SEMLEP
Zooming in to new
can struggle to get out of the house and into an office. In the home environment, productivity can rocket.” T e Social Enterprise & Community Work pro-
opportunities
T e lockdown measures brought about rapid change to working conditions. Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts have be- come integrated within the daily schedules of lots of people. Some changes may be long term. Remote working, where this is possible, may become the norm for many. Two specifi c local community projects have quickly adapted to
embrace the situation, seeing new opportunities to help disadvantaged people develop the skills needed to secure employment in a post-lock- down world. Disabled jobseekers are excelling through the Buckinghamshire
Disability Service (BuDs) Reach4Work programme, using their own experiences to redevelop a website to support other people with dis- abilities to access key employability information. Meanwhile, unem- ployed people over 50 ‘Zoom’ into new opportunities with the support of the Impactful Governance: Social Enterprise & Community Work programme. T e Reach4Work project supports disabled people, or people with
long-term health conditions, to realise their potential and use their talents without barriers, through digital work experience. Project Co-ordinator, Michael Broadley said “For many of our participants, working from home is a real benefit. Some people
76 ALL THINGS BUSINESS
gramme helps unemployed over-50s to develop the valuable insight, experience and skills needed to create their own charity or social enterprise and secure employment in the community and volun- tary sector. “We help people to realise that they have
really valuable skills just waiting to be used. For example, one participant, due to family circum- stances, hadn’t had social interaction with another person in over a year. By being in a supportive environment (Zoom call) with people of a simi- lar age in similar circumstances, her confi dence dramatically improved. Using her new-found confidence, she is now making facemasks in the voluntary sector,” said Andrew Waite, Chief Executive at Impactful Governance – Community Interest Company. Both projects, funded through SEMLEP’s
Community Grants programme, support local communities to come together, a community even more crucial and valued at a time when some peo- ple risk becoming more isolated. SEMLEP’s Community Grants programme will re-open for funding applications on 17 August 2020.
The programme off ers local community organisations 100% grant funding up to £20,000 to support people back into work or training. To fi nd out more information, visit
www.semlep.com/community-grants
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