Building Bridges of Trust: The Story of the Trust2Integrate Project

Addressing a Shared Challenge

In Europe, equality and social protection are core principles reflected in the European Pillar of Social Rights. These principles aim to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate fully in society. However, for many people with disabilities in Latvia and Estonia, this goal has been difficult to achieve. High inflation and broader economic pressures have increased the risk of poverty, making it harder for many to cover their everyday needs and maintain a decent standard of living.

Recent Eurostat[1] data show how common these challenges are. In 2024, around 24% of adults in the EU reported some or severe long-standing activity limitation, with the share rising to about 41% in Latvia – the highest in the EU – and remaining above the EU average in Estonia. People with disabilities were also more likely to face financial insecurity: across the EU, around 29% were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, compared with about 18% among people without a disability. In Latvia (about 39%) and Estonia (about 38%), these shares were clearly higher than the EU average.

In this context, the Trust2Integrate project was developed as a cross-border initiative to improve opportunities for people with disabilities to earn an income, use their skills and take part more fully in community life, based on close cooperation between two municipalities.

A Partnership for People: Ogre and Haapsalu Join Forces

The Trust2Integrate project was built on collaboration, bringing together two partners whose strengths complemented each other.

Meet the Partners

The partnership was a natural alliance between Ogre Municipality in Latvia and Haapsalu City Government in Estonia. As twin cities, they already shared a history of cooperation and a strong interest in the well-being of their residents. With decades of experience, the key institutions involved—the Ogre Municipality Social Service and the Haapsalu Social House—brought together local knowledge and the trust of their communities. This made them well placed to lead an initiative focused on social inclusion and everyday quality of life.

Complementary Strengths and Shared Goals

Each partner contributed its own expertise to the project and took the lead on specific activities that built on local experience. This helped create a balanced and practical collaboration, ensuring that the training programmes matched the needs and interests of the participants.

Partners – Key responsibilities and focus

• Ogre Municipality (Latvia) – Lead Partner, responsible for overall project coordination. Ogre focused on sharing its approach to social services and on designing and leading skills training in the catering sector.
• Haapsalu City Government (Estonia) – Project Partner, sharing best practices from the Haapsalu Social House. Haapsalu took the lead in skills training in craftsmanship, including woodworking and ceramics.

Together, these partners turned a shared aim for a more inclusive community into a concrete plan of joint activities.

From Plan to Action: A Year of Learning and Growth

Over 12 months, the Trust2Integrate project moved from exchanging knowledge to offering practical skills training that supported both individuals and local services.

Building a Foundation of Shared Knowledge

The project began with an important first step: developing trust and mutual understanding between the teams. Staff from Ogre and Haapsalu organised experience-exchange workshops and study visits, getting to know each other’s facilities and methods for supporting people with special needs. These early meetings helped the partners agree on a joint action plan and laid the groundwork for all later activities.

Building Skills, Building Confidence

The core of the project was a set of hands-on training workshops designed to give participants practical, employable skills in areas that interested them.

• Catering in Ogre:
  The kitchen of the social enterprise “Pie Zelta Liepas” became a real-life training space. Participants learned how to prepare meals, organise work in the kitchen and serve customers. Along the way, they practised teamwork and communication and gained confidence in a work environment. Over two days, the workshop recorded 50 participations from 36 individuals, including 25 people with special needs who could try out new tasks and discover what suited them.
• Craftsmanship in Haapsalu:
  In Haapsalu, the focus was on woodworking, ceramics and handicraft production. Trainers noted clear progress in participants’ ability to work more independently and to complete tasks from start to finish. The workshop brought together people from both countries and registered 87 participations over two days of creative, practical work.

Changing Minds, Opening Doors

Beyond individual training, the project also aimed to support a more welcoming attitude towards people with special needs. An awareness-raising campaign was set up to increase public understanding of their abilities and everyday experiences. Two short videos were produced to document the project and share participants’ stories. These were shared on social media, YouTube and local news platforms, helping more people see how inclusive workplaces and services can function in practice.

These activities created a solid base for the project’s longer-term results.

The Tangible Impact: Real Jobs and a Lasting Legacy

The success of Trust2Integrate is reflected not only in participation numbers but also in the concrete changes it brought for individuals and the practical tools it left for the future.

Real Jobs, Real Lives

One of the most important results was linking people with special needs to paid work.

• Six people with special needs were employed at the social enterprise “Pie Zelta Liepas” in Ogre, where they now work as part of the hospitality team.
• “Pie Zelta Liepas” has drawn interest from outside Latvia as an example of inclusive employment. It received the “Employment Promoter of the Year” award from the Latvian Ombudsman’s Office and hosted 22 visiting delegations with 553 guests who came to learn from its experience.
• In Haapsalu, one participant found work as a handyman, and the municipality continues to look for further employment options for others who took part in the project.

A Blueprint for the Future

To help the work continue after the project ended, the partners created a set of tools and shared commitments.

• The “Business Environment & Employment Facilitation Plan” was prepared as a strategic guide for both municipalities. It outlines steps for creating more jobs, developing training programmes and supporting social entrepreneurship.
• The plan also suggests practical sales activities, such as taking part in local markets and setting up an online platform for handcrafted goods. Both municipalities aim to seek new funding from programmes such as Interreg and Horizon Europe to continue and expand these efforts.
• The social service agencies in Ogre and Haapsalu have formally committed to continuing the training programmes so that the skills, materials and experience built during the project can benefit more people in the future.

These outcomes show how a one-year project can lead to ongoing opportunities and clearer pathways into work.

A Stronger, More Inclusive Community

The Trust2Integrate project set out to build bridges of trust between people with special needs, local services and employers. It helped participants gain practical skills, supported the creation of real jobs and contributed to more informed public discussion about the role of people with disabilities in the workplace.

Cross-border cooperation between Ogre and Haapsalu was central to these results. By sharing resources, experience and ideas, the partners developed approaches to social inclusion that can also be useful for other regions. Trust2Integrate shows that with appropriate support, tailored training and a trusting environment, people with special needs can contribute their skills at work and play an active role in community life in Latvia, Estonia and beyond.