Incorpora Hungary helps 90 vulnerable people into jobs

The disadvantaged people receiving support within the framework of the program in Hungary include 36 disabled persons, 36 living in poverty, five vulnerable young people and 13 disadvantaged women, the press statement noted. 

All of the participants have been integrated back into the labor market. The majority are employed in the service sector, especially at food chains and catering facilities, carrying out administrative duties and semi-skilled work.

Tackling unemployment is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century and a global challenge, the statement notes. Although the jobless rate has been on the decline in Hungary lately, for vulnerable people it is still very difficult to get into the labor market and for the most part they are the last to be employed, it adds.

Incorpora for sustainable employment was launched by the “La Caixa” Banking Foundation in Spain in 2006. In the last decade, nearly 10,000 companies, 370 partner NGOs and almost 100,000 job-seekers have joined the initiative. According to the website of the Erste Foundation, the Incorpora program promotes the integration into employment of vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, the long-term unemployed, victims of gender violence, young people at risk of exclusion and former prison inmates.

In June 2016, Incorpora Hungary, initiated jointly by the Erste Foundation and “La Caixa” and adapted to local conditions, was launched in Hungary with six participating NGOs, with the aim of helping the most vulnerable, such as the physically or mentally disabled or people living in poverty, back into the labor market, and to lay the foundations of a sustainable employment pattern through which the disadvantaged workers could be employed. Since the launch, 24 companies have joined the initiative. 

“The Incorpora Hungary team produced results above expectations. The initial target was 100 employed people in the first year, and already before the mid-term of the project the results are very close to the final target. It is sometimes challenging to attract companies to the project, but once they are convinced, they are willing to employ more than one person,” said Franz Karl Prüller, senior advisor to the board at the Erste Foundation.

According to Gyöngyvér Kiss, Director of Incorpora Hungary’s coordinating NGO, Civil Impact, the real reason for the programʼs competitiveness is that the participating NGOs operate as a network. “The dedicated hard work of the participating NGOs is what makes the program so successful and the fact that we operate as a network, meaning we can represent several disadvantaged target groups at once,” she said.