Thanks to the collaboration of the Mapfre Foundation through the 2014 Call for Applications for Grants for Employment Training Projects for People with Disabilities, it was possible to carry out a Program to Strengthen and Improve Social Skills aimed at 67 people with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. The program began in November 2014 and ended in April of this year. This program, which is regularly conducted by Alares Foundation, aims to strengthen the social skills of people with disabilities in order to increase their employment opportunities and/or help them retain their jobs.
With the collaboration of the Mapfre Foundation, four workshops were held, each lasting 10 hours and divided into two five-hour sessions. They took place in Madrid in collaboration with the various organizations with which Alares Foundation works: the Usera Vocational Rehabilitation Center, La Latina Vocational Rehabilitation Center, Los Álamos Special Education School, and Henared. The participants worked with adapted materials through simple activities that enabled them to acquire and reinforce social skills in a simple and effective way (role-playing, dramatizations, and teamwork). At the end of the workshops, 90% of the participants had learned to introduce themselves correctly, identify their emotional state, listen to other people, start and maintain a conversation, improve their comprehension skills, distinguish between communication styles (passive, aggressive, and assertive), react to the other person’s anger and manage the situation effectively, make a complaint and know how to respond to one; conduct a successful job interview, cope with stress in the workplace, and learn relaxation techniques. Therefore, we can say that holding these workshops was a complete success.
