Targeted Employment Support 

Many autistic people and people with learning disabilities want to work but often need small adjustments in order to make this work. Only around six percent of working age people with learning disabilities are in paid employment.

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Our donation of £2340 enables a project to equip these adults with the skills for them to become capable of long term paid employment or voluntary employment positions, enabling them to be self-sufficient into the future.

Achieve Life Goals

Autistic adults and adults with learning disabilities find it very difficult to get meaningful employment, either within the voluntary sector or in paid positions. They need support to understand the implications of having a job, how to self-advocate and manage their health and social requirements at work. 

Often employers also need help understanding what aid there is to employ disabled people and how easy and cheap are any changes in their workplaces.

Finding roles for disabled people helps them to achieve life goals, including financial independence, gives a sense of purpose and pride and reduces reliance on social care services, savings for the public purse. Employers can also benefit from looking at different areas of the community for employees; many structures, especially those with low-paid roles struggle to recruit and retain reliable staff.  With the support of charities like Hamelin, employers can open up their workplace to a whole new group of potential employees.

Personal Training

The objective is to offer a formal course that includes increasing aspirations around work, preparing to enter the workplace, preparing a CV, interview skills, workplace tours, work experience and paid employment.

In the first year the Project would develop the model of support and create bespoke action plans to take 12 people on their employment journeys.  For some people this may end with volunteering, others will have the ambition to find paid work and financial independence. Most participants will need months of support to progress to their end goals.Half of the money came from club funds, and half came from a District Grant from the Rotary Foundation – Rotary’s only charity).  Hamelin Trust describe this project as “a real passion of ours and an area where we know there is much unmet demand”.