Focus on development and knowledge sharing

At our foundation, on average, more than 25 employees with altered working abilities can boast a permanent, paid employment relationship. Most of them are hearing impaired, but more recently there is an increasing need from other disadvantaged groups, e.g. also from the side of the visually impaired, or occasionally with other disadvantages like with a psychiatric illness also turn to us with the intention of working.

Everyone finds a place among us. Depending on the problems, necessity and development needs we face in a given period, the tasks and organizational structure are constantly changing. We strive to give everyone the opportunity to try themselves in several things and develop their skills with tasks appropriate to their abilities and capabilities.

But how exactly is rehabilitation employment structured? Who do we help with it, and in what areas can we improve them?

For whom it is a miracle to be able to work

Hearing impaired people find it extremely difficult to find a job. Communication with the majority society is virtually impossible for them. Due to a lack of proper vocabulary, they do not have access to information, are not able to prepare for a job search on their own, write their CV and gain the opportunity for a job interview.

Hearing impaired people and, of course, other disadvantaged groups also have a huge need for our help. There are few organizations like the Munka-Kör Foundation in Hungary where they provide adequate support and are committed to attracting all hidden reserves from employees.

Due to the above disadvantages, the hearing impaired rarely have experience or professional practice, although they also want to become useful members of society. We give them a helping hand in this. We assess what they enjoy, what they have the talent for, where they can capitalize on their talent, and on this path we set out together with them towards the open labor market.

Household management, administration

Some of our employees learn kitchen assistance and other household chore from more experienced colleagues. Keeping our office and premises clean is a good opportunity for them to acquire these important skills for either their own way of life or the opportunity for a later job.

Gardening, plant care tasks

The next area where, if they take pleasure in it, the hearing impaired can develop unhindered is garden work. Pruning, planting, plant care, watering: all this is possible in the yard of our headquarter, our experienced gardeners are happy to share their knowledge with the newcomers open to it.

Creative fine arts group

In our creative group, brainstorming never stops. Every day, new jewelry, ornaments, in-room storage devices, boxes and other useful tools come out of the hands of our employees interested in the fine arts. They can learn how to make eye-pleasing, aesthetic objects from recycled materials and turn their own creativity into valuable, salable products for society. Click here for a picture gallery of our creative products

The footstones of office work: informatics, information research

Just as no house is built without a foundation, it is essential to acquire certain basic skills for office work. These used to be grouped around literacy, but today computer user skills set equally important requirements on employees in the administrative field.

Employees with disabilities often come to us without any usable IT knowledge. In this case, their training starts with learning what a folder is, a Word document, a voice recording, and how communication software (email, Skype) works. Later, they need to scan, photocopy, print, get to know the internal network to organize their documents.

Labor issues, accounting, administration

 Our confident employees, who already have the above skills, will gain insight into more complex areas. After training, we entrust them with the management, preparation, control and coordination of employment contracts and payrolls. These are already more difficult tasks and involve serious responsibilities, which boosts the self-confidence of the precarious workers who come to us during our time with us.

Foreign language communication, translation

With our new Erasmus programs, we have embarked on an international ground, which is a great opportunity for our English-speaking colleagues to practice in both communication and translation. In this group, the hearing impaired are adequately complemented by other teammates with visual impairments who can help them correct grammatical errors, proofreading the texts they have translated in both languages.

PR and social media, representation of the foundation

We learn and teach to use new communication channels, advertising and fundraising interfaces. We generate content, help to tell, present the activities of the foundation, and work together on solutions to achieve our community goals. With texts, images and videos, we try to get our message out to the public and our potential partners. You can find more information about our communication channels on the Contact page.

Teleworking

A significant portion of our employees work remotely on their own computers. We are in close contact with all of us by phone and e-mail, as this way we are able to properly coordinate so that everyone is given the tasks that suit their interests and abilities and the results do not remain hidden.

Our teleworkers are largely part of the translation, online communication and administration working groups. We organize personal meetings with them from time to time, up to every two weeks, in the foundation’s office to discuss current projects and brainstorm together.

Paid employment

It is very important to emphasize that in addition to the development opportunity, our employees can get their own permanent income through rehabilitation employment, even without experience. This will definitely help them to create the living conditions necessary for development, it will remove many obstacles from them.

Communication between the visually impaired and the hearing impaired

We learn from each other, we participate in external events to share the knowledge we have gained there. The organization of internal communication and the flow of information is an important element of our foundation work. Because written text (documents, emails) is accessible to most disadvantaged groups associated with us, we strive to record all events audio and then in writing and make them available to all of our employees.

The mission of the foundation: development and knowledge sharing

The work of our hearing impaired employees is supported by audio mentors, contemporary helpers and rehabilitation expert. They acquire appropriate workplace behavior, attend communication trainings, and develop their sign language and oral reading skills. We also support the work of the hearing impaired with hearing aids borrowed from our partners

We hope to report many more successful paths to the open labor market with our staff in the coming years.