Type of Project: Funded project
BfA Succeeds Shape and share conditions of using the BfA

Article 27 of the UN Disability Rights Convention establishes the right of individuals with disability for work. The path from institutions such as the sheltered workshop to the general labor market and employment subject to social insurance only succeeds in a few cases and under special conditions. New approaches are necessary to promote the outlined transitions into the general labor market more strongly and to prevent the automatic employment of people with intellectual disabilities in sheltered workshops. The ‚Budget für Arbeit‘ (hereafter: BfA), which is embedded in §61 SGB IX, formally gives access to such an approach. The corresponding paragraph provides a nationwide legal framework within which transition opportunities can be significantly increased. The framework for the application of the BfA was developed on base of the experiences of the federal states and their systematic evaluation. In this context, it is explicitly required to strengthen counselling approaches for all stakeholders and to develop instruments for practical implementation support.

The project particularly addresses individuals with intellectual disabilities who have a severely disabled status and therefore are entitled to use the BfA. The focus on people with intellectual disabilities results from the diversity of the different forms of disability (physical, mental, sensory, intellectual) and the time frame of the model project. We assume that a transfer to individuals with other forms of disability will be possible with respect to the specific characteristics of the involved target group.

The research partners provide extensive expertise in developing assessment tools which foster self-determined decision-making processes as well as in implementing counseling concepts which are appropriate for the target group.

The project addresses the following central research issues:
• How can we develop a counseling concept, with which the self-determination of individuals with intellectual disabilities can be fostered and the companies – as central agents of the labor market – can be involved?
• What information do individuals with intellectual disability, relevant reference persons that are involved in the decision-making process, and companies need in order to get engaged in the use of the BfA?
• How can we design support services in such a way that possible barriers to using the BfA can be overcome and that the individual transition process can be accompanied right through to sustainable integration into the general labor market?

The model project relies on existing experiences from previous implementations for the use of the BfA, but expands this with further specific developments of methods and instruments, focusing in particular on the involvement of companies as essential partners.

The focus of the development is on a modular and target group-specific counseling concept, a supporting concept for ensuring successful inclusion in the general labor market using digital tools such as ambulatory monitoring. These objectives require, in particular, a concept for promoting the media competence of people with intellectual disabilities. All experiences and products are made available in the form of transferable materials for the sustainable implementation of our experience in using the BfA.

The initial point of the scientific work is a document analysis of all ongoing and completed model projects on the implementation of the BfA, which have been conducted in the federal states.
The findings derived from the document analysis will be deepened in the context of qualitative interviews with a wide variety of agents on the field of BfA:
• Stakeholders (e.g. people first, Lebenshilfe)
• Employers with positive or negative experience in the occupation of people with disabilities
• Professionals from sheltered workshops or other service providers
• Individuals with disabilities who can potentially use the BfA as well as those who already receive the BfA
• Parents or legal guardians
• Institutional partners (e.g. employment agency)
• Sponsors of integration aid
• Integration offices
In order to transfer the knowledge gained into the practice of inclusion, the construct of the laboratory of reality is used. By this, the project members understand the consideration of the use of the BfA under real conditions in a defined region with the involvement of all partners and with the use of scientific analysis criteria. This refers to a form of action research in which the scientific support analyzes the processes on the one hand and optimizes processes on the basis of these findings on the other hand.