How to get a job for homeless? Building the capacity of civil society organizations and supporting the integration of the homeless

This project will build the capacities of stakeholders at local levels for inter sectoral cooperation in the co-creation and application of innovative models of employment of the homeless, as well as the development of preventive programs, and will thus be selectable and strengthened for application of programs to tenders within the European Social Fund.

Such engagement represents a certain social investment/ investment (defined in the document SIP – Social investment package, and accompanied by a special report of the European Commission entitled Confronting Homelessness in the European Union from February 2013) and creates added value of the project as a social return on investment. Despite the new legislation, the rights of the homeless are reduced to one-time financial assistance and temporary accommodation in shelters, which for most of them turns into permanent accommodation. In Croatia, the social integration of the homeless has been neglected and the models of social inclusion of the homeless are underdeveloped.

The project will involve the homeless themselves, who will be given the chance to develop new skills in cooperation with the Croatian Employment Service and representatives of shelters, in order to get involved in the life of the community. The experience of working on an individual employment plan for the homeless – focus group participants based on the created profiles, identified skills and opportunities of the unemployed homeless in cooperation with the employees of the shelter, the Croatian Employment Service and the social welfare center in Karlovac, Varaždin and Zagreb will be able to be transferred to other cities ( Rijeka, Split, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Kaštela, Osijek, Pula) and develop a national model of providing support for the employment of the homeless.

It will also affect the reduction of discrimination against the homeless when creating employment measures and activities. Through the Croatian Network for the Homeless, the dissemination of project results will include a wider circle of stakeholders, the public and the users themselves to become more actively involved in the formation and advocacy of new models of prevention and reduction of homelessness in Croatia.

The project will contribute to the development of innovative models for the prevention and fight against homelessness and the development of social innovations and social entrepreneurship in the field of employment of the homeless.

The project “How to get a job for homeless? Building the capacity of civil society organizations and supporting the integration of the homeless” is implemented with financial support of the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth.