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Support services for life and mediation in the community for persons with disabilities continued

Secretary of the Secretariat for Social Welfare of the Capital of Podgorica Ivan Terzić and Secretary General of the Red Cross of Montenegro Jelena Dubak signed a Protocol on Cooperation in the Field of Social Protection, which specifies joint activities to provide support services for community life, aimed at improving the quality of life disability, through the projects “Community Life Support Services for Persons with Disabilities” and “Mobile Teams - Community Mediation for Persons with Disabilities”.

For both services, the Secretariat for Social Welfare has allocated a total of € 100,000 from the budget for 2021, which is € 20,000 more than last year.

The protocol represents the continuation of cooperation, which began in 2018, and continued during 2019 and 2020. During this period, support for persons with disabilities has been continuously expanding, both in terms of the quality of services provided and in terms of financial resources allocated by the Capital City of Podgorica for these needs.

The aim of the Protocol is to consolidate and develop relations and cooperation between the Secretariat and the Red Cross, in order to jointly improve the position of persons with disabilities. Cooperation, started in the pilot phase of the project, with non-governmental organizations and associations that have been recognized in the work in the field of protection of persons with disabilities, has continued. These organizations have contributed to the selection of users for both services, and based on that in the selection of assistants and will be actively involved in other project tasks.

Based on the signed Protocol, the Secretariat for Social Welfare, within the project "Community Life Support Services for Persons with Disabilities", finances the employment costs of eleven assistants, of which six are full-time and two are part-time. The project "Mobile teams - community mediation for people with disabilities" will provide the engagement of a mobile team consisting of a social worker and psychologist to provide psychosocial support, as well as professional and material support in exercising the rights of persons with disabilities. Telenor Foundation continued to support the project by providing the use of telephones for two assistants of the Organization of the Deaf and Hardly Hearing, who are needed for communication and services for members of their association, so we invite those who need sign language interpreter in everyday situations to sign up.

The Secretariat and the Red Cross hope that this phase of the project will be successful and that, through the implemented support services, the quality of life of people with disabilities in Podgorica will be improved.