Project
For individuals with intellectual disabilities, securing a real job is not straightforward. The internships offered at most special needs upper secondary schools are at day activity centers with various specializations, and after upper secondary school, most individuals begin at day activity centers. Day activity is an adapted occupation for individuals with disabilities who receive support under the Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS). This activity is intended for those who cannot manage employment in the open labor market. There are many excellent day activity centers, but they do not provide a salary. Instead, participants receive a habilitation allowance of approximately SEK 150/day. Most instead receive compensation from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.
According to a report from the National Board of Health and Welfare (2019), very few individuals transition from day activity to work or studies, despite this being the intended goal of the activity.
Day activity is the most common LSS intervention, and according to the National Board of Health and Welfare’s report, only 0.2 percent of the 33,800 individuals in day activity transitioned to paid employment lasting at least two years. Individuals with intellectual disabilities thus face significant challenges in finding employment in our country.
Even if one wishes to employ an individual with an intellectual disability, there is a great deal of unfamiliarity, and people do not know how to proceed when contacting the Public Employment Service, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, and day activity centers.
With the help of project funding from the Swedish Inheritance Fund, we aim to enable individuals with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities to find employment. Some individuals might need to combine day activity with a real job, which requires collaboration between LSS operations, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, and the Public Employment Service.
The goal is for individuals with intellectual disabilities to enter the open labor market and for upper secondary school students to gain practical experience in working life.
With this website, we have created a digital meeting place where the target group, whom we call Arbetskamraterna, and employers can connect. Arbetskamraterna in our project are matched with a workplace for internships or employment with relevant support. Through them, concrete examples will be disseminated, demonstrating how this can work for different individuals and employers. After the project period, which ends in July 2024, the meeting place will continue to be run within Arbetskamraterna’s non-profit association. Parts of the operations will be run on a non-profit basis, and other parts will be financed through fees, sponsors, grants, and advertisers.
