MyHandicap Foundation

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The MyHandicap Foundation is a non-profit organization that also wants to enable people with disabilities and serious illnesses to live according to their own ideas and abilities. The organization sees itself as an entry platform and service provider for all areas of life with disabilities - also outside the medical aspects. MyHandicap works on the principle of networking with cooperation partners on the various aspects of life with a disability. MyHandicap also wants to sensitize society to the needs of the disabled and promote integration.

Former US President Bill Clinton is the Foundation's honorary patron .

Emergence

The MyHandicap foundation was founded in 2004 as an international umbrella organization by the internet entrepreneur Joachim Schoss (among other things, founder of the Scout24 group) in Switzerland. The trigger for his idea was a serious traffic accident in which Schoss lost an arm and a leg. In rehabilitation he found that there was no general information portal on the subject of disability. He invested part of his fortune in establishing the foundation and the MyHandicap.com website of the same name. A German national company was founded at the beginning of 2006 by Joachim Schoss together with the biochemist Andreas Schepermann under the name MyHandicap non-profit GmbH foundation, based in Ismaning near Munich. Schepermann built up the organization and managed it as sole managing director until November 2008. Under the new managing directors Dominik Domnik and Robert Freumuth, MyHandicap concentrated its range of services on the Internet again and developed a communication platform in the sense of Web 2.0 .

Main areas of activity

MyHandicap focuses on three main areas of activity: information, advice and motivation. The organization only uses the Internet as a medium, with a focus on community. MyHandicap cooperates with other organizations according to the principle of networking. MyHandicap has built a network of people with disabilities, so-called ambassadors, who help other affected people with their experiences.

information

The Internet portal www.myhandicap.de is the largest German-language Internet platform on the subject of disabilities. It provides information on various aspects of life with a disability: from medical and psychological questions, technical aids , legal and economic problems to sports, travel and relationships. An address database under the name “MyAdress” lists contacts to service providers, experts and institutions that deal with the topic. In the forum, users can support each other, exchange experiences and gather contacts. Blogging is also possible. MyHandicap's international offering records a total of almost 20,000 unique visits from more than 80 countries per month on all platforms, a good 12,000 of them on the German side alone. MyHandicap does not claim sole representation on the subject of disabilities, but sees itself as an entry platform. For special questions, the foundation arranges contacts with other organizations with specialist knowledge from different areas, e.g. B. "bfz - professional training centers of the Bavarian economy", institute of the German economy , "VITA Assistenzhunde eV", law firm Janssen and Maluga, architectural office Opper, "non-profit Hertie-Foundation ", " Heinz and Mia Krone-Foundation ", " Rehadat - Information system for vocational rehabilitation "," CNS - Hannelore Kohl Foundation ".

consultation

Via the internet forum and special chats, those affected can send their individual questions to freelance experts from medicine, therapy, rehabilitation technology, architecture, professional training, travel, sports, law and much more. turn. The consultants research e.g. B. Therapy options, facilities, legal cases and arrange contacts to lawyers, doctors and other experts. In 2008, MyHandicap looked after almost 1,000 clients.

motivation

An important aspect of the advice from MyHandicap is the "ambassador network": People who have been confronted with a disability for a long time work as ambassadors. They come into contact with newly affected people with the same disability, report on their life experience and give specific tips. MyHandicap is expanding the network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, currently over 60 ambassadors are already working on a voluntary basis in their regions. In 2013, MyHandicap Switzerland launched the youth ambassador concept "Young people help young people". The aim of "Young People Help Young People" is for newly affected young people to face the challenge of a disability and to work for a self-determined and independent life.

research

MyHandicap is also committed to research in the field of disabilities. On September 6, 2007, the rector of the University of St.Gallen (HSG), Ernst Mohr, and the founder and chairman of the MyHandicap Foundation, Joachim Schoss, announced a cooperation agreement in St.Gallen to establish a center to promote research and teaching To have signed in the area of ​​Disability Management. The “Center for Disability and Integration” started its work in March 2009.

Organizational model

The German branch of MyHandicap is a non-profit GmbH and represents a national company of the international umbrella organization Stiftung MyHandicap. The international foundation holding grants the start-up grant and sets and controls standards and rules for the grants for individual projects of the national companies. It ensures the quality of the services offered and controls the financial equalization between the national companies. As part of the foundation mandate, which is controlled by a foundation board in Switzerland, the national companies act independently and can develop new tasks and activities themselves. The German organization is independent and is financed from grants from the international foundation, as well as donations, sponsoring, advertising income and contributions from the sponsoring organization "MyHandicapFriends".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Center for Disability and Integration on the website of the University of St. Gallen