Unity Works was formed in 2019 from The Camden Society’s long history of providing employment and training support to people with a learning disability.
Our mission is to increase the numbers of people with a learning disability in work. This currently sits at a devastating 4.8% (1– NHS Digital 2022) whilst we know that 65% of people with a learning disability want to be in work.
Our person-centred employment support services are well established, exceptionally connected and provide all round support that enables people with a learning disability to move into and sustain employment.
In the past year we have worked with 297 people across our employment programmes supporting 186 of those to interviews with a further 78 successfully finding paid work.
One such success is Sam who is supported by our WorkTrain Greenwich team. Following a digital marketing internship, Sam started looking for paid roles where he could use his digital skills as well as highlighting the voices for people with a learning disability. We worked with Sam to look for roles and he successfully applied for the paid part time role of Quality Checker with Advocacy in Greenwich which involves checking services to see how accessible they are for people with a learning disability.
Of his Quality Checker role, Sam says:
I enjoy helping people. It is important to make things accessible as all people have a right to use services just as much as people without a disability.
Sam continues to champion the voice of people with a learning disability. He was recently elected as a paid MP for Royal Borough of Greenwich People’s Parliament where he will be speaking up for people with a learning disability in Greenwich.
Find out more about Unity Works
1 – https://files.digital.nhs.uk/6E/D8BDCB/meas-from-asc-of-eng-2021-22-ASCOF-report.pdf