Enable to Include – Meeting was part of the 45th anniversary celebrations of APPACDM Santarém, and FORMEM’s President, Mário Pereira, was invited to speak.
The event began with a welcome from the President of APPACDM of Santarém, Luís Amaral, followed by the President of the POISE Board of Directors, Domingos Lopes, who revealed the importance and special attention that professional training in PwD has had on the part of the PO, and the Social Security Director of Santarém, Tiago Leite, praised the work carried out by APPACDM in Santarém. The opening session ended with brief interventions by the President of the Employment and Professional Training Center of Santarém, Renato Bento, and the Mayor of Santarém, Ricardo Gonçalves.
The first panel discussion was based on the theme of the Resource Center of Santarém: a response to inclusion, with Ana Vicente, Deputy Director of the IEFP in Santarém, listing the measures and instruments made available by the IEFP to promote professional inclusion, followed by interventions by the Santarém APPACDM Resource Center team: Felipa Camacho on Placement Support, Ana Santos on IAOQE, Bruno Cunha on Support Products and Carla Redol on results and work carried out.
The second panel focused on The Future of Professional Training for PwD. Maria de Céu Dias, former coordinator of the FP at APPACDM in Santarém, moderated the debate, which included Mário Pereira (FORMEM), Luís Rodrigues (Humanitas), Fátima Januário (FAPPC) and Jorge Reis (IEFP).
Finally, the third panel addressed the topic Seizing Job Opportunities. This space was filled with reports of experiences of employers of PwD (Paulo Carrasqueiro – IDEALWOOD, Délio Pereira – Union of Cartaxo Parishes of Vale da Pina, Maria Inês – Home of S. João da Santa Casa da Misericórdia, CAS de Santarém and CERCI Flor da Vida) and employed PwD (Ana Silva, João Paulo Nunes and Catarina Costa).