Understanding, Developing, and Supporting Meaningful Work for Youth with Disabilities in Bhutan: Networks, Communities, and Transitions

Globally, a majority of persons with disabilities are marginalised and excluded from equitable access to, and meaningful participation in, training and employment opportunities. As there is a significant relationship between disability, poverty, and inequality; supporting inclusive employment and community participation for persons with disabilities represents potential impact not just in the lives of persons with disabilities themselves, but also in their families, communities, societies, and national economies. As a low and middle-income country nestled in the Himalayas, Bhutan also has great economic and social challenges now and predicted into the future, with high youth unemployment in urban areas (23%) and the youth population expected to grow significantly. Access and participation to economic and community activities for youth with disabilities is limited in Bhutan, as members of this population are classified as 'economically inactive' and receive very little resource and assistance in areas such as school transition, skills and vocational training, access to credit, and inclusive employment.

In response to these challenges in Bhutan, and around the world, in phase one of this project we propose to conduct a methodologically innovative and comprehensive survey of access and participation of youth with disabilities in the economy and community. Survey methods include: adapting currently validated survey and indicator instruments development at the University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration (UMN ICI); conducting employer perspectives and attitudes surveys; conducting focus groups of nearly 200 community stakeholders; conducting case study profiles of youth with disabilities; using GIS spatial and network mapping to uncover social, community, and economic network and services; using micro-narrative quantitative spatial analysis facilitated by the groundbreaking SenseMaker software; and conducting a political economy assessment.

This survey will lay the foundation of understanding in implementing phase two activities, which begins by implementing a bespoke Employment Assessment Toolkit, previously developed by the University of Birmingham. The Toolkit will provide person-centred planning and assessment, as well as an evaluative baseline, to support the following interventions: entrepreneurship and employment skills workshops for youth with disabilities, piloting three coordinator positions (Inclusive Employment Coordinator, Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment Coordinator, School Transition Coordinator), and piloting a microfinance grant scheme to support entrepreneurship and access to employment and skills training for youth with disabilities in Bhutan. Additionally, a group of 10 Bhutanese Inclusive Employment and School Transition Fellows - professionals working in and around this area in Bhutan - will be selected to participate in training at the UMN ICI. Through this project, we seek to understand the effectiveness, sustainability, and scalability of these interventions, and in their potential for transferability to other low and middle-income countries in South Asia and across the world.

The last phase of the project will involve multifaceted impact evaluation of the interventions and project activities, as well as exciting impact activities. These impact activities include a South Asia Regional Summit on Skills and Economic Participation of Youth with Disabilities and a commissioned documentary film featuring the daily-lived experiences of youth with disabilities and the activities of this project. This film will be made by Bhutanese filmmakers and will employ youth with disabilities themselves as support crew. The film will be debuted in Bhutan, with distribution worldwide.

This proposed project will have instrumental and conceptual impact on a number of key stakeholders, as well as capacity-building activities for local researchers, youth, and professionals. Our Theory of Change for this project targets the following global 'problem':(1) the lack of awareness, understanding, policy, and data for youth with disabilities in Bhutan in employment or other post-school economic and community activities; and,(2) the global issue of access and participation of youth with disabilities in employment and other post-school economic and community activities.

The principle stakeholder that will be impacted through this project will be youth with disabilities in Bhutan. We propose a number of activities and interventions that will directly benefit youth with disabilities, which are: application of the Employment Assessment Toolkit with 30 youth participants; offering a series of Self-Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Vocational Skills Workshops; piloting inclusive employment and school transition coordinators to act as job coaches and community facilitators; and, offering 10 microfinance grants to support increased access and participation to inclusive employment, training, and self-employment opportunities. Conceptually, youth with disabilities will find impact through this project by being given a voice to share their stories via online case study profiles and featured in a documentary film (which will also employ youth with disabilities as crew).

Another key stakeholder group that will be impacted through this project will be Bhutanese professionals working in the areas of inclusive employment and school transition. Ten such professionals will be selected as Inclusive Employment and School Transition Fellows and offered awareness training and capacity-building skills to further support socially and economically inclusive activities in Bhutan. These fellows will be given training and access to resources and experts at the University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration, with sustained mentorship and partnership opportunities.

This project will also impact other political and social stakeholder groups in Bhutan, such as employers, schools, government agencies, and civil society organisations. Activities such as the preliminary survey, with its methodologically and interdisciplinary design, will offer these groups a visual and comprehensive perspective on the challenges of inclusive employment in Bhutan. Many of the proposed outputs such as reports (5), policy brief (1), online information sharing, and our media strategy will go towards providing conceptual impact for these stakeholders.

Bhutanese researchers will also be directly impacted through this project. We will hire three early-career research assistants and support their training and research skill development in learning new data collection methods (e.g. ArcGIS and SenseMaker) as well as how to plan, organise, implement, analyse, and disseminate large-scale research.

Beyond the multiple avenues of impact provided directly in Bhutan, we also aim through this project to provide global impact on the global 'problem' given above. We will convene a regional South Asian Summit on Skills and Economic Participation of Youth with Disabilities. to raise awareness of the challenge in South Asia and to discuss and share possible solutions and lessons learned from our research and activities. The documentary film commissioned through this project will be disseminated globally. We also propose, as a final product, a resource and guidance toolkit for supporting inclusive employment in low and middle-income countries. This toolkit will take the results of the project and transfer them to similar, but contextually-appropriate, work on access and participation to skills training and inclusive employment in a low and middle-income country context. These initiatives will have direct impact on global researchers and development experts.