The Republic Centre for Support of Persons with Intellectual Disability – PORAKA, in cooperation with the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities, organized the First Forum of Service providers for persons with disabilities in Macedonia. The Forum represents and important first step to create an informal national network of service providers for persons with disabilities, which will coordinate actions to fully implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in providing community based services for persons with disabilities.
The Forum was held on 10 November 2017 in Hotel Karpos in Skopje. Participants were representatives of public institutions, non-governmental organizations that provide services for persons with disabilities as well as representatives of UNICEF and UNDP. Cedomir Trajkovski, President of PORAKA, opened the Forum and welcomed the participants. The introduction was given by Vasilka Dimoska MD, Program Manager in PORAKA, who stressed the importance of this meeting as a first step in creating informal national network of service providers for persons with disabilities. This network will have the goal to coordinate the actions to fully implement the UN CRPD in providing community based services for persons with disabilities, she said.
The forum continued with the presentation of James Crowe, the President of EASPD. In his presentation he referred to the importance of community based services for persons with disabilities from the perspective of EASPD as an association. Further on, followed the presentations about current developments and challenges in social service provision in Macedonia. The presentations were given by representatives from the Institute for Social Activities, and the views of the civil society organizations were provided by PORAKA, Open the Windows and Solem.
Representatives from the Association of Defectologists in Macedonia presented the project activities conducted at the Special Institute – Demir Kapija, supported by UNICEF. The representative from UNDP presented the activities within the project Work-oriented Rehabilitation, and explained that some of the activities were implemented in the Institute for protection and Rehabilitation “Banja Bansko”, Strumica.
In his second presentation, James Crow spoke about the Co-production principle in social service provision. Co-production, an inclusive working partnership between experts by experience (users), support organisations and authorities, is a “tool” and an “approach” that can help to promote the development of support services which meet individual needs and preferences and give users control and choice on their lives. Co-production was introduced as one of the elements that should be part of a holistic support framework and, when well implemented, it can positively address the enjoyment of rights through the design, development and delivery of services that are user driven.
The forum ended with discussion and conclusions regarding the need of establishing a platform/network of social service providers in Macedonia.
