Type of Project: Funded project
Model project Integrationsfachdienst Bayern e.V. (ifd) for the integration of severely disabled persons in the labor market; the regional support structure for the Augsburg and Memmingen employment office districts

The networked approach of the specialist integration service to cooperate with the rehabilitation agencies and the companies in the region requires an organizational form characterized as a regional support structure. This in turn is based first of all on a theoretical concept, which is then systematically implemented in practice. This concept provides it with the learning organization of business management, which in turn is applied at the spatial level in the form of the learning region with the help of innovative regional management. With the help of the learning processes triggered here, it is not symptoms that are discussed but causes that are addressed, the solution of which makes it possible to build up a new, positive integration environment for the labor market for the unemployed severely disabled persons concerned. The region as such is of fundamental importance for the strategic significance is of fundamental importance for the work of ifd. Without a functioning regional support structure, ifd cannot exist. However, this can also only be functional if appropriate decision-makers are assigned to it and it is represented by a regional manager. The regional support structure is the nucleus for all important coordination and cooperation tasks of the ifd. Often, it is even the simple facts that advance the regional support structure accordingly. This was shown, among other things, by the workshops of the employers' meetings, which brought together company owners, managing directors and guild masters of the skilled trades and proved how much information is needed on the part of the employers and how much information is passed on when people come together in this way. This explains why, in addition to goal-oriented management, numerous activities in the Learning Region require competent and result-oriented moderation. It could be made clear how potentials are awakened and multiplier effects are achieved with the help of moderation. Therefore, the vocational training of process moderators has to be very practice-oriented, e.g. in areas such as communication, activation of participants and interested parties, idea generation and implementation of events, conflict resolution or implementation of projects. Committed process moderators, who are formed from among the agents, are put in a position to steer development processes and maintain them in the long term, thus providing meaningful support for the work of the regional manager. The vocational training is based on the model of rural development planning in Bavaria, as it is carried out, for example, in the schools of village and rural development in Michaelbeuren, Plankstetten and Thierhaupten. The schools could provide and contribute their experience for this purpose, and thus create another foothold in the accentuation for the promotion of activities of the new civil society, as demanded by the Bavarian state government. Via moderation seminars, contents are conveyed in a targeted manner and different interests are bundled. With the help of a fieldbook that brings together good examples from other (social) areas (benchmarking and best and good practice), it is not prescribed what is to be done, but motivation is created as to how something can be done. Comparable examples and the examination of their transferability are therefore an important part of the "toolbox" of the specialist integration service. They also complement the exemplary regional impact of the key players. In addition, training concepts are needed for ifd staff and process facilitators to acquire appropriate procedures for working in a network in the sense of learning organizational structures. being "fit for ifd" means having its approach repeatedly reviewed through motivational evaluation, certifying its activities, highlighting the "business ethics" of the exemplary companies in an appropriate form, training the agents in the network, and finally bringing all the important personalities and agents of the regional support structure to one table in a "forum of implementation" such as the Forum Integration Schwaben to ensure the sustainability of the project. Through various discussions and workshops, the approach of the regional support structure was proven and was already reflected at the political level in the form of the Learning Region in the publication of a mayor's handbook. In addition to this, the rapid expansion of RIS (Regional Information System) is recommended in order to create an additional platform for the concerns of the regional support structure. In addition, the continuing projects and activities developed from the work of ifd and the regional support structure should be brought together in a kind of virtual advertising pillar. The fis, in which the region-wide activities are bundled, should therefore present itself with its own homepage on the Internet. This supplements the purely rehab-related claim of the RIS and offers a platform for suggestions, additions and criticism through corresponding feedback possibilities. The two-year scientific study of the regional support structure in the employment office districts of Augsburg and Memmingen has shown how successful integration policy for severely disabled people in the labor market can be pursued on a spatial basis with the help of this innovative approach of network formation in the field of social work. The strategic importance of the regional support structure in this context is beyond question. In a time of increasing deregulation and demands for a new responsibility of civil society, participatory, cooperative and, above all, interactive dialogical approaches are becoming more and more important. It is therefore necessary to expand this approach accordingly and make it available statewide or nationwide.