Summary

The Tulpiakiemis village is 30 km from the city of Ukmergė in Vilnius County, Lithuania. In this village there are many older people with low social skills, low income or no experience in the labour market and find it difficult to get into the city to earn an income. 

In 2018 a workspace was opened in the village, offering people of different socially vulnerable groups an opportunity to work and feel useful. These workplaces are housed in modular containers where people carry out orders for various companies, in the form of manual work that cannot be done by machines. In 2019, using support from the LEADER programme, the premises were expanded by purchasing additional modular containers to provide more workspaces, a rest area, a storage room and an administrative workplace (containing a computer, printer and telephone).

Results

Two new full-time jobs were created.

The workspace now employs more than 20 people with business licenses: this is an increase of ten members of staff from before the project started.

The ‘Užimtumo namai’ workspace operates on the basis of business licenses, as the number of people who come to work every day varies, and their pay depends on the number of orders and the work done by each person.

Socially vulnerable people working with a business license can earn money, and as a result the number of socially disadvantaged people in the district is decreasing as through working, people can improve their financial and social situation.