Hero Talents’ mission: to enable people with disabilities to be seen

Pulsating with uniqueness and new opportunities, pursuing exceptional goals and the only one in the Baltic countries, this year is the winner of the “Business of the Year” nomination of the Klaipėda District Municipality. This is Hero Talents, a model recruitment agency where people with disabilities discover their unique abilities. “Hero Talents” creates a significant social change in our society and added value not only for the Klaipėda region, but also for the whole of Lithuania. Many large projects have been implemented with well-known brands in our country and abroad, and obvious results have been achieved.

The first agency in the Baltic countries

At the traditional thanksgiving evening of the mayor of the Klaipėda district municipality held in the Priekulė cultural center, 5 nominations were presented to those who were the most prominent in business, culture, community activities and who made the name of the Klaipėda district famous for their initiatives last year. “I have always said that our district is built by the people who live here. With their work, ideas and love, they contribute every day to making our land visible, heard and ever more beautiful. In fact, many unique ideas and projects are being implemented in our district,” said Bronius Markauskas, mayor of Klaipėda district, congratulating the nominees. Among the five nominees, the “Business of the Year” laureates – the model recruitment agency “Hero Talents” – the first agency for models with disabilities not only in Lithuania, but also in the Baltic States, received sensitive attention at the solemn ceremony. During the quarantine, the agency was founded by Ema Navickienė, who lives in the Klaipėda district, together with the injured basketball player Aiste Krušinskaite. For the woman, the idea of ​​creating such an agency also came from personal experience: her husband is a Paralympian, a rower.

According to E. Navickienė, at the moment, when the agency has already developed its initiatives, such an observation by the municipality of Klaipėda district and assessment of the agency’s activities is exciting and significant. “This encourages us to pay even more attention to the development of activities in the Klaipėda region”, emphasized the founder of the agency, E. Navickienė, who works with national projects developing social business.

Positive experiences inspire

There wasn’t much to learn from when creating a unique modeling agency in Lithuania. It turns out that even in the global market there were only a few companies working on similar projects at the time – a modeling agency in Great Britain and another in the USA.

At the beginning of the activity, there were 11 models in the Hero Talents agency. Now, Hero Talents has grown to over 150 models with various disabilities and body types, and also has 15 inspirational speakers who share personal stories publicly, give inspirational motivational speeches, and give presentations at various conferences, internal company events. Among them are champion athletes with disabilities, wounded soldiers.

The agency employs models with underdeveloped limbs, wearing leg prostheses, moving in a wheelchair, as well as those with various body features – whiteness, acne, scars. People with Down syndrome also work as models, and recently the agency was looking for people with autism spectrum disorders and soon received girls who wanted to join the agency. In addition, there are also invisible models. Not only adult men and women, but also children work in the disabled models agency. After one of the agency’s projects, 20 children with disabilities joined its activities.

Agency models are usually discovered through social networks – after contacting them, they are invited to a conversation and offered to join. So, the fastest way to join an agency for disabled models is the model’s own activity and willingness to participate.

“Positive experiences and the growth of the number of people working in the open labor market show the direction in which the employment of disabled people should be promoted”, Vaida Kamandulienė, head of measures implementation organization of the Employment Service, noticed positive changes in Lithuania.

Good examples are increasing

Indrė Kručaitė, the project coordinator of the modeling agency Hero Talents, radiated elegance, received the “Business of the Year” award of the Klaipėda district municipality – a symbolic sculpture of the artist Vytautas Karčiauskas – from the hands of the mayor of the Klaipėda district municipality B. Markauskas. A girl born with an extremely rare physical disability moves with a prosthetic leg, which she hid under baggy pants as a teenager. Today, I. Kručaitė has made friends with her disability and presents herself as an ambassador for a metal leg. She smiles in photoshoots of famous brands and in her daily activities aims to give people with disabilities the opportunity to be seen.

“Our agency spreads the message that everyone can be seen in advertising – regardless of age, body type, physical capabilities… This is very important, because here we often show polished images, perfect bodies, which is not bad in itself, but there are so many different people in the world.” . We seek to reveal this real society of ours with its imperfections, which are so close to many of us. People gradually get tired of that perfection, and they don’t always feel part of it. So, the more positive and different examples we have, the more people will get involved, the bad and dark moods will decrease, and the world will become closer and kinder”, – the project coordinator of the agency “Hero Talents” continues to publicize these thoughts.

At the award ceremony, I. Kručaitė was happy that the inclusion of people with disabilities is intensifying, and there are more and more good examples. To the audience gathered for the festivities, she delivered what many have probably seen on television in a social ad. “Not long ago, the telecommunications company Telia presented an advertising campaign focused on people with disabilities. They revealed real people’s stories, situations that we all face, and did not try to put disability at the center of attention. The more such examples we have, the faster the situation will improve. Significantly more positive signs can be seen in foreign markets, where well-known brands are increasingly opening up and making the promotion of inclusion an important mission,” the project coordinator of Hero Talents is convinced.

Prepared by Vilija BUTKUVIENĖ