SERVICE PROVIDERS FORUM

Abstract

A Forum on Service Providers was held on November 16th  and 17th , 2006 at the Faculty of Philosophy organized by Macedonian Scientific Society for Autism (MSSA) and the European Association of Service Providers for People with Disabilities (EASPD). Managers of service providers for people with disabilities and NGO's in the Republic of Macedonia were invited to the forum. The main aim of the Forum was to inform the participants about different funding opportunities from the European Union and the European legislation.
The Forum was opened and directed by the president of MSSA Ass. Prof. Dr. Vladimir Trajkovski. The Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy Prof. Dr. Trajan Gocevski and Ms Carmen Duarte-Vice President of EASPD held the official welcome speeches. Participants as lecturers were Mr. Jelle Reynaert (EASPD), Ms Carmen Duarte (Vice President of EASPD), Ms Katrijn Dekoninck (EASPD), Prof. Dr. Ljupcho Ajdinski the honour president of MSSA and Mr. Vlado Krstovski from the center "Poraka". Mr Jelle Reynaert (EASPD) informed the participants about the structures of the European Union and the Council of Europe and the impact of the European legislation on the disability field in different member states and accessing countries. The information about EU budgetary programmes and budget lines, fund raising for social service providers' and courses on project management was given by Ms Katrijn Dekoninck (EASPD). Ms Carmen Duarte talked about additional values of networking among service providers and stakeholder cooperation. Prof. Dr. Ljupcho Ajdinski-the honour president of MSSA informed the participants with social service providers in Macedonia: legal framework, challenges and concerns.
A lot of problems and questions were discussed and workshops were held. From all of that, huge numbers of ideas were developed among which was the idea for opening MASPD (Macedonian Association of Service Providers for People with Disabilities) which would be similar as EASPD for Europe.
This was only the first half of platform. The second meeting is planned for March 2007 with more concrete steps and projects with EASPD.