusion of Disabled.
• Others.

We have planned to follow a sum of Theoretical Lessons (afternoon), as well as Technical Visits and Job Shadowing in enterprises (morning), with a daily total of 8 training hours per day, which will focus in three areas:

• Entrepreneurship and New Enterprises
• Cultural Bodies – Founding and Function
• Software for Disabled people

This way, we will receive theoretical knowledge and practical experience through meeting with relevant enterprises and bodies. As is further analyzed in our activities, as well as the project description, the trainees will wade in an agenda of professional-entrepreneurial interest, as well as in matters of founding-function of cultural bodies. This will greatly help in our corporation’s growth as well as the personal growth of the participants, and is in league with our goals and needs. The participants will be able to start their own business or get organized towards the founding of cultural bodies for the Disabled, while at the same time will be able users of specialized software for the Disabled.
We assess that the impact will be achieved through our project in all levels, starting from the local area.
The local society of Karditsa and Thessaly Region, will be informed of this project and will bear witness to the project’s results, as the participants and their families will accredit the situation and the undoubtable benefits through their experiences. Our corporation will project the project (always respecting the special conditions and wishes of the disabled persons and their families), publicly showing all the preparation, implementation, application and results stages. At the same time, the project will be publicly advertised at the event’s location (Larnaka – SSM seat) through the media (e.g. newspaper), as well as the social networks (e.g. Facebook). Of course, physical presence in bodies and enterprises of the host city (aforementioned cultural and technical visits organized by SSM) will positively affect the spread of information and publicity.
We expect that there will be many long-term benefits, for all the participants and increasingly for all society. The entrepreneurship of disabled, as well as the cultural activating of Disabled and the increase of knowledge of the specialized ICT software for Disabled, and finally combating the social exclusion and discrimination based on disability are some of the benefits. The corporation will gain new knowledge to reproduce/impart on our seat, while SSM will increase her portfolio and recognition as a body (as is normal in all successful partnerships). Finally, the local societies will improve their disposition and acceptance of Disabled people.