Cedar’s Inclusion Works team has been successful in securing funding from the European Social Fund during the second call of applications. We want to celebrate this and the success of the previous programme, having exceeded all targets with our participants.  Cedar supported over 700 people with disabilities to achieve their goals of employment and inclusion, including 112 people into paid jobs. For people living with disability this funding means that Cedar can continue to work in partnership with our local councils, health trusts, employers and training providers to progress inclusion for people with disability through work, training, volunteering, gaining new skills and qualifications.

People with disabilities face multiple barriers to employment resulting in high levels of economic inactivity and social exclusion.  Only 37.8% of working age disabled people are in work versus 77.9% without disabilities.  People with disabilities are 2.5 times more likely to have no qualifications.  Cedar has over 75 years’ experience of supporting people with disability and has demonstrated that these barriers can be overcome with specialist support. 

To celebrate our funding success at our event , we were delighted to have Romayne Orr, Occupational Therapist with the South Eastern Health Trust’s Community Brain Injury Team. 

Romayne, from Community Brain Injury Team at SEHCT stated:“We are delighted to be working in close partnership with Cedar in meeting the challenge of removing barriers for people with disability to get into the work place”.

Andrew Taylor participated in the Inclusion Works programme after acquiring a Brain Injury. When asked about the challenges they faced in relation to training and work he said:

"After being out of the loop for so long, the real challenge for me was re-building my confidence in myself and my own abilities."

David Thompson, Civil Engineer, Atkins added “Andrew has joined the company as a confident, passionate and driven young man, determined to follow his passion for structures and aspires to become an engineer. Andrew has clearly benefited from the support and skills while at Cedar and excelled throughout the ICE Work+ apprenticeship scheme recruitment process.”

Andrew worked with Case Officer, Jordan Madden, to design an individual programme based around his needs and aspirations to build confidence and independence. Following initial assessments an action plan was drawn up to address their personal barriers and agree solutions to meet his goals.

 Andrew went on to say:"Over the last number of years working with Cedar, I feel I have come so far and reached so many milestones, ultimately reaching my end goal of finding full time employment in the engineering sector. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and believe Atkins have given me an excellent opportunity to pursue a career in Civil Engineering. I feel a great sense of achievement."

Cedar’s Director of Employability & Community Inclusion, Elaine Armstrong, stated:

We are delighted to be able to continue working with our partners in Health and Social Care, Local Councils, Employers and Training Providers to support people with disabilities to overcome the challenges they face to reach their potential and achieve significant goals of work and training.

If you would like to find out more about Cedar’s Inclusion Works programme please visit our dedicated page. You can also follow Cedar on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn