The sixth DISEMEX TPM has successfully finished in Glasgow. A two-day event organised by the project partner 36.6. Competence Center Scotland that took place in Glasgow Clyde College, included besides management and coordination issues three visits to the best practice institutions in the region.
Fortune Works/enable Glasgow
Fortune Works is part of the ENABLE Glasgow Branch, a Charity registered in Scotland. It is a membership organisation, controlled and run by their members, a grass roots charity. The members, service users, staff and volunteers are all part of a team. Their motto is: working with adults with learning disability and their carers in Glasgow. Operating within the city of Glasgow for up to 120 people with learning disabilities the community organisation aims to ensure people with learning disabilities and their carers are respected and valued as equal citizens who have a real say in the services they are able to access.
Fortune Works comes in, when people with learning disability need more support to engage fully in professional and social activities. They offer genuine working practices and ethics in a safe environment to learn and develop skills, which can lead to other opportunities. The range of work can vary from light industrial work, repackaging items to media distribution within local areas. They even participate in real commercial contracts in light fabrication and assembly, providing work in which everyone can participate if they wish (and can). So they can generate a financial contribution that can be reinvested in the service. There are different ways of participation:
Fortune Gardens (with an extensive on-site garden centre with a shop and a gardening team, which maintains a number of public spaces in the local area)
Fortune Products (a range of goods, enabling service users to express their creativity, items for sale).
Fortune Catering (Provides service users and the local community with meals).
In all areas of work service users get the chance to learn real skills and achieve real qualifications e.g. in food production, gardening, fabrication and creating items. Service users can participate in various social activities and identify their own goals. Networks of support and advocacy are established for families and carers and strengthen the activities.
Anne Ainsworth supported by the colleagues took the participants through different workshops of the Fortune Works, explained particular stations and answered the questions of the guests.
www.enableglasgow.org.uk
Remploy Scotland
Remploy is the UK’s leading disability specialist, with more than 70 years of experience delivering employment and skills support. Remploy was established in 1944 with the aim to provide specialized factory employment for people injured during the war and coal miners with health conditions. As social attitudes to disability were changing, in the late 1980s, Remploy started to develop programmes to support disabled people into mainstream employment with other businesses. In 2006, Remploy opened the first city centre branch providing a wide range of specialist employment support. This move toward supporting disabled people into mainstream employment meant that within a few years it was operating dozens of branches across Britain. In 2015, Remploy left government ownership in a joint venture between MAXIMUS, a leading international company providing health and employment services on four continents, and Remploy’s employees who have a 20 percent stake in the business.
The consortium members learnt the major principles of the Scottish Approach to Employability, which is the framework of Remploy operation and its own range of programmes and services providing employment and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions, as well as providing services to employers enabling them to become more disability confident. These include nationally adjusted and company’s own tools and procedures, that ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect.
The combination of individually designed professional development pathways, skills training, consultation and support, as well as an active collaboration with the employers makes the Remploy’s motto “Putting ability first!” implemented through hundreds of successful stories of employment inclusion.
https://www.remploy.co.uk/
Quarriers
Quarriers is a significant health and social care charity supporting people of all ages with diverse needs. They employ over 2.000 staff to support thousands of people in more than 120 locations across Scotland. Quarriers („Reach your true potential“) goes back nearly 150 years, when an orphanage was founded by William Quarrier. The organisation which still has its vision and values based on those by its founder, is larger and more diverse.
In the village grown orphanage Quarriers Village they work with individuals, families and carers who have support needs including: learning, physical and sensory disabilities, vulnerable families and children, homelessness, mental health needs, autism etc. They have developed expertise in supporting people whose behaviour can sometimes be challenging to access a wide range of community activities.
Quarriers‘s key theme is best described in their own words: „Our passion and commitment to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society.“ Their mission is transforming lives and thus enabling the people they support to realize their true potential. People shall have greater independence and inclusion in their communities and to be active citizens who are in charge of their health and well-being.
The environment in which they operate in their words: „We face increased regulation and legislation; increased competition; the drive for high quality person – centered care; people living longer with more complex needs; increased demand for services; and developments in technology against a backdrop of austerity and financial pressures.
https://quarriers.org.uk/
#erasmusplus #disemex #quarriers #remployscotland #enableglasgow #FortuneWorks #employment4all #inclusion