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Looking back to 2022

2022.12.21.December 31st, 2022

We had an eventful year: expanding the team, reshaping responsibilities, improving services for Jamba Members and business partners, launching a new community program, and building new relationships and nurturing existing ones – with strategic, business, NGO, and pro bono partners alike.

 

Team 

Zóra Molnár was elected as a European Obama Leader this year, and Sára Pásztor was included in the EUCLID Network’s Top 100 Women is Social Enterprise list. 

 

We brought in new staff to Jamba; we are trying to grow, but in a measured way. New team members that joined us are Sára Boncsér, project manager and trainer; Anna Csenki, event organizer; Róbert Ormódi, who regularly volunteers his time to help with our communication; and Andrea Benyes-Szöllősy, the new person in charge of financial administration. Our team is currently made up equally of people with disabilities and able-bodied people.

 

They are supported by an expert, inclusive team of 22 volunteers (participative experts, lawyers, communication and marketing professionals, photographers, IT experts, English teachers) working continuously to achieve the Foundation’s goals. We also trained 14 more volunteer mentors this year to support job seekers individually. They complete the Jamba team, their work contributes to the building and sustainability of the organization and forming the quality of our services, making it a niche and indispensable asset.

 

In the spring, as part of the JDC-supported Buncher Program, we traveled to Israel to meet social enterprises and NGOs working in the same field and learn about sustainability through good examples.

 

Results, impact 

With Jamba, 7 people have found permanent, well-paid and high-quality jobs with our partners this year (22 people in total so far) – they are the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Meanwhile, we are strengthening the missing skills and developing their competitiveness in a variety of ways so that they too can move towards the ‘top’.

 

This year, 90 new jobseekers applied to us, and we were able to support 82 of them through a range of career development services:

  • 49 people participated in soft skill training;
  • 19 in software testing training;
  • and 14 in individual mentoring.

Together with them, we have already been in regular contact with 233 people with reduced working capacity, and a total of 173 people have participated in skills and competence development and vocational training.

From the different training programs we have developed and tested, we are starting to put together the “Jamba Career Academy” concept, which aims to build a complex training program that boosts competitiveness by offering individual career paths for job seekers with disabilities or reduced working capacity.

 

We started implementing two projects this year.

  • We launched a new community event series, “Jamba Prizma”, with the support of Mozaik Hub, to build community, help recruitment and raise awareness. As part of this project, we held the first event this year on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, where we collaborated with Roma, LGBTQ and Jewish minority organizations to find common ground to work together towards a more inclusive society.
  • Together with the international Jamba network, we were awarded an Erasmus+ grant (2021-2-AT01-KA210-ADU-000049756) to start the implementation of the “Career 4All Train the Trainer Academy” project.  This year, together with our Bulgarian and Austrian partners, we developed methodology materials for people with disabilities, employers and trainers, and we also developed and implemented a 9-session online mentor training course. Eight trained volunteer mentors will start working with young people with disabilities one-on-one in January 2023 to provide individualized support to help them achieve their career goals.

 

Partners

New partnerships were formed with Nespresso and Nowtechnologies – both workplaces are on the road to becoming inclusive and socially responsible employers.

 

Meanwhile, we continued to work with our existing business and strategic partners:

  • With the help and support of Prezi experts, we held our second series of software testing workshops this year, which resulted in 10 people with reduced working capacity gaining junior-level testing skills. They also supported our Tandem Mentor program this year;
  • We organized and led 6 “my future” training sessions this year with the support of Coca-Cola HBC, and we made the “my future” website accessible with the help of experts;
  • Online retailer Kifli.hu has hired 3 colleagues with reduced working capacity, thus authentically representing social responsibility and setting a good example for other companies;
  • And the social enterprise SignCoders is our strategic partner in the development and delivery of IT workshops and the sustainable building of a more inclusive and just society.

 

Five organizations also supported us with pro bono work this year:

  • The Masterbook Accountancy has been supporting the Foundation since its inception through its dedicated and accurate accounting work;
  • BrokerChooser is contributing to the impact of our work by improving our website and database as part of their year-end Pro Bono Day;
  • And Frontira, a strategic design firm, provides us with a full business service development process to help us develop creatively and effectively to achieve our goals, based on accurately assessed business needs.
  • In addition to providing us with ongoing strategic consultation from the outset, the Mozaik Hub team has also helped us out this year with occasionally supporting the involvement of external experts;
  • while CEU has supported our events several times throughout the year with a free, accessible venue.

 

Other supporters:

 

With the support of JDC, the Foundation’s office is still located in the Mozaik Hub community office, where we feel very comfortable and part of a community that is prepared and sensitive.

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