The European Chamber is delighted to welcome you to a visit to the Inclusion Factory in Taicang (Jiangsu province) and a presentation on how companies can be inclusive and integrate people with disabilities in their companies and manufacturing activities and how companies can work on eliminating the barriers to integrating people with disabilities in the workplace. This visit will allow you to understand how your company can practice CSR and how you can improve your reputation through positive CSR.
People with disabilities in China
Around 83 million people in China are living with a mental, emotional or sensory disability. They often face social marginalisation and government facilities that tend to their needs are rare. As a result, these people mostly live with relatives in the countryside who, in turn, are left to bear the psychological and financial burden.
About the Inclusion Factory
With the help of their supporters and partners, the Inclusion Factory has become an illuminating example of how state-of-the-art equipment and custom-made machinery could be used to prove that the abilities of people with “disabilities” are endless. Their disabilities vanish and their self-esteem and skills bypass any imaginable boundary that society had laid out in front of them.
The workshop, which is planning to expand, currently provides jobs for 30 people, 22 of whom live with an intellectual disability. The ‘Inclusion Factory’, the first Chinese facility of its kind, prioritises the professional care and supervision of its workforce.
The Inclusion Factory Project constitutes a social inclusion initiative in China, created, promoted and actively supported by the German government (through KfW Deutsche Investitions-und-Enwicklungsgesellschaft mbH) and by a number of foreign owned industrial entities in Shanghai area. The project consists of three main pillars, including:
(1) The Inclusion Factory – a pioneering manufacturing unit in China to employ only people with intellectual disabilities;
(2) The Inclusion Academy – an organization specialized in training personnel to work with challenged individuals in specially designed workshops or in regular companies and
(3) The Social Inclusion Advisory which seeks to aggregate, analyze and implement best practices applicable to the sustainable recruitment and inclusion of individuals with disabilities in regular working environments. The fundamental principles constituting the working model have been adopted from leading institutes and organizations, including German Lebenshilfe, Israeli UN-awarded Shekulo-Tov Foundation, Irish Disability Equality Training, among others.
Agenda
8:00-8:15 Registration at the Meeting Point: European Chamber Shanghai Office
8:15-9:45 Shuttle bus to the Inclusion Factory (Taicang)
9:45-9:55 Opening words by Ms. Jeanette Yu, Vice Chair of the Human Resources working group, European
Chamber
9:55-10:30 Presentation by Ms. Marina Kalnitski, Job Coach, Inclusion Consultant and Social Inclusion
Academy Program Director at the Inclusion Factory
Topic: Creating an inclusive workplace
10:30-10:50 Tour around the Inclusion Factory
10:50-11:00 Group photo
11:00-12:30 Shuttle bus back to the meeting point: European Chamber Shanghai Office
Reminders:
1. No video/picture in the factory
2. No smoking
3. Seats are limited
4. All payments must be received in advance.
5. Cancellations received less than 24h prior to the event will be invoiced for this event.
6. The event organiser and venue host will not be responsible for any loss and/or damage to your belongings.
Terms & Conditions
Events have limited seating so to ensure your attendance we encourage advance online registration and payment for all events. We cannot guarantee entry to anyone not registered in advance.
All our events are held in English and follow the Chatham House Rule unless otherwise stated.
Cancellation Policy
If you cannot attend an event for which you have registered, please cancel your registration no later than 24h prior to the event. If you fail to notify us of your cancellation in a timely fashion, you will be charged for event costs.
To cancel you can: 1) email sh.marketing@europeanchamber.com.cn, or 2) cancel online if you registered for the event through the website