Grant no. PDC-0277-G-SS-6114-00 to Goodwill Industries of America, Inc.

GIA will introduce vocational rehabilitational technology through its Partnership With Industry (PWI) program to its indigenous affiliates in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and the Philippines. Training will be targeted to mildly handicapped young adults. Basic concepts of the PWI program are to: (1) work with local business and industry, before clients are selected or trained, to determine actual job opportunities; (2) encourage the business and industry community to take active leadership in PWI and institutionalizing that leadership by creating a business advisory council; and (3) conduct the majority of the training in the work setting rather than at the rehabilitation center. GIA will provide both TA and grants to the implementing agencies. GIA will strengthen the institutional capacity of three regional vocational rehabilitation associations which it itself helped found. In Africa, GIA will help the West African Federation of Associations for the Advancement of Handicapped Persons (WAFAH) implement a TA/training program for the staffs of selected WAFAH member organizations, with an emphasis on identifying and planning small, income-generating projects to provide self-employment for disabled youth. WAFAH will initially collaborate with disabled associations in Mali and Senegal, then expand into additional countries. In the Caribbean, GIA will provide TA and training to the Caribbean Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (CARD) to implement a "mini-industries" program. CARD will expand its present scope of five countries (Dominica, Guyana, Monserrat, St. Lucia, and Surinam) to an additional six countries over the life of the project. In Latin America, GIA will support the Grupo Latinamericano de Rehabilitacion Profesional (GLARP) to develop a series of in-country training seminars for the leadership of selected GLARP member organizations. One-week seminars for executive directors will develop effective management skills and emphasize self-financing, while 1-2 day semimars for boards of directors will cultivate expertise in such areas as the functions and roles of board members, technical information regarding vocational rehabilitation, financial development, group processes, and team building.