Active Inclusion: Equity in Employment

With year end approaching, it’s a time of reflection on our pilot project: Active Inclusion: Equity in Employment We are happy to share our first reflection report of our work.  It is attached as a LinkedIN upload document which turns into a PDF:  Our Ways of Working, Story Report by Active Inclusion: Equity in Employment Team, December 2024. This is our chance to share with you our person-centred Ways of Working and our insights into co-producing  Active Inclusion. Also, how it has changed us professionally & personally,  what we have learnt, and our actions going forward and how you can be part of our Direct Action. We hope you enjoy this Story Report. We are thankful to everyone who has taken part this last year and to our, funders, supporters and allies. *Warning: this is a long story report,  and is published on  LinkedIn because it is our holding space until we launch our website in February 2025. There are sections, so you can access them one at a time to process. This report is in Word, Audio and PDF in this Google Drive Folder: https://lnkd.in/es2iz88Z. The description text for the image: Direct Action has been refined in the word document and PDF document in the Google Drive. It is published in Arial font, size 16 using our colour palette. If you would like it in any other format, please let us know and we will arrange it for you. Active Inclusion team #WaysOfWorking #ActiveInclusion #Equity #FairEmployment #CoProduction #HumanResources #HR #HumanHR #Collaboration Elena - May R. Eleanor O'Sullivan Raisa Hassan Lydia Morgan Rakesh P. Uzair Chachia Tom Ryan-Elliott Sandra Bentley Karen Blake Kim Hoque Amanda Cummins Polly Persechino Kirsty Hogg anya turko Kaye Moors Matthew Bellringer Matthew Kaye Kealy Hastick Adrian Jones Nerise Oldfield-Thompson Shona Howes Lauren Davies Callum Laker Julie Ryder Clive Gilbert Jason Grant-Rowles

Here's our last article for the year, but an important one, by Eleanor O'Sullivan 'Guess what? the Disability Confident Scheme isn't working' When Eleanor first heard Kim Hoque,leading disability academic Professor of Human Resource Management and Vice Dean (People and Culture) at King's Business School, talking about his research on the Disability Confident Scheme at our “What’s A Happy Workplace?” Un-conference in July 2024, she was unsettled, yet not surprised, to hear that he had found that the Scheme was not working. Eleanor was keen to interview Professor Hoque and learn in depth, about his research into the Disability Confident Scheme in the UK. ‘Disability Confident’ is a UK Government scheme launched in November 2016, aiming to provide employers with the skills and confidence to hire and retain disabled employees in their organisations. Here's the story. Please do share, and if you want to know more about Kim's work, he is sharing an update of his work at our monthly Drop in Session on 17 January (12pm - 1pm) - details in the article. #WaysOfWorking #ActiveInclusion #DisabilityConfident #Failure #Solutions #EquityInEmployment

Being part of the Active Inclusion: Equity in Employment team has been an honour this year. Together, we’re working to make it easier for people with disabilities to access meaningful employment opportunities. This reflective Story Report shares how we’ve approached co-production, the insights we’ve gained, and how it has transformed us professionally and personally. Our work is about direct action and creating pathways for real inclusion—something I’m passionate about. I encourage you to explore the report and consider how you or your organisation can join us in building more equitable workplaces. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. Change is happening, and together, we can ensure that work becomes truly accessible for everyone. #TuesdayThoughts #DisabilityInclusion #ActiveInclusion #EquityInEmployment #Disabilities

Callum Laker share's his experience and thoughts on his attendance British Council Corporate English Solutions webinar: Solutions on Fostering DEI: Strategies for Learning & Development. #WaysOfWorking #EDI #ActiveInclusion #ReasonableAdjustments #Workforce

We are a collective community of disruptors for advocacy on fair employment. For disability history month, we are sharing some of the work we have been doing as a team of 12, over the last year. We are creating a website, which will be launched in 2025. Here is a peek at some of our co-production work - cartoons of how we work together so we flourish. We all have skills and expertise in: administration, design, UX design, research, co-production, development, fundraising, peer support, employment coaching, mental health support, safeguarding, website design - wow, we could go on. Get in touch with us if you would like to know more. #Disability #Livelihood #Employment #ActiveInclusion #WaysOfWorking #UKDHM #CoProduction Raisa Hassan Sandra Bentley Lydia Morgan Callum Laker Disability History Month https://lnkd.in/ebP8vvJa Our Alt text Our cartoon of six of our team's Ways of Working. The background, text and lines in illustrations is a warm off white. And the boxes and titles text and text and illustrations in each box are our dark contrast designed purple. Title of cartoon: To flourish we have Cartoon box 1 1 to 1 support An illustration of two people at a table Cartoon box 2 Reflection, review and proactive behaviours An illustration of a person, with three drawings above them; chat box, heart with a tick in it, thumbs up Cartoon box 3 Come as you are: be comfortable principles Three illustrations; camera with a cross through it, a camera, and a click box with the text, chat now and a little hand hovering over it. Cartoon box 4 Materials in advance: audio, alt text, documents, large print, apps, contrast paper and colours. Four small icon illustrations of: closed captions, text, image, play button, audio button Cartoon box 5 Flexible environments and hours An illustration of a person working in bed. Cartoon box 6 Safe place to challenge; using co-production and online platforms Illustration is a line drawing of a house, and three people are in it, surrounding a heart which is in the middle.

It’s October, the season is changing and the leaves are falling.  Here at Active Inclusion: Equity in Employment we are working away on our website, our behind the scenes administration and our evaluation methods.  Here’s a story by Callum Laker who is doing some work experience and sorting out our knowledge management. We hope you enjoy Callum’s story. #WaysOfWorking #ActiveInclusion #Equity #WorkExperience #Diversity 

We've been busy, learning from so many great people this last year, about what 'active' inclusion in employment is. We spoke to the fabulous Jane Hatton , and asked for advice: if we are working in an organisation, how can we influence for inclusion, especially to the responses: we have no budget, we are not ready yet, etc. Jane's response is in this short video. A video of our Zoom call. I am sat in my home office and Jane is in front of a bookcase. If you are looking for some support in how to influence for inclusion - Jane's message is - learning from lived experience helps organisations get it right. Be ready to challenge, and tips on how to do this. Thank you Jane for sharing what action is and how we can challenge and #NothingForUsWithoutUs #Influencing #ActiveInclusion #WaysOfWorking #Employment

There’s a pigeon ‘There’s a pigeon’ -  this week, I sat with colleagues in a cool sanctuary in a room in the park. I was filming a short film on my phone of our Ways of Working for the day, and we had an exciting encounter. - there was a pigeon! I share this because it brought us together - when we played the video back, I say ‘oh there’s a pigeon’ and it really stood out - it reminded me of a cartoon I used to watch as a kid, and it made Lilian laugh  - there’s a meme right there, they said. We laughed. Here’s our video https://lnkd.in/e_E4Ttys We try to meet every Tuesday, in a community space. Enjoy our little snapshot of our Ways of Working (it’s different everyday). Tom Ryan-Elliott is creating films for a project we are working on; sharing through living history, solutions to barriers to employment and how we can all get to What’s a Happy Workplace? Lilian joined us for the day, to co-curate the story arc for our first 5 minute film - we decided on a beginning, middle and end, and a title: Active Inclusion: a living history of equity. We enjoyed the day. We enjoy having a choice of how and when to meet and where. We enjoy meeting face to face, in our homes, in libraries, in offices, virtually, texting or emailing - we have a choice! We enjoy doing what we are doing. We try to create our Happy Workplace! Curatorial description of our South Park Gardens Video Julie, volunteer team member, of the What's A Happy Workplace community, is filming some ways of working for a few members of our team today. The team are working from a meeting space in South Park Gardens in Wimbledon for the day. This short film shows you around the venue, the Pavilion, and introduces you to a few of our team members present on the day. Julie starts by showing us the view from the Pavilion doors facing out onto the park. It's a sunny day and people are laying out on the grass outside. There is a spread of small white flowers and some trees in view. We see a few birds peck at the ground (and Julie spots a pigeon!) Julie then pans inside to the Pavilion workspace, showing the cream walls with paintings hanging, and some beige doors. Our team members Tom and Lilian are then shown saying hello. Tom is sitting at a table in front of a laptop and he waves to the camera. He is a white, brunette man wearing a grey t-shirt and beige shorts. The camera then pans to Lilian, who is also sat at the same table, waving hello. She is a white, brunette woman with brown glasses. Her hair is in a ponytail, she has black headphones around her neck and she is wearing a lime green summer dress. The film now ends as the camera fades to black.

There’s a pigeon ‘There’s a pigeon’ -  this week, I sat with colleagues in a cool sanctuary in a room in the park. I was filming a short film on my phone of our Ways of Working for the day, and we had an exciting encounter. - there was a pigeon! I share this because it brought us together - when we played the video back, I say ‘oh there’s a pigeon’ and it really stood out - it reminded me of a cartoon I used to watch as a kid, and it made Lilian laugh  - there’s a meme right there, they said. We laughed. Here’s our video https://lnkd.in/e_E4Ttys We try to meet every Tuesday, in a community space. Enjoy our little snapshot of our Ways of Working (it’s different everyday). Tom Ryan-Elliott is creating films for a project we are working on; sharing through living history, solutions to barriers to employment and how we can all get to What’s a Happy Workplace? Lilian joined us for the day, to co-curate the story arc for our first 5 minute film - we decided on a beginning, middle and end, and a title: Active Inclusion: a living history of equity. We enjoyed the day. We enjoy having a choice of how and when to meet and where. We enjoy meeting face to face, in our homes, in libraries, in offices, virtually, texting or emailing - we have a choice! We enjoy doing what we are doing. We try to create our Happy Workplace! Curatorial description of our South Park Gardens Video Julie, volunteer team member, of the What's A Happy Workplace community, is filming some ways of working for a few members of our team today. The team are working from a meeting space in South Park Gardens in Wimbledon for the day. This short film shows you around the venue, the Pavilion, and introduces you to a few of our team members present on the day. Julie starts by showing us the view from the Pavilion doors facing out onto the park. It's a sunny day and people are laying out on the grass outside. There is a spread of small white flowers and some trees in view. We see a few birds peck at the ground (and Julie spots a pigeon!) Julie then pans inside to the Pavilion workspace, showing the cream walls with paintings hanging, and some beige doors. Our team members Tom and Lilian are then shown saying hello. Tom is sitting at a table in front of a laptop and he waves to the camera. He is a white, brunette man wearing a grey t-shirt and beige shorts. The camera then pans to Lilian, who is also sat at the same table, waving hello. She is a white, brunette woman with brown glasses. Her hair is in a ponytail, she has black headphones around her neck and she is wearing a lime green summer dress. The film now ends as the camera fades to black.