The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is offering a three-week study tour to the United States for professionals working on promoting inclusion and other programs for persons with disabilities.

Through this “Community Connections” program, Serbian professionals will stay with American families, meet with their U.S. counterparts, and exchange experience and ideas about societal values and all aspects of how the U.S. strives to include people with disabilities in mainstream and as well as special institutions from formal to non-formal education, adult education, and skills development.

Participants will learn how support networks for inclusion are built and examine lifelong learning possibilities and other mechanisms that allow the disabled to pick up new and necessary skills to help them be more employable. They will also see how awareness raising campaigns among the mainstream population and people with disabilities are developed.

Participants will be able to:

1. · Understand what legislation and regulations exist to ensure that people with disabilities have access to education and employment and the full exercise of their rights as citizens;
2. · Learn the importance of a multi-sector approach to people with disabilities, especially related to education and education for employment that considers labor market skills and needs (who are the key actors and what is the role of businesses, education, and the civic (NGO) sector);
3. · Gain information about how art and sports projects such as Special and Para Olympics contribute to the inclusion of people with disabilities and showcase their talent.

All expenses in the U.S., including international airfare, insurance, professional and cultural programs and room and board are covered (passport fees and travel within Serbia are not included).

The Community Connections program is managed by USAID and implemented by World Learning in collaboration with Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy. The deadline for submitting applications is January 11, 2011.

In order to be eligible for the Community Connections Program, applicants must be professionals and others in the field of promoting the rights of people with disabilities and their inclusion into society and who are willing and able to transfer newly acquired knowledge into their practice and to other colleagues: NGOs and associations that work with or for people with disabilities, local authority representatives from departments dealing with human rights/employment, employers’ associations (Union of Employers, Chamber of Commerce, etc.), National Employment Service, adult education institutions and NGOs that offer pre-qualification and re-qualification, representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Ministry of Education that work in the field of people with disabilities or with mainstream teachers involved in inclusive education, representatives from Special Olympics and Paralympics; and fulfill the general requirements of the program.