YOUR SPIS II - Inclusion of NGOs into Social Economy
The EQUAL Initiative is a laboratory for new ideas to the European Employment Strategy and the Social inclusion process. Its mission is to promote a more inclusive work life through fighting discrimination and exclusion based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. Implemented in and between Member States and funded through the European Social Fund, EQUAL has supported the project YOUR SPIŠ II. – Inclusion of NGOs into Social Economy throughout 2006 ETP Slovakia
This project builds on the work ETP Slovakia has previously undertaken and, although concentrating on employment issues, perpetuates its commitment to a holistic approach.
The YOUR SPIS II Project is funded by the European Commission through the European Social Fund, the objective of which is to promote a more inclusive work life through fighting discrimination and exclusion. The Project is delivered by a Development Partnership, led by ETP Slovakia, and is part of two Transnational Partnerships addressing similar employment challenges in Belgium, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
The main objective of the Project is to equip non-government organizations in partners’ villages in the Spis Region (Holumnica, Jablonov, Nálepkovo, Ostrovany, Rudňany, Spišské Podhradie, Spišský Štvrtok, Stará Ľubovňa) so that they can assist socially disadvantaged people and increase their chances of securing employment.
With a commencement date of 1st September 2005, the aim is that NGOs from the selected towns and villages in the Spis Region will be by the end of the project in 2008 in a position to help long term unemployed people to return to work and thus be gradually integrated into society, including through the use of social enterprises.
Working with local authorities, local organizations, businesses and individuals, the NGOs encourage unemployed people to use their talents and skills, to sell their merchandise or establish a small business. The NGOs, in fact, aim to establish themselves as social enterprises.
The emphasis is on increasing the number of job opportunities (including e.g. by establishment of new social enterprises) not merely at decreasing the number of unemployed or securing qualifications and re-training for jobs which simply did not exist.
Operating within ETP’s existing network of Community Centres and drawing on the experiences of foreign partners, trained Personal Advisors, in close collaboration with Labor Offices, provide assistance and counseling to clients searching for a job as well as helping to overcome the barriers that prevent them from succeeding.
A network of Job Clubs have been established where clients may, in an informal setting, have the opportunity to obtain information about work, training opportunities and have access to databases and internet searching. Child care facilities and coffee are on hand. Also available is a specialist Small Enterprise Adviser for those who show interest in establishing their own trade or small business of the kind encouraged by the relevant local Community Development Plan, in cooperation with the local authority. At the same venue, clients are able to meet representatives of other support organisations to obtain advice relating to such things as social care, health, education and housing, etc.
At the end of 2007 there were:
- eight Job Clubs operating
- eight local partnerships functioning
- Nine Personal Advisors trained and providing services for unemployed
- Six social enterprises operational (wood-working, arts and handicrafts shop, cleaning services, restoration of antiquities, social assistance and social counseling, art handicrafts production)
- Seventeen non-profit organizations cooperating with the project
- Two non profit organizations becoming emerging social enterprises (social services for elderly & physically disabled)
- New type of skills building training courses for unemployed delivered in all Job Clubs (financial training course, family budgeting, debt counseling and prevention, contract of personal responsibility)
- Eight local community organizations implementing Activation Work Program for people on social benefits
- Seventeen jobs created in a wood-working social enterprise
- Twenty practical capacity building training courses for unemployed people delivered (woodcutter, masonry, carpentry, restoration, sawing, textile decorations, cleaning services, health and safety, hairdressing, cooking, flooring and ceilings laying, roof repairs, reconstruction of bathrooms and kitchens, batik, coating and pasting, glass-painting, needleworks, crocheting, knitting, painting etc.)
- Fifty practical experience courses for unemployed people
- Thirtyfive unemployed established in micro businesses
- Onehundredandfourteen seasonal jobs operational for five months
- More than one thousand unemployed people back to work (Activation Work Programs temporary jobs, voluntary works, regular full-time jobs, and small enterprises)
- Onehundredandtwentysix fixed job positions contracted
- More than one thousand people participated in training courses
Award 2009

ETP Slovakia for
implementation of
specific project
focused on support
and development
of the Roma minority
and the results achieved.

