Harrogate charity asking local businesses to help with lottery funding bid

A Harrogate charity is asking local business for their support in helping it unlock funding to enable disabled people to access work opportunities.

The Disability Action Yorkshire survey aims to capture support from local employers to demonstrate the need for the charity’s application.

And if the charity is successful with its application, the National Lottery grant will enable it to further its efforts in helping disabled people into paid employment and supporting them when they have done so.

This comes at a crucial time as the Government aspires to redress the disability employment gap with the employment of one million more disabled people between 2017 and 2027. As of Q2 2021, the disability employment rate was 52.7 per cent lagging short of the 81 per cent for non-disabled people.

Moreover, the pandemic saw a fall in disability employment rates, reversing the positive trend over prior years. As such, the work of Disability Action Yorkshire has never been more necessary.

Jackie Snape, Chief Executive of Disability Action Yorkshire, said: “We are reaching out to local businesses in the hope that, with their help, we can secure the lottery funding grant. If successful, this would enable us to give additional support to disabled people in our region.

“Our project will support people to gain experience of different working environments by working with local businesses to offer taster sessions, extended work experience and trial jobs. We will also deliver training to local businesses so they can confidently recruit and retain disabled employees.”

Jackie added: “For some time now, we have been helping disabled jobseekers unlock Access to Work grant funding, assisting them in the application process whilst offering support to help them once in employment.

“We also able to help disabled people obtain grants to pay for communication support at job interviews, if required.

“If we were successful in our application for the lottery funding grant, and I hope we are, we would be able to enhance our services to help disabled people from across the Harrogate District find work and prosper in employment.”

The Disability Action Yorkshire survey is found here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DAYEmployersSurvey