Project information
Employment Service for young learning disabled
Leaving school can be traumatic for any young person- how much more so for a young learning disabled school leavers. Kisharons Employment Service is designed to develop the life skills and confidence of school children with learning difficulties in preparation for the world of work.
January 2011 - January 2016
Charity information: Kisharon
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Need
Need
There is a danger that people with learning disabilities become 'institutionalised' through their dependency on organisational support at each stage of their lives.
The options available to people with learning disabilities as they get older can decrease dramatically, so that when a person with a learning disability leaves school there is virtually no options available.
It requires a coherent programme prepare a learning disabled school leaver for the world of work.Solution
a) Engage young children with learning disabilities in the life of the community so that they feel confident in the wider world. This we will do through our community inclusion programme and participation in a wide range of social and sporting activities.
b) Strong emphasis on vocational training in our school.
c) Provision of work experience
d) Post 16 employment service to place school leavers in paid work -
Aims
Aim 1
Development of a year round calendar of communal activities
Activities
» Attendance at a minimum of ten communal events per year including sporting and inter school events with mainstream schools
What success will look like
Success will be...having all the children at the school participate in a calendar of communal activities
Aim 2
implementation of a strongly vocationally based curriculum
Activities
» Run a cookery training kitchen, a computer suite, and wood turning and jewellery making classes
What success will look like
Success will be...adaptating and enhancing the school curriculum to include greater vocational content
Aim 3
Develop work experience for Kisharons School pupils
Activities
» Kisharon currently runs a bike shop and print shop for learning disabled adults. We aim to offer school pupils work experience in these shops
What success will look like
Success will be...having all our upper school pupils participate in work experience in at least one of the range of sheltered employment opportunities
Aim 4
Set up a transitional employment programme for new school leavers
Activities
» Kisharon currently runs an employment service for learning disabled adults aged 19 to 25 we will extend this to 16+ and channel school leavers into it
What success will look like
Success will be...extending our current adult employment service so that we can place 16+ learning disabled school leavers
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Impact
Impact
Our long term aim is reverse the near zero chances that young learning disabled school leavers have in finding paid employment by advertising successes and demonstrate to more employers the value of employing them.
We will demonstrate success by receiving letters of commendation from satisfied employers and by gauging the rate of rise in employment among the young learning disabled school leavers.Risk
There is the risk that in pursuit of helping young learning disabled school leavers to become independent the support that they need is withdrawn too early and not gradually.
We have strict processes and procedures for monitoring and assessing the progress of young people we place in employment informing how long and how much support is requiredReporting
Annual Report, Newsletter, Site visits, regular progress reports, website.
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Budget
Budget - Project Cost: £105,000
Loading graph....Amount Heading Description £9,000 Support Worker To accompany job placees when travelling to and from work £40,000 Job Coaches x 2 To supervise and support job placees £38,000 Employment service manager To manage the total programme £10,000 Schools Training and developme Preparing pupils £8,000 Expenses Telephone, Travel and Head office costs -
Background
Location
This project will be run in North West London, covering Golders Green, Hendon, Finchley and others as well as North East London, covering Stamford Hill. In the long term we would wish to roll this programme out nationally.
Beneficiaries
School Children of all ages from primary to secondary school age, and in the short term new school leavers. Local businesses will also benefit from receiving conscientious employees.
We anticipate that in the long term this project may become a model of good practice and we believe we will be called upon to consult with a wide range of learning disabled charities seeking to emulate our employment service. -
Why Us?
Why Us?
Kisharon has a strong track record over more than twenty years of providing sheltered employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities, and we were among the first organisations to provide this service. We have built up a pool of expertise and know how in employment initiatives for the learning disabled. We are ideally placed to develop the new model of employment where young people eventually and independently carry out their jobs without supervision or with minimum supervision.
Read more about the Charity running this project.
People
Mrs Gabby Gass -Job Coach
Gabby runs the community inclusion programme of kisharon in Hackney and has personally supervised many of the candidates we wish to place
Schools Liaison And Trsining Manager- To Be Appointed
To prepare children for the employment programme by helping to deliver the aims as expressed earlier in this application.
Mr S Weltman -Emploment Service Manager
To manage the overall running of the programme, its staff and the companies who take placees.
Mr H Ashrey-Job Coach
Mr Ashrey has been with Kisharon for more than 10 years in employment services. He has a strong skill set in mentoring and coaching young people