The employment of people with special needs is a significant social challenge, often complicated for candidates, employers, and government bodies.
To overcome these complications, our Open-source Changemaker-Based Supported Employment Model introduces a methodology that is structured, flexible, affordable and easy to roll out.
But for clarity, let’s first look at three key terms.
What is Supported Employment?
To put it simply, Supported Employment is a proven approach that helps people with disabilities find and keep jobs in the open labor market. It goes beyond just matching a candidate with a vacancy. It involves continuous, individualized support for both the candidate and the employer to ensure successful and long-term integration into the workplace.
And who are Changemakers?
In our model, Changemakers are the core. They are volunteers with HR backgrounds or recruitment experience who act as the main "drivers" of the project in their local region. Instead of relying on permanent, paid staff, our model trains volunteers - Changemakers - to manage the entire supported employment process: from searching for job opportunities and selecting suitable candidates to communicating with all parties and providing ongoing support throughout the employment journey.
Why is our model open-source?
We believe that sustainable social change happens when knowledge and effective tools are accessible to everyone. Therefore, all our tools are open-source.
By sharing our model and implementation experience openly, we work to create a global community of practitioners working together to make inclusive employment a reality everywhere.
To ensure that the changemaker model remains robust and practically applicable, we are grateful to Andreas Nyhlén, supported employment expert and CEO of Misa Kompetens, WiljaGruppen, for agreeing to validate our tools and provide valuable feedback on the improvement.
We do this independent expert assessment to align with the best practices while introducing innovative tools that address scalability and sustainability challenges.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the essence of our model.
The core idea is to develop an individual plan for each candidate and an individual adaptation program for the employer. Throughout the process — from job selection to complete workplace adaptation — our changemaker assists both the candidate and the employer, promptly addressing any issues that arise.
The key innovation of this model is the significant reduction in the cost of supported employment by replacing the full-time staff with changemakers.
We have completed five pilot projects using this model. In the upcoming series of posts in October - December 2025, we will break down the entire model description tool.
“I am very happy to present the results of our pilots, focusing on two of them with the launch of this model description tool. It reflects years of testing and refinement, and I believe it will help scale supported employment by making effective practices accessible to everyone. My special thanks go to Andreas Nyhlén, CEO of Misa Kompetens, WiljaGruppen for his thoughtful feedback and continuous support.” — Mikhail Krivonos, Raoul charity foundation.
Here is our publication plan for this model description tool:
🔹 Stage 1: Local Labour Market Research – How to validate the need in your region.
🔹 Stage 2: Changemakers and NGOs – Collaboration, requirements, and responsibilities.
🔹 Stage 3: Project Specialists – Roles of the Changemaker Recruiter, the Changemaker Coordinator, and Project Manager.
🔹 Stage 4: Recruiting Changemakers – Where to find volunteers and how to select the best ones.
🔹 Stage 5: Working with changemakers – From the first meeting to tracking performance and rewards.
🔹 Stage 6: Connecting changemakers, candidates – Two models for successful matching ("from vacancy to candidate" and "from candidate to vacancy").
🔹 Stage 7: Finding employers and anchor employers – How to attract employers and a detailed look at the project's timing and expected outcomes.
Follow our updates to get a full, open-source Project description to implement this model. The first post is coming in October!
Want to learn more about our journey so far?
Check out our previous overview posts about the Changemaker Journey Map within the Changemaker Model: https://lnkd.in/p/dfU76vkN
To overcome these complications, our Open-source Changemaker-Based Supported Employment Model introduces a methodology that is structured, flexible, affordable and easy to roll out.
But for clarity, let’s first look at three key terms.
What is Supported Employment?
To put it simply, Supported Employment is a proven approach that helps people with disabilities find and keep jobs in the open labor market. It goes beyond just matching a candidate with a vacancy. It involves continuous, individualized support for both the candidate and the employer to ensure successful and long-term integration into the workplace.
And who are Changemakers?
In our model, Changemakers are the core. They are volunteers with HR backgrounds or recruitment experience who act as the main "drivers" of the project in their local region. Instead of relying on permanent, paid staff, our model trains volunteers - Changemakers - to manage the entire supported employment process: from searching for job opportunities and selecting suitable candidates to communicating with all parties and providing ongoing support throughout the employment journey.
Why is our model open-source?
We believe that sustainable social change happens when knowledge and effective tools are accessible to everyone. Therefore, all our tools are open-source.
By sharing our model and implementation experience openly, we work to create a global community of practitioners working together to make inclusive employment a reality everywhere.
To ensure that the changemaker model remains robust and practically applicable, we are grateful to Andreas Nyhlén, supported employment expert and CEO of Misa Kompetens, WiljaGruppen, for agreeing to validate our tools and provide valuable feedback on the improvement.
We do this independent expert assessment to align with the best practices while introducing innovative tools that address scalability and sustainability challenges.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the essence of our model.
The core idea is to develop an individual plan for each candidate and an individual adaptation program for the employer. Throughout the process — from job selection to complete workplace adaptation — our changemaker assists both the candidate and the employer, promptly addressing any issues that arise.
The key innovation of this model is the significant reduction in the cost of supported employment by replacing the full-time staff with changemakers.
We have completed five pilot projects using this model. In the upcoming series of posts in October - December 2025, we will break down the entire model description tool.
“I am very happy to present the results of our pilots, focusing on two of them with the launch of this model description tool. It reflects years of testing and refinement, and I believe it will help scale supported employment by making effective practices accessible to everyone. My special thanks go to Andreas Nyhlén, CEO of Misa Kompetens, WiljaGruppen for his thoughtful feedback and continuous support.” — Mikhail Krivonos, Raoul charity foundation.
Here is our publication plan for this model description tool:
🔹 Stage 1: Local Labour Market Research – How to validate the need in your region.
🔹 Stage 2: Changemakers and NGOs – Collaboration, requirements, and responsibilities.
🔹 Stage 3: Project Specialists – Roles of the Changemaker Recruiter, the Changemaker Coordinator, and Project Manager.
🔹 Stage 4: Recruiting Changemakers – Where to find volunteers and how to select the best ones.
🔹 Stage 5: Working with changemakers – From the first meeting to tracking performance and rewards.
🔹 Stage 6: Connecting changemakers, candidates – Two models for successful matching ("from vacancy to candidate" and "from candidate to vacancy").
🔹 Stage 7: Finding employers and anchor employers – How to attract employers and a detailed look at the project's timing and expected outcomes.
Follow our updates to get a full, open-source Project description to implement this model. The first post is coming in October!
Want to learn more about our journey so far?
Check out our previous overview posts about the Changemaker Journey Map within the Changemaker Model: https://lnkd.in/p/dfU76vkN