Monday 22 March 2010

Chapter 8 continued

Mohammed Vaseem, the manager of the Employment and Training department, arrived at BDRC to provide management and guidance to new employment projects being launched in June 2006. He also directly delivers careers advice and guidance to service users. Mohammed explained about the service:

“We provide support to help to get disabled people into employment, training and voluntary work. We run a Job Club on Thursdays where we can provide one-to-one support to clients in job matching and CV writing, interview techniques and preparation.

“We also deliver customised training as well. Myself and my colleagues (John Ellis and Tracey Bennett), help in the delivery of interview techniques, confidence building and time and stress management as well.

“We have a whole range of clients who access our services ranging from people with mental health issues to those with physical disabilities. Since I have been here we have supported quite a number into employment.

“One was a client who had been unemployed due to a mental health condition for many years. Previously he was self-employed. He had low self-esteem when he approached us and didn’t think that he could get back into work.

“We got him into voluntary work to help him to regain his confidence and also to give him the self-awareness of the skills that he could offer an employer. With voluntary work we tend to support clients through recognised qualifications – working towards a recognised qualification as well. After a year he started applying for employment opportunities and he quite quickly got a job at the NHS as an administrator. There are a lot of success stories like this.”

Like John Ellis, Mohammed identifies low esteem and lack of confidence as two of the factors which make job hunting difficult for individuals, especially people who have been unemployed for a long period or having acquired a disability, have become socially isolated.

Mohammed, himself, obtained a degree in Chemistry and Business Studies in 1996 and then worked very much in the voluntary and community sector for organisations such as Islamic Relief, East Birmingham Community Forum and PATH West Midlands. His experience of working with black and ethnic minority communities in areas of Birmingham such as Alum Rock, Washwood Heath and Saltley gives Mohammed an insight into different cultural perspectives on disability and an understanding of what organisations need to do in order to engage with marginalised communities:

“The centre is very good at engaging disabled people from the BME communities. Before I started work here I had come across the perception from some sections of BME communities that BDRC was a white organisation and its services were predominately for white disabled people.

“When I started working for BDRC I realised that the entire organisation was very committed to engaging and supporting disabled people from the BME communities. We now advertise in the local ethnic media, highlighting all the services we offer. We also offer bi-lingual language support in Urdu, Panjabi, Mirpuri and Bengali. When working with the BME communities it is important to understand the cultural issues. Over 40% of our service users for the employment and training projects are from the BME communities.

“Everyone’s been welcoming – that is one of the strengths of the BDRC. I feel although we are a well-known organisation we are continuously struggling for funding and that’s always there. But I do enjoy my work here. I do enjoy supporting disabled people getting back into employment – I find it very rewarding.”

Mohammed also emphasises that employment support isn’t just about supporting the individual on a very personal level with things like confidence, time keeping, CV writing, etc, and that many of the barriers to employment for disabled people are created by employers and by society at large:

“There are a lot of things I wasn’t fully aware of because I had no experience of working with disabled people, including the difficulties that disabled people have getting into employment, the barriers created by employers and education and training providers and their reluctance to adapt.

“I think that there needs to be more awareness amongst the employers in particular who may feel reluctant to recruit a disabled person if they think that they have to spend a lot of money to accommodate that person. So probably more funds and more awareness for that type of activity is needed I think.”

In June 2006 the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre also launched an 18-month action research project which interviewed 200 disabled people about the perceptions and barriers which obstructed their employment aims and ambitions. A focus group of 30 disabled people provided more in-depth or qualitative feedback about their experiences either in employment or trying to find training and employment.

The key findings of the research backed-up Mohammed’s conviction that diversity and equality awareness work still needs to be done with employers around attitudes, anxieties, negative stereotypes and misconceptions, but also that a range of other issues need to be addressed in society generally in order to create the metaphorical level playing field.

Issues such as the welfare benefit trap for people wishing to trial work whilst maintaining a safety net of basic financial support; flexible working practices, such as home working and social enterprise; more widespread communication support, such as the provision of BSL interpreters or audio formats; and in terms of future service development, a more holistic and person-centred way of supporting people which addresses the whole range of independent living issues in a more joined up way.

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