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We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

Have you got an idea to transform employment for disabled people?

Adrian_Scope

UnLtd are looking for 24 game-changing social businesses who want to scale up and grow their social impact and who are improving access to employment for those who face significant struggles such as but not limited to disabled people, ex-offenders and the homeless.

They’re looking for exciting social ventures who are:

Looking for six months of intensive support to grow your social business?
Looking to raise investment or find a mentor?
Could benefit from access to experts in business planning, financial modelling and routes to market?

Working with a dedicated, highly skilled Venture Manager and a support framework, social entrepreneurs and their teams will receive 1:1 tailored support for all of their needs, access to a specialised network, first class social impact measurement support and the opportunity to take on up to £50K of investment (debt or equity).

Applicants will be assessed on performance to date, potential for growth and profitability and in return have the opportunity to scale both the organisation and impact rapidly.

They’re looking for social entrepreneurs who have been typically operating for 2 – 6 years and have a clear social mission and demonstrable social impact

Apply here before the end of January 2020: https://awards.unltd.org.uk/Grants?awardType=Thrive

The fantastic Joel from Spiral Skills who was part of the Year One cohort and has since successfully gone on to raise £50,000 investment via the UBS Donor Advised Fund (DAF) alongside UnLtd post investment support says: “If you are worried about it being another thing that hooks you up with 25 mentors, that’s not what is going to happen. It’s a really targeted programme, that gives you expert advice and will make sure you do things that will really improve the efficiency of your business."

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Comments

April2018mom

I am interested!

Hardcheese

This idea could work for people with disabilities as they have the insight into where help is required.
Have a mentor that could be pre booked on line or by telephone in all kinds of stores, offices, businesses, railway stations etc. For all kinds of things. Collecting clothes from rails, Collecting tickets from stations. Just a friendly mentor to help with crowds. Someone to help with a range of problems that disabled people may choose to have help with if it is there. Even the lack of confidence to make trips out alone could be overcome with this.
If lots and lots of businesses nationwide adopted this, it would become a common support and second nature for anyone with an impairment going anywhere.

funfunfun

I would like more help with employment opportunities to create purpose and meaning into your life. I don't get enough engagement other than medication.

newborn

Hardcheese this idea does already work in a slightly similar way. Blind people can use be my eyes, and volunteers who could be in another country will look at the image on the blind person's cameraphone. They can spot where the path is, or read a sign, or stay( virtually)with the person until he is safely at the shop he was looking for

newborn

My other idea is that housebound people need not be excluded from volunteering and/or using many of their old skills and experience. An injured site manager could be controlling a camera drone from his bed, and spot some faults on a roof.

More generally, the sheer hours and hours of cctv viewing would make a match with people who cannot do much else. For pay or not, they can be one of society's most valuable resources. Is abuse going on, as shown in overnight footage in an institution? Is there evidence of which bad guy did a street crime? The footage could be in anonymous coded chunks, and the watchers trained to realise the seriousness of their work. They would presumably trigger some alert to identify the frame where an incident was of concern to relevant authorities, who would then be able to watch those parts and take action..

newborn

Its a shame this scheme is really not wide. They seem to want to boost profits of whoever has already made an income out of exoffenders, etc, presumably by getting a contract or local authority grant?

My other idea for doing things differently and better is shadowing. Research i can't instantly cite compared training/learning methods. To nobody's surprise, the old fashioned way, natural to humans or animals, is copying. Therefore, what was known as 'sit by Nelly' turned out better and faster and cheaper than reading instructions, or sitting in class. Sit by Nelly who knows the job, watch, then copy while she watches you, to make sure you get it right. For example, shadowing home carers or teachers or nurses would help them get more satisfaction from their work. They would have at least one assistant, so some of the small but important tasks, even routine fetch and carry, could be delegated. That would supplement the Huurtzog (sp?) method, where self managed teams of around 12 home nurses decide between themselves how to cover the workload.

JenCo

I hope " Apply here before the end of January 2010" is a typo...

Adrian_Scope

JenCo said:

I hope " Apply here before the end of January 2010" is a typo...

It certainly is @JenCo. Oops! I've corrected that now. Thanks for pointing it out!

emmarenshaw

I think it would also be beneficial if there were more remote working opportunities attached to schemes like this.

Chloe_Alumni

I complete agree @emmarenshaw! Remote working would open up employment to so many people!

emmarenshaw

@Chloe_Scope It definitely would. Especially if you meet all the criteria or most of it and travel or other circumstances are a barrier. All people need is an opportunity, the right support and systems in place.

veriterc

Another idea for paid employment would be to produce a list of Scope members willing to talk at conferences. Speakers are generally paid £150 - £500. Don't rush - the work doesn't happen often, but this year major medical associations, advisory groups, magazines, etc. have climbed on the bandwagon to run conferences on 'what patients need/want'. Aimed at NHS Trusts who want to be seen as 'putting the ient first' etc. Only trouble is, they never ask a patient as speaker - it's a cosy cartel of the usual. But if Scope had a list, whenever there is a conference announced we could email over a list of possible speakers - and as organisers generally have no idea where to find patients, this might get some of us some lucrative free-lance work.